Changing the way we eat is hard…really hard. The foods we eat have an important impact on health, and meals often become the center of our social and family lives. Making major changes in diet requires more than willpower, it requires new knowledge and skills.
Several weeks ago, I had the pleasure of meeting with Jon Alberts and Ken Rubin of Rouxbe Cooking School. With our new flexible points system and communications tools, we’re excited to introduce new partners, like Rouxbe, that can “spice up” a wellness program with fun and innovative programs for employees. Their fabulous on-line cooking classes make it easy for participants to introduce healthy, plant-based, meals into their daily life.
So, I asked Ken, Rouxbe’s Vice President of Culinary Training, to write up an introduction to their program:
A Case For Cooking More and Enjoying It
By Ken Rubin
We know what types of food we should be eating, but how does that translate to what is actually at the dinner plate? Most of us never learned how to cook, so don’t blame yourself. To close the gap between what you “know” and what you “do”, it just takes a few first steps.
At Rouxbe (Roo-bee) Cooking School we’ve been addressing this challenge for over 10 years. We’ve learned that the missing link between food and health is cooking. It’s that simple. Just like a fitness or walking program, you seeing improvement and progress not based on just knowing what to do but by just actually doing it.
We focus on making the foods that you know you need to eat taste good. The inclusion of more plant-based foods like vegetables, fruits, legumes and whole grains into our daily meals and snacks has proven to make people not only feel better, but can sometimes help treat and even reverse common chronic conditions.
Rouxbe developed a specific nutrition literacy and foundational cooking course called Culinary Rx to teach anyone healthy cooking skills with delicious results.
The most successful wellness programs include initiatives that engage people, whether to enhance morale or to drive better health outcomes. Culinary Rx does both.
I’d like to share with you the positive results from a recent survey of over 1000 recent participants:
• 99% would recommend the course to others
• 92% gained confidence in their cooking ability
• 88% are now motivated to adopt better overall healthier habits
• 42% are reducing meat consumption, increasing plant-based foods
Our overall goal is to help people make the challenging shift to a healthier diet in a manner that drives long-term behavioral change. People learn what to eat to support their health, but if they can’t cook it and make it taste delicious, the change won’t last. We help inspire people to enjoy the process on their own terms, so cooking becomes less of a chore and good food becomes more a normal part of a healthier life.
About the Author
Ken Rubin is Vice President of Culinary Training for Rouxbe Online Cooking School. He is an award winning chef educator and food anthropologist with 18 years of broad industry experience and recognized for his expertise in education and training, food culture research, and health and wellness. Contact Ken at ken@rouxbe.com http://rouxbe.com/wellness