Courtesy Deb Czech
For plant-based cooking and nutrition instructor Deb Czech, the ongoing COVID pandemic and its health impacts have expanded the reasons why people are starting to put more plants on their plate.
Czech is the owner of Planted Platter of Saratoga Springs, a business providing plant-based cooking classes, coaching services, and customized workplace wellness programs. Planted Platter also collaborates with Capital Region nonprofits on plant-based cooking events for their members and clients.
To address rising consumer interest in plant-based diets, Planted Platter is offering a dozen online classes this fall that people can mix and match to their own health needs.
“The fundamental principles of a whole-food, plant-based diet remain the same across all classes,” said Czech. “What changes is the presentation of medical information and research specific to a given condition, whether that’s Type 2 diabetes or heart disease or anxiety or menopause or something else.”
More information about classes is available at plantedplatter.com.
Plant-based diets have been scientifically proven to prevent and even reverse many diet-related chronic diseases and that supporting research is shared in the classes. For most of Planted Platter’s programs (offered via Zoom due to COVID), Czech teaches curriculum developed by the medical team at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a nonprofit organization founded by plant-based nutrition expert Dr. Neal Barnard.
Class participants learn how plant-based diets can help people attain a healthy weight, prevent and sometimes reverse chronic diseases, boost immunity, and lower health risks.
“These Food for Life classes not only teach people the health benefits of plant-based eating, but also show them how to put together simple, affordable meals. We discuss practical strategies to shift to eating more plant foods, while respecting everyone’s need to make changes at their own pace,” said Czech.
Each class covers important nutrition topics with short videos from the Physicians Committee’s medical experts followed by Czech showing participants how they can put this information into practice at home in delicious and easy-to-prepare recipes, such as plant-based burgers, global cuisine, and healthy desserts.
Czech, owner of Planted Platter of Saratoga Springs, became a licensed Food for Life instructor with the Physicians Committee in 2019 and has been a plant-based eater and cook since 2012, when she earned a certificate in Plant-Based Nutrition through eCornell and the T. Colin Campbell Foundation.
Designed by the physicians, nurses, and registered dietitians of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (pcrm.org), Food for Life is an award-winning nutrition education and cooking class program that provides an innovative approach to diet-related chronic diseases.
Since 2001, Food for Life has been a pioneer in delivering hands-on information about the direct role of plant-based nutrition in health and disease prevention to communities around the world.