In honor of National Nutrition Month’s Go Further with Food theme, Howard University’s Department of Nutritional Science hosted a healthy food event in the Louis Stokes Health Sciences Library last March.
Chef Troy Williams, director of food service with SodexoMagic demonstrated two five-minute healthy food recipes. Williams created pasta salad with chickpeas and a kale salad. Throughout his demonstration, he focused on educating the audience on cooking healthier.
“A lot of people say they don’t know how to cook healthy or they don’t have the time. However, cooking healthy is just substitution,” Williams said.
He explained that he doesn’t like using salt when he prepares food. Instead, Williams prefers using food that have natural salt, substituting for sea salt, or mixing a combination of herbs like rosemary, ginger and cilantro. A few audience members were shocked that a meal can taste great without having salt as a seasoning.
“I never knew I didn’t need salt to cook food or to make it taste good,” Tatiana Keeby, a health education major, said.
After the demonstration, audience members were able to sample the two dishes. While the attendees enjoyed the food, Williams continued to share helpful healthy cooking tips.
“When you prepare a meal try to have at least three different colored vegetables on your plate. Also, be conscious of what you’re eating,” he said.
Then the Nutrition and Dietetics club shared with the group how to go further with food and even hosted a nutrition jeopardy game. Attendees who played learned facts about the food groups, vitamins and minerals, diet and disease, herbs and spices, and ethnic foods.
“We hope to get everyone involved in nutrition and highlight how they can go further with food. By the end of the event, we want people to know how they could cut down on food waste by using the extra stems and leaves of food, instead of throwing it away,” Dahlia Lindsay, president of the Nutrition and Dietetics club said.
As the event ended, Dr. Katherine Manuel from the department of Nutritional Sciences expressed her hopes for the attendees to make informed eating choices.
“The department takes every opportunity to highlight the importance of nutrition. We hope the attendees take the foods they usually consume and take a step further, in terms of spices and not using too much salt. “