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Students cooking up health: Grad students host 6-week class to fight obesity

By Natalie Ragus/Staff Writer

Graduate students at Cal Poly have joined the fight against childhood obesity wielding some unlikely weapons: common household cooking utensils, a stove top and an oven.

Through the emerging Cal Poly Center for Obesity Prevention and Education (COPE), the Cal Poly students recently hosted a six-week cooking class for seventh- and eighth-graders at Mesa Middle School.

The 19 class participants learned how to prepare and cook healthy meals, along with smart tricks on how to take a traditionally “heavy” meal such as lasagna and turn it into a low-fat, low-calorie feast.

“Not only do I really enjoy it, but it really benefits the community,” graduate student Julie Chessen said of the program. “These kids will introduce the foods we make (in class) to their families.”

Promoting lifelong health among people of all ages is the idea behind the “Pink Chefs and Dude Chefs program,” said the brain behind the program, Ann McDermott, a Cal Poly professor and COPE’s director.

Chessen helped McDermott pilot the program last spring and its success prompted the professor/student duo to expand it and bring it to Mesa. Students enrolled in the junior high’s after-school program, Bright Futures, were recruited to join.

Throughout the six weeks, Chessen, who led the class and counts cooking as one of her favorite hobbies, taught her young charges how to whip up everything from chicken to tofu to vegetables — with surprisingly good results.

The kids, she said, genuinely liked the healthful fare.

Just before Christmas, the students in the class met up one final time to show off what they had learned by cooking dinner in the Mesa cafeteria for their parents. The meal included lasagna made with low-fat cheese paired with garlic bread and salad as side dishes.

“It was fun,” seventh-grader Logan Lopez, 13, said of the program. “We made a lot of food.”

Logan said he enjoyed baking, and plans to take what he learned in class and use it even when he becomes an adult.

“I started out as the helper, but my parents ended up as the helpers,” Crislyn Tallant, 12, said of her lifelong love affair with cooking that began right in her own home.

The seventh-grader and aspiring chef said her love of cooking is the primary reason she signed up for the class.

“We cooked a lot of healthy foods that seemed like junk foods because we used substitutions,” she explained.

Some of these substitution include using flaxseed and water in place of eggs and applesauce in place of oil.

Franchelle Ellison, mom to program participant Rose Sanders, said her daughter has embraced the cooking techniques taught in program. And Ellison said she hopes Rose will continue to use those techniques for the long haul.

“I thought it was a great idea for (Rose) to learn to cook and eat healthy,” Ellison said. “It’s very important. A lot of kids today don’t eat healthy and there’s a lot of obesity. All kids should learn to eat healthy.”

For more information on the upcoming January classes, contact Julie Chessen at 231-1376 or jchessen@calpoly.edu.

Chicken Salad Sandwich recipe

Ingredients:

2 cups chicken, diced

1 rib celery, diced

1 scallion, trimmed and thinly sliced

1 1/2 tsp fresh dill, finely chopped

2 Tbsp fresh parsley, finely chopped

1/4 cup mayonnaise, light

2 tsp lemon juice, fresh squeezed

2 Tbsp of Dijon mustard

pepper to taste

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, toss

together the chicken, celery, scallions and herbs. Set aside. In a small mixing bowl, whisk

together the mayonnaise, lemon juice, mustard and pepper. Add to large mixing bowl and gently combine.

Scoop half a cup of chicken

salad on whole wheat bread. Add sliced tomato and fresh spinach. Serve with fresh fruit and cottage cheese for a balanced meal.

Healthy food info:

n mealsmatter.org (meal planning and budgeting)

n healthyrecipes.oregon

state.edu (great resource for nutritious, low-cost meals; kid friendly recipes)

n kidshealth.org (this web site is great for kids, teens and parents or soon to be parents)

nragus@theadobepress.com