Rose Lee Living life as a vegan

July 8, 2006

For Rose Lee life has always been about cooking. She's written her own cookbook, formerly owned a cooking school in town, catered, worked in restaurants and hosted a cooking show. For the last two years she's been giving demonstrations on healthy cooking across the state as an instructor for The Cancer Project, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization. This month she will give Westborough residents another taste of life as a vegetarian at the public library during her four-part "Food for Life: Nutrition & Cooking Class." The Thursday evening classes cover topics like favoring fiber, discovering dairy alternatives and learning more about antioxidants and phytochemicals. She cooks four to five recipes per demonstration teaching residents better eating practices to reduce the risk of cancer, heart disease, or diabetes. Often with better food choices people can reduce or maintain a healthy weight. And learning to become a vegetarian isn't hard, the Westborough resident explained. Lee and her husband moved to town in 1979 and raised three children. She enjoys cooking, gardening and tai chi. She even teaches tai chi classes at the Westborough Senior Center. Lee was recruited as a consultant by The Cancer Project and is a graduate of Ming Chuan University, where she honed her skills in Asian cooking. She is a member of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. What is "food for life" and nutrition and how do you achieve it? What are the main questions you get from people? Food for life means nutrition in cooking, to eat a balanced, healthy diet. The best way to achieve that is to eat a variety of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, beans and legumes, and stick with low fat, high fiber foods. What most people think is to eat vegetarian is boring. That there's not enough food to eat. They say to me 'so you eat lots of tofu?' To be a vegetarian is easy. There are a whole lot of foods out there. Soy is just one of the legume family. Chickpeas, lentils, whole grains, oats, barley, there are a lot of varieties to eat. It's very easy. It's the best way to get natural ingredients to protect you. You can be very creative because there are so many vegetarian foods to prepare out

there. And it's colorful, beautiful and fresh. How and why did you become a cook? Where did you learn about cooking for cancer prevention? I've been cooking and teaching for more than 35 years. I love good food and eating good food. Good food is healthy and vegetarian food with a lot of natural vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. I graduated college and wanted to come to America. My mom told me to learn to cook because there wasn't any good Chinese food in the U.S. I took a number of years of classes in the culinary arts in Taiwan. I came to the U.S. in 1969 and Chinese food wasn't popular then. I was a member of the Physicians' Committee for Responsible

Medicine for many, many years. The Cancer Project sprung out of the PCRM. They were looking for a cooking consultant. I had extensive interviews and they loved what I did and my experience and they chose me as their representative for Massachusetts to promote a healthy diet and to work with them. I travel to Boston, Worcester, Framingham, colleges, hospitals, and Whole Foods Markets to spread the message.What is The Cancer Project? And how did you become a consultant for them? The Cancer Project is supported by a group of doctors who work together and discuss a healthy diet through nutrition education and research. I liked what they were doing so I joined the force to educate the public about a healthy diet to lower a person's risk for cancer, heart disease or diabetes-for good health in general. I've been with

them for two years. Why is it important to you to teach healthy eating at area venues like the library and Senior Center? Over a million people are suffering from cancer. It's a big problem in America and other places in the world. There's an urgent need for a new direction to connect diet with health because what you eat is what you are. I can encourage people to eat more healthy foods and everyone can be healthier. Holding the

demonstrations in community centers like the library or Senior Center, they're good places for education and can hold large groups of people. The demonstrations are about action and interaction with people. I get them to taste it so they can go home and cook for themselves or their family and everyone can stay healthy. With the demonstrations they're not just talk, I'm doing something. What's your favorite dish and why? For breakfast I like to make smoothies with soy milk or non-dairy milk with

some fruits, especially bananas. They're very good and nutritious. I also make a multigrain Belgian waffle. I make anything for lunch like a salad with some kind of protein like beans, nuts or seeds. I love hummus. For dinner I could have a burrito on a whole grain pita, with guacamole and salsa. I stir-fry zucchinis and squash and wrap it up together. Or meatless chili is good too, served with whole wheat pasta. Or veggie burgers. They're all good choices. Being a vegetarian is not new anymore. Being a vegetarian is on the rise and it's a good thing. Peter H

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