"Cooking, as well as ingredients, is made of emotions and feelings, and that's why I bring that passion to whatever field I'm in".

Experts in food, eating behaviours, dieticians and nutritionists participated in the summer course "Conscious and healthy eating: mindful eating", organised by the School of Pharmacy and Nutrition of the University of Navarra, at partnership with the Government of Navarra. The pandemic has highlighted the importance of emotions and the impact it has had on our purchasing and consumption habits. In this sense, the course, with a total of 12 teaching hours, covered topics such as: mindfulness techniques applied to recognising hunger and satiety signals and managing emotional hunger; handling psychological tools to deal with bad eating habits; awareness of the portions we consume and their comparison with the recommendations; as well as advice on how to hydrate ourselves wisely, including in situations of intense sport.

Xandra Luque, a Higher Technician in Catering and Dietetics and Nutrition; degree scroll official Head Chef and scandals; and chef and head chef at Clínica Universidad de Navarra in Madrid, gave one of the sessions of the course: Healthy gastronomy with heart, in which she tried to give the participants the tools to cook in a coherent way certain foods that have become fashionable but that are not always really appetizing. "Cooking, as well as ingredients, is made up of emotions and feelings, and for this reason, I bring this passion to whatever field I am in", she said. 

During the workshop, Xandrá Luque cooked several recipes in a particularhealthy 'show cooking' such as a salad dressed with barnacle seaweed, wakame seaweed and sea lettuce with green pesto; a particular version of "nocilla" based on a natural hazelnut cream seasoned with almond vegetable drink; quinoa crepes with red fruits or lettuce hearts with pickled onion in rice vinegar and vacuum-packed chicken, among other preparations. 

In addition, attendees were able to see the applications of the air fryer cooking machine, which allows cooking with less fat; and to carry out vacuum cooking. Xandra Luque stopped to explain sous-vide and how to bring this technique to the home in order to keep the properties of the raw material subject and its basic flavour intact.

Gastronomy for patient recovery

Luque described his work in the kitchen of the Clínica Universidad de Navarra as one of the biggest challenges of his degree program professional career. "The hospital was a challenge, but it is achievable: to create haute cuisine for hospitals. It was one of the most beautiful and at the same time most difficult projects I have ever experienced. We go to the restaurant healthy, here, we try to make gastronomy part of the treatment and help the patient's recovery, through the care of the culinary techniques, the care in the plating and adapting each dish to the pathology. We receive thank-you notes from patients, in which they tell us how good they feel thanks to the food and how important it is for them during their stay," he says. 

position The course was directed by Dr. Susana Santiago Neri, dietician-nutritionist, lecturer at the School of Pharmacy and Nutrition and team member of project Health and Wellbeing of the University of Navarra; and Dr. Itziar Zazpe García, dietician-nutritionist, lecturer at the School Pharmacy and Nutrition of the University of Navarra and collaborating researcher at IdiSNA and the research center Biomedica en network, Fisiopatología de la Obesidad y Nutrición (CIBEROBN).