Cooking Class - Group Consultation/Q&A/discussion session
Next session:
Cooking Class: October 6th, 4 pm - 5:30 pm EDT
Group Consultation/Q&A/Discussion Session: October 20th, 4 pm - 5:30 pm EDT
Live on ZOOM - All sessions are recorded for your convenience.
Menu: Cooking Class October 6th*:
• White Bean Stew with Onion, Carrot, Mushrooms and Kale
• Oriental Sweet Rice with Sweet Potatoes
• Roasted Brussel Sprouts - Sunflower Seed Salad
Menu Highlight
Cooking Class Spotlight:
Traditional Medicine Wisdom and Western Nutritional Perspective:
Culinary Medicine Cooking Class : Turning Poison into Medicine
How everyday foods can transform inflammation into vitality
Modern life constantly exposes us to what Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) would call internal "poisons"—stress, processed foods, excess sugar, environmental chemicals, overeating, rushed eating, digestive weakness, and chronic inflammation. Rather than focusing on restriction, Culinary Medicine teaches us how simple, seasonal foods can gradually restore balance and help the body remember how to heal itself.
In this class we'll prepare three delicious dishes that nourish digestion, support healthy kidneys, boosts the immune system, and gently detoxifies the body according to both Traditional Chinese Medicine and modern nutritional science.
🌿 TCM • 5 Elements Perspective
As we move deeper into Autumn, the energy begins to contract, consolidate, and turn inward. This menu supports this seasonal transition by nourishing the Soil/Earth and Metal elements, while gently supporting the Water element as we move toward winter.
Onions, sweet rice, and sweet potatoes nourish and ground the Soil/Earth element, supporting the Spleen/Stomach and the body's ability to transform food into usable energy and boosting immune function.
Onions, kale, Brussels sprouts, and other hardy greens resonate with the Metal element and Lung/Large Intestine, helping us adapt to the cooler, drier energy of Autumn.
Dried Shiitake mushrooms and kombu bring an earthy yet deeply nourishing quality and offer a subtle connection to the Water element (kidney, bladder), preparing us for the winter season ahead.
Roasting, simmering, and pressure cooking create warmth and concentration, making this an especially appropriate way of preparing food as the external environment becomes cooler.
The naturally sweet, grounding flavors of sweet rice, sweet potatoes, carrots, and onions are balanced by the bitter and pungent qualities of greens, and shallots/onions and umami flavor of mushrooms.
The result is a meal that grounds, warms, nourishes, and helps us gather our energy inward—following the natural movement of Autumn.
🥕 Western Nutrition Perspective
This menu provides a nourishing combination of plant-based protein, complex carbohydrates, fiber, minerals, and phytonutrients.
White beans provide protein, fiber, folate, iron, magnesium, and potassium, while their soluble fiber supports healthy digestion and blood-sugar regulation.
Sweet rice and sweet potatoes provide complex carbohydrates for sustained energy, with sweet potatoes adding beta-carotene and other valuable antioxidants.
Kale and Brussels sprouts are rich in vitamin C, vitamin K, folate, carotenoids, and glucosinolates—compounds associated with the body's natural detoxification and cellular-protection processes.
Shiitake mushrooms provide B vitamins, minerals, and bioactive compounds such as beta-glucans.
Sunflower seeds and sesame/olive oil contribute healthy fats, vitamin E, and additional minerals.
Kombu adds trace minerals and naturally occurring iodine, although the amount of iodine can vary considerably depending on the seaweed and preparation.
Together, the menu offers a satisfying, fiber-rich and nutrient-dense autumn meal—with protein, whole-food carbohydrates, vegetables, healthy fats, and a wide spectrum of plant compounds.
The White Bean Stew grounds and nourishes, the Sweet Rice with Sweet Potato centers and harmonizes, and the Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Sunflower Seeds brings the crisp, contracting quality of Autumn. It creates a culinary expression of the seasonal shift from Soil/Earth → Metal → Water.
Turning Poison into Medicine
One of the most beautiful teachings of Traditional Chinese Medicine is that healing is not found in isolated superfoods or miracle supplements.
Healing happens through countless daily choices.
Every meal becomes an opportunity to transform:
excess into balance
inflammation into nourishment
stagnation into movement
deficiency into vitality
stress into calm
poison into medicine.
When we choose whole foods prepared with awareness and eat in harmony with the seasons, our kitchen becomes our first pharmacy and every meal becomes an act of healing.
As Hippocrates wisely observed over two thousand years ago,
"Let food be thy medicine, and medicine be thy food."
Today, modern nutritional science is increasingly confirming what ancient healing traditions have taught for centuries: the foods we choose every day profoundly influence inflammation, the gut microbiome, immune function, metabolism, brain health, and even gene expression.
Medicine doesn't begin in the medicine cabinet. It begins in the kitchen. Every ingredient carries information. Every meal sends a message to our cells. Together we'll discover how simple, seasonal foods can help transform everyday challenges into opportunities for healing—one delicious bite at a time.
Every ingredient carries a story.
Every recipe carries wisdom.
Every meal is an opportunity to transform poison into medicine.
Join Now: Send money $70 via
• VENMO: @Bettina-Zumdick
• ZELLE (bettinazumdick@gmail.com (413) 429-5610)
• CHECK made out to Bettina Zumdick to 210 Prospect Street, Lee, MA 01238
Monthly Self Investment: $70 - sliding scale fee available
Self invest in your health and stay committed to your authenticity and goals by joining the monthly sessions.
Rejuvenate and learn how to achieve longevity amidst this changing landscape of our world.
Do you suddenly find yourself with unusual symptoms and you don’t know what to do?
Stay centered or become centered in your own inner axis.
Deepen your knowledge and understanding of foods, home remedies, alternative approaches to wellbeing and more.
Feel supported by a community with like-hearted people.
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INCLUDED:
90-minute Cooking Classes scheduled once a month on Tuesdays at 4 pm Eastern Time.
Next dates: Cooking Classes: 10/6 - 11/3 - 12/1/2026 - 1/5/2027 *subject to change
90 - 120-minute Group Consultations/Question & Answer sessions scheduled once a month on Tuesdays at 4 pm Eastern Time
Next dates: Group Consultation/Q & A sessions: 10/20 - 11/17 - 12/15/2026 - 1/19/2027 *subject to change
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All sessions are recorded for your convenience.
Send me a check or use venmo, zelle! $70
What do other people say?
"Thank you for your inspiration. I enjoyed the cooking demonstration and was really pleased to hear your comments on solar system temperature increase and networks and the solar ray feed at the moment. Really brilliant." M.M.
“Easy recipes you can’t wait to taste!” R. W.
“Bettina’s online group consultations are a generous helping of her vast knowledge and intuitive experience of natural healing modalities for your own personal renewal.” R. W.
"Comfortable, informative and a sense of community found on zoom during questions and answers with Bettina Zumdick!" W.S.
The group consultations/discussion sessions are held in a private session.
