Kitchen Doctor
This course consists of eight lessons. The is a live webinar with slides as well as downloadable material with explanations, and recipes. All sessions will be archived and viewable soon after the live webinar. Participants can ask questions through the moderated chat room. Those who would like a certificate can take the optional tests at the end of each lesson as well as the end of the course. This series launches in 2024
Auditors
Auditors have access to all materials. The prepayment fee is $160. After 30 September 2018, it is $160.
Patrons
Those who have donated to the Institute can ask for a code so that all fees for auditing the series are waived.
Certificate Students
Certificate students take quizzes and submit a paper. Then, there is an interview. The fee is $550.
Kitchen Doctor 1: Taste as the Clue to Pharmacology
Live Webinar Date: Starts in 2024
Kitchen Doctor 2 - The Sweet Taste
The sweet taste is nourishing and growth producing. It is the predominant energy in most foods, especially the staples in our diet. The taste is comprised mainly of the water element and secondarily the earth element. It is found in carbohydrates, sugars, fats, and amino acids and is, to no one's surprise, anabolic, meaning it helps to build and repair tissue. Its nature is heavy, cold, and viscous (oily and gelatinous). The sweet taste acts quickly on the taste buds and saliva. In moderation, it is medicinal for fire types and some air types; but it causes derangements when consumed in excess, regardless of the constitutional type.
Live Webinar Date: Starts in 2024
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Kitchen Doctor 3 - The Sour Taste
Live Webinar Date: Starts in 2024
Kitchen Doctor 4 - The Salty Taste
Live Webinar Date: Starts in 2024
Kitchen Doctor 5 - The Pungent Taste
The pungent taste is due to essential oils. These stimulate the appetite and aid assimilation and absorption of food. Hot spices cause an elevation of the air and fire elements and are hence both exciting and drying to all organs. Pungent foods are light, hot, and dry. Their volatile oils, besides being aromatic, tend to arouse the senses, to promote salivation, and sometimes also tears. Spices can be used to stimulate digestion and balance excess water, but have to be used somewhat more carefully with air types and even more judiciously with fire types. Earth types generally benefit from the use of spices so long as the dryness is compensated for by moisture in the food.
Live Webinar Date: Starts in 2024
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Kitchen Doctor 6 - The Bitter Taste
Bitter foods elevate the air element and reduce
the excesses of the other elements. They are light, cold, and dry,
and their characteristic taste is due to the presence of alkaloids
(such as caffeine, nicotine, etc.), bitter principles (e.g. berberine),
and glycosides. The dryness of bitter foods helps relieve mucus,
pus, and watery accumulations. Such foods are slimming, and according
to Ayurveda, reduce fat, flesh, and marrow. This taste is therefore
much needed by diabetics. Bitter foods absorb mucus and the minuteness
of bitterness (a characteristic of air and ether) enables it to
move through narrow channels and clear the way for better circulation. Many detoxifying protocols rely heavily on bitter foods and herbs.
Live Webinar Date: Starts in 2024
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Kitchen Doctor 7 - The Astringent Taste
The astringent taste is perhaps the most difficult to describe. Astringent foods are drying. Their consumption can therefore result in an elevation of the air element and, to a lesser extent, the earth element. Astringent foods are light, cold, and dry and are hence similar to pungent foods except that they are cold where the spicy foods are hot. So, though both act on air, pungent foods are more catabolic whereas astringent ones are slightly anabolic. The dryness of this taste reduces water whereas its coldness reduces fire. The astringent taste is due to the presence of tannins, usually found in the bark of trees.
Live Webinar Date: Starts in 2024
Kitchen Doctor 8 - Summary
This series of webinars is extremely practical. Besides covering the pharmacology of taste, the management of imbalances that are due to constitutional type or inappropriate foods for certain individuals as well as cycles in life will be presented in a way that is easy to understand and apply. Lots of health conditions will be addressed and there will be charts with foods and recipes to download. This series will be fun and useful for just about everyone.
Live Webinar Date: Starts in 2024