How does food affect our health? How important is the mind-body connection? What are the latest advances in medicine?
These are some of the questions a group of powerful women pondered. They came up with an idea to get them answered in an enjoyable and meaningful way.
Women’s groups and women representing other community partners are collaborating on a Women’s Health Forum. Hadassah, Heritage Pointe, the Merage Jewish Community Center and Women’s Philanthropy of Jewish Federation & Family Services have come together to present a series of programs to address the health concerns of women.
The goal, according to organizers – Harriet Lehman (Heritage Pointe), Aviva Forster (Heritage Pointe), Ann Miller (Women’s Philanthropy), Amy Rousso (Women’s Philanthropy), Barbara Shapiro (Women’s Philanthropy), Nevona Shabtai (Hadassah), Michele Shugarman (Hadassah), Geri Dorman (Jewish Community Center), with support from Eileen Garbutt (Women’s Philanthropy), Michelle Shahon (Hadassah) and Ellen Weiss (Heritage Pointe) – is to inform, enlighten and entertain the women attending the series.
Initially, the series will include three programs over a 9-month period. Eventually, it will become a quarterly event.
Women’s Health Forum will kick off with a May 7 event, “Healthy Eating for Life,” from 7 to 9:30 p.m. at Temple Bat Yahm, 1011 Camelback Street, Newport Beach. Participants will come away with some new understanding of specific foods and their life-sustaining capabilities. A food science educator and an executive chef will lecture about and demonstrate healthy techniques, answer questions and – of course – let people know how healthy food tastes.
Leading off the program is Anuradha (Anu) Prakash, professor and program director of the food science program at Chapman University in Orange. Prakash, who teaches food processing, food engineering, new product development, food sustainability and nutrition and who has a keen interest in the global issues of health, food safety, security and sustainability, is doing research on the use of various technologies to enhance the safety and shelf-life of fruits and vegetables and ready-to-eat meals.
Prakash will discuss: making healthy food choices – what to eat (nutrition basics), what to buy (going beyond marketing hype), how to read food labels and preserving nutritional value; debunking food myths – organic versus conventional and dietary supplements; and salient principles – cultivating and maintaining good eating habits and healthy food as part of a healthy lifestyle. She will also give an overview of the food science program at Chapman.
After earning a doctorate in Food Science and Technology at the Ohio State University, Prakash spent several years at the US Army Natick RD&E Center in Natick, Massachusetts researching microwave freeze-drying and validating microwave sterilization for army rations. She has expertise in the areas of food processing and preservation, specifically microwave processing and food irradiation.
The other speaker, Jean-Pierre Dubray, is executive chef at Pelican Hill Resort. Dubray’s passion for food and cooking were home grown. He grew up in the kitchen of his family’s country house in the Loire Valley of France. Family members grew much of their own food. And Dubray enjoyed helping his mother to prepare big family meals. By the time he was 15, when he enrolled in culinary school, he decided that cooking would be his life’s work.
Dubray came to the United States in 1980 when he had the opportunity to be part of the opening team for La Vie en Rose Restaurant in Brea. He joined the Ritz Carlton Company in 1984, worked at the hotels in Laguna Niguel and Palm Springs, served as a team trainer for openings around the world and then became executive chef at the Ritz Carlton, San Francisco. At Pelican Hill he oversees Andrea, the Coliseum Pool and Grill, Pelican Grill at Pelican Hill Golf Club, the resort’s bakery and pastry operations, room service to 128 villas and 204 bungalows and catering and special event services. He has won numerous accolades.
The next Women’s Health Forum event will be on September 20, when the topic will be the mind-body connection. A panel of educators, professionals and practitioners in related fields will discuss new and proven methods of good health and life-sustaining solutions to common challenges as people age. Participants will learn how to reduce stress and take steps toward an energetic and long life.
Finally, in January 2013, the third session of the series will take an in-depth look at medicine and the new advances and breakthroughs occurring at prestigious research hospitals such as Hadassah. The presentation will relate specifically to women but affect everyone.
Invitations are in the mail. For more information, contact harriet_lehman@yahoo.com.
