On Sunday 22nd April FORM held its first foodie workshop with Amelia Stewart, the founder of the consultancy Cook First.
This session consisted of a discussion around the best foods to fuel and complement an active lifestyle and regular exercise, as well as the sampling of a raw snack (recipe also provided) and a detailed explanation of the nutritional benefits of its ingredients.
Although working out is an essential part of staying healthy, eating well and nourishing your brain and frame is vital. During her five years working with the food aid arm of the UN – the World Food Programme - Amelia experienced first-hand the devastating short- and long-term impact a lack of nutrition can have.
The Cook First philosophy is that, in order to feed your soul and nourish your body, you don’t need to be extravagant or wasteful: wholesome, nutritious and delicious meals can be simply achieved without spending excessive time and money, or throwing away surplus food.
Amelia started Cook First in 2016; after years of dealing with digestive issues due to an intestine parasite picked up while working in Nepal, she dramatically altered her diet to be much more plant-based and it changed her life forever. What started as a way of showing friends how to eat healthily on a tight budget, developed into a consultancy with which she travelled all over South-East Asia; educating individuals, as well as F&B teams of restaurants, cafes and hotels, on how to use more local ingredients and cater to all types of dietary requirements while minimising food waste and cost.
There’s is no disputing the importance of maintaining a healthy gut in preventing illness, boosting metabolism as well as facilitating the proper absorption of the vitamins and minerals of our food. We tried some of Rhythm Health’s coconut milk kefir – the Coconut & Greens one that has added kale, spirulina, wheatgrasss etc. It’s a perfectly delicious way of getting in all that good bacteria, without the dairy - instead the incredible added benefits of young coconut.
The group also shared their experience of navigating their way through endless food fads to get the truth and their recommendations on books worth reading, such as How Not to Die: Discover the Foods Scientifically Proven to Prevent and Reverse Disease by Michael Greger.
Amelia also provided some top tips and tricks of where to buy healthy foods without having to fork out. Websites such as Love Health Hate Waste is a must-use for anyone who is a superfood fanatic; it sells health products that are past their BBD or in lightly damaged packaging at 90% off their RRP.
The afternoon was rounded off with a Q&A and a we were sent on our way with some gorgeous goody bags; featuring more coconut kefir, Rhythm Health Life Shots, some digestive soothing tea from Pukka Herbs and some wonderful olive oil from Andriotis.
Thank you so much to all who came!
Look out for updates on the next Foodie Workshop by Cook First.
