The Urban Health Initiative of the University of Chicago Medical Center presented “Eating, Praying and Loving, Part 2: Keys to Your Good Health last night at the Abraham Lincoln Centre in Bronzeville.
The overall theme was to Eat healthy, not for fulfillment; Pray for your own fulfillment and Love because it provides fulfillment.
Self-taught vegan chef Tsadakeeyah Ben Emmanuel, does not eat meat or dairy. The chef excelled at the Soul Vegetarian Restaurant in Atlanta (it was named the best Vegetarian Restaurant by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution under his watch),and Chicago, where he served as the cxecutive chef.
“I’ve been a vegan for 30 years, and I give a lot of credit to my parents, my father never brought pork into the house,” Emmanuel said. “I didn’t think that people ate pork, when I heard of people eating hog maws and chitterlings, I thought it was a comedy on TV.” Emmanuel added that a plant-based diet is ideal for diabetics.
Dr. Monica Peek, assistant professor in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the University of Chicago, where she provides clinical care, discussed the warning signs, complications and treatment for diabetes.
Certified yoga instructor Toni Scott had a very stressful life prior to discovering the benefits of yoga. “I worked in the emergency room and I needed to find a way to deal, it’s not the kind of thing you can go home and share with your family,” Scott said. “You have a trauma, you take care of it, and then you move on to the rest of your shift. I was literally becoming undone on the job.”
Scott says yoga led to increased flexibility, strength and muscle tone. Also, she instructed a five-minute breathing exercise for the audience.
The Urban Health Initiative, under the direction of Doriane C. Miller, MD., is a partnership between the University of Chicago Medical Center, the community, and health care providers. The UHI uses a three-pronged strategy of medical care, education and research to foster better health.
Photos: Bernard Williams
