SePTEMBER 28, 2023

Curious About the Connection Between Mood, Food, and Health?

6:00pm – 7:15pm PST

Why do we gravitate towards sweets when our spirits need a lift or when we’re in the mood to celebrate? We’ll dive into the science behind our food cravings and how these everyday eats influence not just our moods but also our blood sugar levels.

Join us for an exploration of how the nutrients in your diet can have a profound impact on your short-term and long-term emotional well-being. Discover the secrets to feeling better through the foods you love.

Dr. Yang will delve into Eastern Asian Medicine’s unique perspective on food and its incredible potential to influence your mood and overall health.

For the grand finale of our cooking series, brace yourself for an interactive cooking demo with a nutritious yet delicious chocolate dessert! Don’t miss this opportunity to transform your relationship with food towards a happier, healthier you!

Wu-Hsun Tom Yang is a licensed naturopathic physician and acupuncturist who specializes in pain and stress management. Currently, he practices out of the UW Sports Medicine Clinic at Ballard and UW Primary Care Clinic at Northgate. He is particularly interested in addressing how pain and stress may affect sleep and digestion. He graduated from Bastyr University with a Master of Science degree in Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine and a Doctorate in Naturopathic Medicine. He is board certified through National Certification Commission for Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine (NCCAOM) and has volunteered as a subjective matter expert in biomedicine for NCCAOM since 2019. As a practitioner, Dr. Yang strongly believes in the power of patient education and prevention. By understanding their conditions better, patients can work with practitioners to maximize their well-being. His goal is to deliver individualized treatments using a combination of modalities: acupuncture, herbal medicine, and manual therapy. Outside of clinic, Dr. Yang teaches for the Acupuncture and Eastern Asian Medicine department as an adjunct faculty at Bastyr University and enjoys gardening, traveling, and watching international films.

Chef Jared Batson will lead an interactive cooking session.

Jared Batson is a food industry veteran with over 20 years of experience and training. He is the chef/owner of Onion Bulb Productions, a culinary consulting and catering business that supports businesses and private clients alike. He is thrilled to be included in this year’s Cha Chi Ming Education Series with the Osher Center for Integrative Health! After many years working in restaurants and on entrepreneurial food industry projects of his own, Jared has spent much of the past five years involved with nonprofits in the educational and workforce development spaces. These culinary collaborations include work with groups like Common Threads, Seedco, and the Stanley Isaacs Neighborhood Center, in addition to more local organizations to him like Work Well and the Boys & Girls Club of Mercer County. Jared is passionate aboutfood access, culinary mentorship, and nutrition education, and has loved getting to know his local communities better through this work. While Jared isn’t digging into his work he can be found digging in his garden in Hopewell, maybe even with a pizza slice in hand.

Food or Supplements?

Thursday, August 24, 2023
6:00pm – 7:15pm PST

There are over 29,000 dietary supplements on the market. It can be overwhelming to know what if any to purchase. Can we get everything we need for our health and especially brain health from our diet? Do we need supplements for brain health and if so, which ones? Join Dr. Debra Bell as she addresses these questions during her presentation. She will talk about diet vs supplements for health, as well as how to choose good quality and safe supplements.

Debra G Bell, MD is Co-Director of Education at the UW Osher Center for Integrative Health and assistant clinical professor at the University of Washington Department of Family Medicine. She has been a pioneer in the field, practicing and studying integrative medicine for over 35 years. As an integrative medicine family physician, Dr. Bell sees people of all ages for integrative primary care and integrative consults with a particular interest in integrative women’s health. She has expertise in many modalities including: botanical medicine and the use of vitamins, and supplements, nutrition, mind-body medicine, health and spirituality and bio-identical hormone replacement therapy.

Health and nutrition and culinary medicine has been an important part of Dr. Bell’s personal and professional life.  She loves to cook and learn about food as medicine. Her enthusiasm has rubbed off on her family who all have grown to be excellent cooks of healthy, delicious meals!  

Chef Jared Batson will lead an interactive cooking session.

Jared Batson is a food industry veteran with over 20 years of experience and training. He is the chef/owner of Onion Bulb Productions, a culinary consulting and catering business that supports businesses and private clients alike. He is thrilled to be included in this year’s Cha Chi Ming Education Series with the Osher Center for Integrative Health! After many years working in restaurants and on entrepreneurial food industry projects of his own, Jared has spent much of the past five years involved with nonprofits in the educational and workforce development spaces. These culinary collaborations include work with groups like Common Threads, Seedco, and the Stanley Isaacs Neighborhood Center, in addition to more local organizations to him like Work Well and the Boys & Girls Club of Mercer County. Jared is passionate aboutfood access, culinary mentorship, and nutrition education, and has loved getting to know his local communities better through this work. While Jared isn’t digging into his work he can be found digging in his garden in Hopewell, maybe even with a pizza slice in hand.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT: Meal Planning for Optimal Brain Health

Thursday, July 27, 2023

6:00pm – 7:15pm PST

Incorporating nutrient-packed foods into balanced, flavorful meals to fuel our brains

Do you find meal planning and preparation challenging and time consuming? Do you want to improve your diet but don’t know where to begin? Whether you are starting from the beginning or are looking for a few new ideas, this class is designed to help you identify eating strategies and convenience foods that will help support a healthy brain. We will discuss practical techniques to streamline meal planning, as well as resources and techniques to incorporate nutrient packed foods into balanced, flavorful meals that fuel the brain and body.

We will explore important nutrients and foods that support brain health and cognitive function, discuss simple and practical ways to incorporate brain supportive foods into your everyday diet, and review strategies to improve motivation and make lasting dietary changes for better health. 

Kelly Morrow, MS, RDN, FAND is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and Fellow of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. She has been on the faculty at Bastyr University since 2002 where she has supervised clinical rotations at the Bastyr Center for Natural Health and taught in the Departments of Nutrition and Exercise Science, Naturopathic Medicine, Midwifery and Acupuncture and East Asian Medicine. 

Kelly has been in private practice since 2000 and has previously worked at Evergreen Hospital in radiation oncology, the Booth Gardner Parkinson’s Center and in Community Health Promotions. Currently, she sees patients at Seattle Integrative Medicine.

As a nutrition educator, Kelly helps people learn about how food affects health. As a nutrition counselor, she helps people with motivation and making sustainable changes while supporting personal preferences, lifestyle, and culture. Kelly uses an integrative, body positive, gender affirming and non-diet approach.

Clinical Interests:

• Nutritional influence on mental and cognitive health including Parkinson’s disease
• Kidney disease including Polycystic Kidney Disease
• Digestive disorders including Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO), IBS and IBD
• Food allergies and elimination diets
• Weight neutral approaches to health and mindfulness in health behavior change
• Women’s health and hormone balance
• Cardiovascular disease, blood sugar balance and healthy aging

Professional Affiliations

• Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics
• Washington Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics
• Dietitians in Integrative and Functional Medicine

Special Projects:

• Co-Editor and author, Krause and Mahan’s Food and the Nutrition Care Process textbook
• Co-Investigator, study dietitian, Investigation of Medical Management to Prevent Diverticulitis (IMPEDE) Trial, University of Washington
• Committee member, Kidney Disease Improving Global Outcomes (KDIGO) working group
• Content developer for the Inflammation and Environmental Exposures and Elimination Modules of the Integrative and Functional Nutrition Certificate of Training, Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics
• Faculty, Integrative and Functional Nutrition Academy

Dr. Iman Majd presents:

Healthy Gut, Healthy Brain: Optimizing the gut microbiome for better brain function

Thursday, June 22, 2023

6:00pm – 7:15pm PST

• Identify key lifestyle interventions that impact physical aspects of brain health 
• Learn how stress management practices cultivate resilience
• Understand the importance of purpose and connection in building neuroplasticity

Chef Jared Batson will lead an interactive cooking session. We will be preparing Chana Masala and Raita, the recipe and shopping list are included. 

At the age of fifteen Jared began his journey into the food industry and never looked back. As a chef, he has cooked and traveled across the country and worldwide, working under accomplished chefs in Chicago, California, and at the esteemed Ballymaloe Cookery School in Ireland. He is proud to have been mentored by James Beard & Bocuse d’Or winners alike, and would credit them for his own Jean Banchet Award, won with his business and team in Chicago. From a culinary standpoint both locally and abroad, Jared has fostered his desire to support sustainable agriculture and forward thinking restaurants that are pushing for impact beyond their menu.

More recently, while still living in Chicago, he brought this mindset to the acclaimed Green City Market, where he served as a Board Member and operated his popular wood-fired catering business for over four years. After passing the torch onto a fellow employee, Jared spent time consulting for various Chicago-Land food businesses, in addition to serving as the Executive Chef of Research & Development for a successful Chicago-Based multi-unit national restaurant group.

Now, after planting roots on the East Coast, Jared has spent the last three years bringing his enthusiastic entrepreneurial spirit to the forefront with companies such as Zuul Kitchens, by adding a wealth of culinary creativity and operational know-how to his work. While he continued to support the ever-growing Zuul team as a Culinary & Kitchen Design Consultant, Jared spun off on his own and established a chef-driven consulting business to engage with the NYC marketplace. One of his consulting clients, the Stanley Isaacs Center, turned into full time work as of late, as he now serves as the Director of Culinary steering a culinary training and workforce development program for NYC’s out-of-work and out-of-school youth.

• Identify key lifestyle interventions that impact physical aspects of brain health 
• Learn how stress management practices cultivate resilience
• Understand the importance of purpose and connection in building neuroplasticity

Dr. Emily Wong (Dr. Em)

Emily Yen Wong, BSc, MD, MHA (University of Washington, Seattle), LMCHK, DABIM (Diplomate, American Board of Internal Medicine)
Honorary Clinical Associate Professor, University of Hong Kong (HKU), Dept of Fam Med and Primary Care

Dr Emily Wong received her undergraduate BSc and MD degrees at the University of Washington (UW). She completed specialty training in Internal Medicine at UCLA and went on to specialize in Women’s Health. Dr Wong completed her Executive Masters of Health Administration degree (EMHA) at the UW, and fellowship in Integrative Medicine at the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine (AWCIM) at the University of Arizona. 

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