The Culinary Cure
Kristen Coffield
“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” That’s one of the several rules that The Culinary Cure founder Kristen Coffield follows.
Coffield was living a seemingly perfect life — until she wasn’t. A classic example of bad things happening to good people, things that were not under her control went wrong all at once. “I was diagnosed with cancer, fighting depression, in debt, struggling in my marriage, and trying to maintain a ‘normal’ life for my family,” according to her.
Coffield fought back with food. Instead of binge eating donuts and chocolate, she started to take control of what she ate, focusing on foods that made her feel healthier and more energetic. Now energetic and looking younger than her age, Coffield spends her days helping empower other people by providing knowledge so they can make better choices.
One of the key things Coffield offers is a “Kitchen Intervention” where she goes into a family’s kitchen and “helps create the conditions of life to help support the life they want to live.” That means reorganizing where things are kept and how they’re stored, putting healthy options in easy reach and making a home’s kitchen more functional and welcoming. She also provides individual coaching and leads group workshops and seminars.
“As consumers, we’re kept in the dark about a lot of things. You don’t know what you don’t know if it’s not on the label,” Coffield said. For herself, she typically doesn’t buy things in the grocery store with more than about six ingredients.
HOW TO EAT OUT AND STAY HEALTHY
Coffield admitted that she loves dessert. And nachos. She doesn’t deny herself either of those foods, but she has a lot of ways to eat healthy even when she’s eating out.
“I never say never. You can have all the things, you just need to understand the balance between functional food and celebratory food,” she said. “Eating out tends to be celebratory.”
She strongly recommends that you take a look at the menu online be-fore you leave for the restaurant to prevent making spontaneous, unhealthy choices.
“Giving yourself a plan is a really powerful tool,” according to Coffield.
Calorie counts aren’t really a good gauge of healthiness when eating out, she said. “When you’re dining out it’s not the calories that matter, it’s the nutrients that matter,” she said. “The calories in an apple are going to be different than the calories in a donut.”
Look for grilled chicken or fish, steamed vegetables, and “eat clean” by avoiding cheese and sauce on everything, and asking for dressings on the side.
When your meal comes, divide your plate in half and see if eating more slowly and chewing more thoroughly make you feel full faster.
With those desserts, Coffield said that ordering more than one dessert for the table lets everyone try multiple things without eating a ton. (If it’s just you and one other person, consider skipping dessert or splitting it.)
Throughout the day, every day, Coffield said most people should be drinking about 10 oz. of water every hour for about 10 hours per day. “Even if you’re a little bit dehydrated, it can lead to poor food choices,” Coffield explained, noting that your body doesn’t always know if you’re dehydrated or hungry.
But contrary to what we may think, she recommends not drinking with your meal. Coffield said when we drink while eating, our digestive enzymes get diluted and that can trigger acid reflux as your stomach tries to produce more digestive enzymes to compensate.
And avoid the bread if you can help it. The highly-refined grains quickly turn to sugar, which spikes your blood sugar up and leads to cravings for more sugar.
“Unless the restaurant is known for amazing bread that they make in house, skip the bread basket. You aren’t there for the bread basket.”
More information on Kristen Coffield's company, The Culinary Cure, is available at www.theculinarycure.com.
