Our Lady of the Lake and LSU launch hands-on culinary medicine training

BATON ROUGE, La. (Louisiana First) — Doctors in our state are learning new ways to promote healthier living.

This includes a new program for medical students, showing them how to relate better to patients and their families when it comes to healthy ways of cooking.

Dr. Katie Queen with Our Lady of the Lake Children’s Health Weight and Nutrition Center said our state is third in the country for childhood obesity, and it’s her life’s mission to help curb the issue.

“Five days a week, we’re seeing kids with obesity – the problem is, we still have 700+ patients on our wait list. Typically, in most medical schools, students don’t get much nutrition education, and in residency, you can forget about it,” Dr. Queen mentioned.

She says she’s worked closely with the Tulane Goldring Center for Culinary Medicine to bring a teaching kitchen to Our Lady of the Lake Medical students, meant to help them show their patients that diet and lifestyle changes will likely improve their health.

Fellow with the Metamor Metabolic Institute at The Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Tierra Sanders, says this mission is also dear to her heart.

“I am really interested in chronic diseases, and so, now I’m thinking about ways that we can prevent chronic diseases, and so nutrition, of course, it’s one of the foundational things, and so I’m just really passionate about getting the information, the resources, and the education from those foundational aspects,” said Sanders. “I’m just passionate about making good food healthy.”

Sarah Gray with the Baton Rouge Epicurean Society said she’s happy to be part of the group effort, bringing this knowledge to local medical students.

“Together, we were able to dream with them and put together this culinary medicine program. This is Dr. Queen’s baby, but we’ve been able to give her resources,” Gray said.

The OLOL program took place at LSU’s Human Ecology building.

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