Integrative Health & Wellness

“We will develop, discover, and teach healthcare professionals, patients, and community members how to make evidence-based lifestyle changes to live longer, better lives.”
 

Gulf Coast cuisine combines a world of flavors, but it’s not always good to the last bite, considering several states in the region rank among the highest for chronic disease in the country. Unhealthy eating habits are a major contributor to a variety of conditions such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease and stroke.

At USA Health, our mission is to help people lead longer, better lives, and our Integrative Health and Wellness Program is one way we can make an appetizing difference.

The Integrative Health and Wellness Program combines evidence-based nutrition and culinary medicine with personal wellness programs that support positive changes in diet, exercise and mental health. By teaching community members, medical and nursing students, and other healthcare providers how to implement and sustain life-changing behaviors, we can improve overall wellness in an area where it’s desperately needed.

We believe that a healthy diet consists of more than nutritious food, but also exercise, mindfulness and self-care. Food, movement and mindfulness are medicines that you can prescribe yourself! The Integrative Health and Wellness Program provides a variety of classes if you’re not sure where to begin.

Our story

USA Health is committed to improving the quality of life on the Gulf Coast and beyond. Aside from offering the most innovative medical care, we recognize the important influence lifestyle choices have on health and disease. Even small changes related to diet and exercise can have a significant impact on most of the major causes of illness and death in our community. Our Integrative Medicine approach uses research, teaching and community education to share this life-altering practice.

USA Health's culinary kitchen is just one arm of that commitment, and it recognizes the evidence that food is medicine. Diabetes, hypertension, stroke, heart attack, dementia, and several common cancers are all positively impacted by diet and other lifestyle choices. Multiple studies provide ample corroboration that prove that food can be a positive factor in health, but it is also apparent that no one wants to eat something that doesn’t taste good.

Culinary medicine strives to join the science of nutrition with the art of food preparation to make those dishes that are good for us unapologetically delicious and even crave-worthy.

Our Kitchens

In the early 2000s, the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health partnered with the Culinary Institute of America to find the most delicious and nutritious foods, teach healthcare providers and chefs how to produce those foods, and make them affordable and easy to prepare.

Over the years, several USA Health team members have attended joint conferences titled Healthy Kitchens, Healthy Lives and brought back the knowledge to our area. In 2015, some of the first cooking classes were held at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church and Bishop State Community College.

Today, USA Health is a member of the Teaching Kitchen Collaborative, a network of thought-leading organizations using teaching kitchen facilities as catalysts of enhanced personal and public health across medical, community, school, and corporate settings. In 2016, it was established under the leadership of David M. Eisenberg, M.D., an American physician, alternative medicine researcher and the Bernard Osher Distinguished Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, who proposed the concept of a teaching kitchen in 1998.

USA Health’s teaching kitchens are located at the University Commons in Mobile and the Mapp Family Campus in Fairhope. A third kitchen will be incorporated into the new medical school building under construction on USA's campus.

Medical students, residents, healthcare providers, high schoolers, dietitians, community members and more have passed through our kitchens, where they have learned good nutrition, healthy habits and useful skills.

Our kitchens are available for cooking demonstrations and hands-on experiences. The University Commons location can accommodate 12 students for experiential preparation and 20 for a demo. The Mapp Family Campus kitchen can hold 22 students for a cooking class and 40 for a demo.  

Prior to the establishment of the Teaching Kitchen Collaborative, a study tracking participants who had hands-on experience in teaching kitchens found sustained decreases in blood pressure, weight, waist circumference and fat levels, according to Global Advances in Integrative Medicine and Health, a journal that shares evidence-based research and knowledge about multidisciplinary therapeutic approaches and lifestyle practices that promote whole-person health.

Additional clinical trials at the Cleveland Clinic, McGill University and Tulane University suggest that nutrition education coupled with hands-on instruction can make positive changes in medical indicators, like blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose levels and BMI, as well as in health outcomes. 

“When you eat real food, you don’t need rules.” - Michael Pollan
 

Nutrition

• What should I eat?
  • There is ample evidence that food can be both good for you and delicious at that same time. Some of the tastiest cuisines in the world, from places like Greece, Italy, France, Japan, China, Mexico, Morocco, West Indies, Africa, and the American South, are healthy and tasty. Food can be good for you and delicious at the same time. We focus less on deprivation and more on what you can eat and how to prepare it. Yes, we did list Southern cooking as healthy! A healthy lifestyle involves eating healthy, nutritious food. Changing from a typical American diet that is high in sugar and processed foods has the potential to reduce your risk of cancer, diabetes, heart attack, stroke, and dementia by up to 30%.

• What your "gut" says about you
  • Remember your gut and nurture your microbiome. Your microbiome is all the different microorganisms that live in and on your body. They outnumber your own cells, and they play an important role in your health. More and more evidence indicates that a healthy gut microbiome influences your energy equilibrium, immune function, and all manner of other health parameters.
  • A plant-forward, high-fiber diet has been shown to foster good microbiome growth. The opposite is also true that a poorer quality diet fosters a less healthy microbiome. Your microbiome thrives on fiber, particularly a variety of sources of dietary fiber. Eating a wide variety of fruit, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and whole grains nurtures a diverse and healthy group of microbes in your gut. This has a whole group of specific positive effects on your health, from brain health to immune competence, cancer prevention, and weight loss, among others. On the other hand, “bad” microbial growth occurs with junk foods, preservatives, highly processed, and sugary foods. All of these add up to a higher rate of unhealthy outcomes.

• Understanding food labels
  • Again, our emphasis is less on “don’t do this,” and more on “do this,” but we recommend you read and understand food labels. That is the only way to know what you are eating. Look at the ingredients and understand they are listed by weight. Watch out for added sugar, look for fiber, and compare them to similar foods. If there is an ingredient listed that you don’t recognize, it probably isn’t food, but a food-like chemical. Understanding food labels will aid in making informed decisions toward choosing good nutrition and healthier choices.

• What are added sugars?
  • These are sugars and syrups added to food when they are processed. These include brown and cane sugar, corn syrup, dextrose, fructose, and others. These add calories but no essential food value. They also increase your hunger and increase your risk for diabetes and other diseases. In the 1900s the average person was eating about 2 pounds of sugar per year. In 2017, the estimated average was over 120 pounds per person, per year!

Get Moving

• Movement
  • Just move! There are many kinds of exercise, and they all offer amazing health benefits. You don’t have to have a gym membership or pay for a monthly app subscription. Any activity that gets you up and moving is part of an active lifestyle. Walking counts, and it’s a low-impact, accessible and effective form of exercise. You also can try Pilates, yoga, swimming, or bicycling.
  • Most research suggests 30 minutes of daily, moderate exercise for maximum benefits, or at least 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity a week. Set goals for yourself! You don’t have to start with 30 minutes daily. Begin with 10-15 minutes, and build up gradually. Being physically active can improve your brain health, help manage weight, reduce the risk of disease, strengthen bones and muscles, and improve your ability to do everyday activities. Research suggests that adults who sit less and do any amount of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity gain some health benefits!

• Mindfulness
  • Being fully healthy means requires focusing on your mental well-being as well. Developing awareness – or being mindful – holds many benefits for your health, and research backs it up. Practicing mindfulness, or the ability to live life in the present, may help with managing stress, coping with serious illness, and reducing anxiety and depression. Studies indicate that people who pursue this ancient practice are better able to relax, have greater enthusiasm for life, and have higher self-esteem.
  • Tuning in to your stress level and its impact on your sleep, anxiety, and overall well-being is also beneficial. When you notice yourself struggling to balance life’s responsibilities, seek out and learn effective ways to reduce stress through mindful meditation, exercise, museum visits, reading, music, and spiritual pursuits. Many resources are available that can help you find your inner peace:

    • Guided Mindfulness Meditation

    • UMass Memorial Health Center for Mindfulness

Class Calendar

Classes are being scheduled at our teaching kitchens located at University Commons in Mobile and the Mapp Family Campus in Fairhope. To register, click the Class Calendar link. Email IHWP@health.southalabama.edu or call 251-660-6441 if you have any questions.

• USA Health Mapp Family Campus 
  • July 9, 10-11:30 a.m.
    
  • July 19, 2-3:30 p.m. (For adults and kids ages 6 and up)
  • July 23, 10-11:30 a.m.
  • Aug. 2, 10-11:30 a.m.
  • Aug. 16, 10-11:30 a.m.

• USA Health University Commons
  • June 18, 5-6:30 p.m.
  • July 17, 5-6:30 p.m.
  • July 31, 12-1:30 p.m.
  • Aug. 6, 5-6:30 p.m.
  • Aug. 15, 5-6:30 p.m.
     

Sign Up

Request a Class

 Interested in a cooking class for your group or organization? Please fill out the form below.

Request a Class

Volunteer With Us

Would you like to be part of making a healthy difference in our community? We have volunteer opportunities through our Integrative Health and Wellness Program. Please email us at IHWP@health.southalabama.edu to learn more.  

In the News

• March 14, 2023 | USA Health’s Dr. Bob Israel discusses mind diet
• Feb. 17, 2023 | Teaching kitchen provides hands-on culinary medicine experience for medical students
• Jan. 11, 2023 | Healthy eating New Year’s resolutions
• Sep. 2022 | Curative Cuisine
• June 9, 2022 | Learning to Eat for Wellness
• June 4, 2021 | The doctor is in
• Dec. 12, 2019 | Prescription for good health: Learning to cook