— elaine wilbourn

he Food Coach Academy is all about training a tribe of food warriors. They're basically people in the community that are really dedicated to changing people's health and they do it through teaching 'em how to cook again. And, um, with a lot of individuals that I live in Vermont, we have, um, a lot of refugees here. Um, and they come and they end up eating just a processed diet 'cause they don't know where to find the food they're used to. So it's really Food Coach Academy's about honoring someone's autonomy. So you learn a step-by-step science-based approach to helping people make a dietary change one bite at a time. So just like in the textbook, I divide it up into different types of, um, food, fruit, vegetables, protein, sodium, sugar. I ask my patients, what, what do you wanna work on? You choose, what would you like to work on? And they lead the way. So it's really about, um, patients leading the way. It's, um, it can take anywhere from six to nine months, depend how much time you put into it. And it is a new field. I will let you know that. Um, the, um, American Culinary Federation is putting together a, uh, advisory board of which I've been invited to be on to actually create a national certification for culinary medicine. And so, um, the Food Coach Academy would definitely apply for that as soon as that was established. But again, it's a brand new field, um, culinary medicine.