Tania Hayek Mercer is a certified holistic health counselor, chef and cooking instructor who lives in the District of Columbia. Her Web site, nourishingyou.com, aims to help people learn to cook and eat more nutritious food. Hayek teaches cooking classes at area Whole Foods markets and public venues like the U.S. Botanical Garden.
What’s your take on the American diet?
There are two forces pulling people in two different directions. You’ve got people like me and a lot of other chefs who are promoting eating sustainable food, eating more fresh food, more whole food and less processed food. Then you’ve got the food industry, and they are in it for profit and it’s a lot about faster and cheaper. When you have faster and cheaper, the food quality gets compromised.
How do you try to influence the way people eat?
I teach cooking classes and I develop most of the recipes I teach. A lot of it is plant-based, vegan or vegetarian food as well as seafood.
How can people cook healthy food that is also affordable?
If you are taking things from scratch and cooking at home it is a lot less costly, like making chili with garbanzo beans, for instance, or getting a chicken and baking it. I also cook with brown rice and quinoa, which is a complete protein grain. If you think about trying to cook more simply and using ingredients that don’t cost as much, it can be done. The caveat is, you have to get into the kitchen and spend at least half an hour to cook it.
What attracted you to this career?
My first job was in the technology field. I was in tech sales for eight or nine years. I’ve always been interested in nutrition and I eventually decided I have this really huge need to help people be healthy. What is so rewarding now is I work with people in a four- to six-month program and I can see how far they come in just a couple of months. I’ve had people with diabetes who are able to get out of taking their medications. Diet is extremely powerful. It doesn’t happen overnight but with lifestyle changes, exercising and eating right, it can really change your life. – Susan Ferrechio
