The team of the Centre is designed, therefore, to address problems with medical, emotional and social specific to each patient individually, and comprises specialists from all relevant fields. The address by Goldin urged Polak to begin to consider the design of a workshop to help eat and live better to those who suffer from digestive disorders. Polak workshop teaches how to patients, not only the theory of how to design a diet tailored to their special needs, but also practice: they prepare tasty and healthy food for their own consumption. The workshop consisted of a series of seven meetings, each with a duration of three hours. The meetings began with a brief class, given by a registered dietitian, about an item in the diet recommended for the disease. The rest of the meeting was a meeting of hands to the work that Polak taught cooking methods and special recipes that encompass diverse elements of the diet of the patient. Each encounter ended with a dinner gourmet, prepared by patients. All participants received a recipe book containing both recipes and methods that follow the guidelines of the workshop.

Each workshop consists of 20 patients. We are now completing the second, and the third is already full, said Polak, who added that the participants represent a wide spectrum of ages. In a follow-up study, Polak said that a significant decrease in the index of disease activity of patients who participated in the workshop showed. It is a gratifying news for the resident of Jerusalem who first became chef to help them continue their studies. Two years ago, Polak decided to take a vacation in his medical studies and enrolled at the prestigious Le Cordon Bleu school culinary arts more important in the world comprising 26 international schools in 15 countries and the that attend more than 18,000 students annually. His studies at the Institute taught him vital information about healthy eating which he incorporated into his workshop. And both in terms of preparation and consumption, he discovered he liked the food from the far East.

They use rice as main grain rather than wheat, which is much healthier, he said. Today, Polak workshops are a comprehensive Center service of diseases connected with intestinal inflammations of the University hospitals Hadassah and he is confident that this is just the beginning. The workshop is adaptable to any country and any person. And when I finish my studies, the coming year, I hope to help launch the concept in other countries. Now that’s food for thought. Part of an article that appeared in Israel21c.