The Power of Yum!

Health and wellness speaker, author and chef Rebecca Katz, MS, creates delicious, nutritious meals for people dealing with illnesses such as heart disease and cancer.

Rebecca loves to talk about “the power of yum!” She’s a culinary translator — the creative link bridging physicians and patients who have a common goal: eating delicious, nutritious food to attain optimal health. A nationally recognized educator, speaker and author, Chef Rebecca teaches patients and wellness professionals in a delightful and fun way that great taste and fabulous nutrition can sit at the same table. Rebecca is the only chef in America who regularly receives referrals from the country’s top physicians and nutritionists.

A nationally-recognized speaker, Rebecca is a lecturer at many top academic medical centers, including the University of California/San Francisco’s Osher Center for Integrative Medicine, Stanford’s Comprehensive Cancer Center, and the Johns Hopkins Medical Institution.

Her talks cover all aspects of cooking and developing kitchen confidence. She focuses on how to create delicious, nutritious meals for people dealing with illnesses such as cardiovascular disease and cancer, be they newly-diagnosed, currently in treatment, or survivors at risk for recurrence.

Rebecca is the Executive Chef and core faculty member of the Food as Medicine Training Program and Cancer Guides, sponsored by the Center for Mind Body Medicine, and is a visiting Chef and nutrition educator at Commonweal’s Cancer Help Program in Bolinas, California.

A myriad of food related experiences, including a sojourn to Italy, where she studied Mediterranean cuisine from chefs and signoras from Florence to Sicily, shaped Rebecca’s philosophy that health-supportive food must taste great in order to be nourishing and healing. Rebecca lectures, teaches and consults at cancer centers around the country. She resides in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Her newest book, The Healthy Mind Cookbook: Big-Flavor Recipes to Enhance Brain Function, Mood, Memory, and Mental Clarity, (Ten Speed Press, Feb. 2015), promises to deliver exactly what the subtitle describes. While much of the brain’s work still remains a mystery, a growing body of scientific evidence suggests that the food we eat directly affects how well our brains function. Brain health also plays a significant role in staving off diabetes, heart and Alzheimer’s disease. In The Healthy Mind Cookbook, Rebecca has harnessed the latest research on the brain to identify the foods that can improve the brain’s ability to control cognition, emotion, and physical function–all of which dictate memory and mood.

In The Longevity Kitchen, Satisfying Big Flavor Recipes Featuring The Top 16 Age Busting Power Foods (Ten Speed Press, Feb. 2013), she combines nutrition wisdom and superb flavor. She draws on the latest scientific research to explain how super foods such as asparagus, basil, coffee, dark chocolate, kale, olive oil, sweet potatoes, and wild salmon can build immunity, lower cholesterol, enhance memory, strengthen the heart, and reduce your chances of developing diabetes and other diseases.

Rebecca is also the author of award winning The Cancer Fighting Kitchen: Nourishing Big-Flavor Recipes for Cancer Treatment and Recovery, and One Bite at a Time: Nourishing Recipes for Cancer Survivors and their Friends (Second Edition).

She holds a Masters of Science degree in Health and Nutrition Education, and received her culinary training from the Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Art

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Food As Medicine/Culinary RX in a Bag

At the junction of food and medicine stands a unique culinary translator — the creative link bridging physicians and patients who share a common goal: Eating well to maximize health and wellness. Filled with humor, compassion, and a wealth of useful culinary and scientific information, Rebecca will inspire you to get in your kitchen and discover the healing power of delicious, nutritious foods.

An interactive cooking demonstration and discussion will focus on incorporating nutritious and appetizing food into your life.

The Cancer Fighting Kitchen

Rebecca Katz, author of the award-winning cookbook, The Cancer-Fighting Kitchen, shares strategies that help strengthen the body’s resistance to cancer, complement medical care and bolster recovery after treatment. During Rebecca’s talk you will discover:

• How specific foods can significantly boost the body’s innate ability to resist cancer can alter gene expression, turning off cancer promoting signals in the body.
• How to use herbs and spices to boost the immune system.
• Understand which foods are most important to avoid (and explore healthy substitutes).

Brain Power — Food for Thought

Between digital overload, sleep deprivation, and the stress of modern life, most people’s brains are constantly in flight-or-fight mode, with levels of cortisol and other hormones and neurotransmitters out of whack. Brain conditions ranging from childhood ADHD and adult depression to memory impairment are on the rise, and medications for brain conditions, if available, do only a mediocre job while generating a host of debilitating side effects.

Fortunately, author Rebecca Katz, MS, has harnessed the latest research on brain functioning to identify how the foods we consume can improve the brain’s ability to control cognition, emotion, and physical function—all of which dictate memory, mood, and motion. Rebecca can talk about the foods that can optimize brain health, boost memory, improve mood, sharpen the central nervous system, and more. Rebecca brings the very best of the science into the kitchen, and can show you the best ways to incorporate nutrient dense foods that best promote brain health and development from childhood through the golden years.

The Power of Yum!

Rebecca puts her philosophy “the power of yum” into action by showing people that good nutrition and great taste can join together joyously on the same plate. Rebecca acts as a culinary translator, who can take nutritional recommendations and transform them into delicious and nutritious meals that will bring people back to the table.

All talks can be supported by an interactive cooking demonstration.

WORKSHOPS

Rebecca’s hands-on workshops are tailored to attendees, be it a room full of physicians and nutritionists or a corporate meeting teaching employees how to prepare delicious, health-supportive meals. All of Rebecca’s workshops engage the senses and involve sensory interaction with food. Just as cooking locks in flavor, learning by playing with food imprints those ideas on the brain, meaning you’ll actually remember what you learned when you get home. All trainings are geared to the time and expertise of the participants. Programs range from one-hour trainings to weeklong retreats.