Doctoring the Menu: Food as Medicine
Clad in a crisp white apron and chef’s hat, Eric Sharer ’08 zips around a gleaming kitchen setting mixing bowls, utensils and ingredients on the island countertop. Butternut squash, cumin, paprika, chickpeas, kale — the foods and spices pile up beside the cutting board as Sharer consults his recipe. “We’re going to make something really fun today,” he tells his aproned co-chef, “using things you typically have on hand at home.” The scene is straight out of a cooking demo TV spot, but there’s no studio audience, and Sharer’s 40-something co-chef isn’t a morning show host; she’s a patient enrolled in a 12-week weight-loss program at the Stram Center for Integrative Medicine in Delmar, New York, outside of Albany.
