Food as Medicine – How Good Gut Health Boosts Your Immune System

Posted March 25, 2021 | By ale_bellot

Digital Education Programming Presented by the
Center for Health & Wellbeing

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About the Food as Medicine Program: “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food” isn’t just a quote from ancient Greek philosopher Hippocrates, it’s a framework to healthy and healing eating that’s more relevant today than ever. In this program led by Chef Collette Haw from Nourish Coffee Bar + Kitchen and AdventHealth’s Dr. Nathalie Dauphin McKenzie from the Center for Health & Wellbeing, you can learn more about the intersection of food and medicine, dive deep into the ways your food choices affect your health far beyond the numbers on your scale and learn easy recipes using new and interesting flavors and techniques.

About the March Food as Medicine Session: It’s hardly news that our bodies are built like machines, and what we put in them as fuel can affect how we run or feel as humans. But many of us may not know that the gastrointestinal tract has an impact on the health of our entire body. In this program led by Chef Collette Haw and Dr. Nathalie McKenzie, a gynecologic oncologist board-certified in lifestyle medicine, you can learn how the foods we eat affect the health of our gut. You can also learn the nutritional benefits of gut-healthy ingredients and how to incorporate them into your go-to foods. Three recipes are demonstrated, including Immune Booster Smoothie, Probiotic Power Bowls, and Kefir Coleslaw.

By watching program, you can expect to learn:

  • how to switch out unhealthy ingredients for healthier choices
  • three flavorful recipes
  • specific foods used to combat intestinal ailments

Click here for a list of recipes demonstrated during this program.

This program is part of the series, Food As Medicine, presented by the Center for Health & Wellbeing and hosted by the Winter Park Health Foundation in collaboration with AdventHealth.

Click here to watch each session of the food series, Food As Medicine.

About the Program Presenters
About Chef Collette Haw, Nourish Coffee Bar + Kitchen
Chef Collette Haw is a classically trained Culinary Institute of America graduate. With an exceptional talent for taking a healthy ‘ho-hum’ to a flavor-rich ‘yum!’, Chef Haw approaches the Nourish menu with a unique hybrid of her comfort-food-gone-healthy and ‘food as medicine’ philosophies. Prior to assuming her leadership role at Nourish, Chef Haw spent several years operating her own successful meal delivery service out of Longwood—Collette’s Clean Eats—and as a private chef to a celebrity family in Atlanta.

About Dr. Nathalie McKenzie, MD, AdventHealth
Dr. Nathalie Dauphin McKenzie is an award-winning gynecologic board-certified in Lifestyle Medicine with tremendous expertise and experience providing advanced surgical treatments including laparoscopic and robotic-assisted procedures for women with all types of gynecologic cancers. A cancer survivor herself, she provides compassionate, holistic, integrative and state of the art medical care. She is especially known for her expertise in radical debulking surgeries to remove advanced tumors and has a passion for cancer research. Dr. McKenzie, who speaks four languages fluently, earned her medical degree with research honors in New York; completed residency and fellowship at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital & Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center. She also earned her Master of Science in Public Health and Epidemiology with honors while completing her fellowship training after which she was inducted into the Honor Society of graduate and professional schools. She has received numerous awards and has been voted by medical staff as best physician colleague. Her innovative research initiatives during the early part of her career resulted in research funding awards and recognition. Most recently Dr. Mckenzie was selected as one of 16 oncologists from all over the united states and the world to undergo extensive leadership training with the premier oncology society, ASCO. As a graduate of this leadership development program, she sits on national committees that monitor and provide guidance to oncology practices throughout the country. With a passion for teaching, she serves as the current Program Director of Gynecologic Oncology Fellowship and has affiliate faculty appointments with the FSU and UCF Colleges of Medicine through which she regularly mentors students and residents. In addition to teaching and research, Dr. Mckenzie also sits on numerous boards for charity organizations, goes on surgical missions to impoverished areas internationally and frequently lectures nationally and internationally.