For most medical students, the demands of school exams and clinical rotations alone are enough to have on one’s plate. But Mitch Li, and two of his colleagues at UMass Medical School, decided to add a citywide healthy foods initiative to theirs, inspiring and supporting restaurants in Worcester, MA that make healthy food choices the easiest choice for their customers. The initiative is called “WooFood” – for Worcester Food – and they’ll be awarding their WooFood Certification Symbol to restaurants who comply with their standards beginning this fall. 

Mitch and his WooFood team see the health hazards of poor diet and lifestyle everyday in their hospital, and they have decided to dissolve at least one of the barriers to improved nutrition and health – by getting healthy foods on the main menu and out of the margins. I am very moved to see a group of budding -physicians take public health and preventative care into their own hands in such a positive, practical way. I got caught up with Mitch Li last week to talk about the WooFood initiative and where whole grains fall on the WooFood radar. 
 
1. So, what is WooFood all about, Mitch? 
 
Our slogan is a healthy change respecting choice and tradition.  We recognize that food choices have become too complicated and the end result is unhealthy food and tragic lifestyle related consequences like heart attacks, disabling strokes, kidney disease requiring you to be hooked up to a machine that cleans your blood three days a week, and amputations from diabetes, among many other things.  
 
WooFood is about choice architecture — the concept that the manner in which a choice is presented to someone significantly affects that choice. More simply, it’s about making the healthful choice the easy and default choice.  
 
Our nonprofit takes the active approach of certifying restaurants who are willing to make a healthy change that not only makes healthful choices available, but puts healthy foods first, as major meal components, rather than in the “healthy substitute” margins.  
 
2. What made you start an initiative to gain greater access to healthier foods for people? 
 
The three founders of WooFood — myself, Adam Chin, and Matt DeWolf – all came to WooFood from different angles.  Together we have experience in nutrition, public health, health policy, economics, and exercise physiology — all of the ingredients that make WooFood successful.  We also love food and found it very frustrating to go out to a restaurant and have to expend an excessive amount of energy to manipulate the menu choices to resemble something healthy.  We believe it should not take any effort on the part of the customer to order a healthful meal.  Instead, things should be turned around so that the dish is healthful by default and if you wish, the right is retained to make your dish unhealthful (e.g. swap out the whole grains for white, add extra cheese, fewer veggies, etc.)
 
Finally, nearly every medical practitioner has to come to terms with the fact that the vast majority of medical problems they see will be chronic, lifestyle-related conditions and their consequences. Unfortunately, these diseases are often not very satisfying to treat because they are guaranteed to get worse or return if the lifestyle is continued, no matter what medical interventions are undertaken.  Some practitioners finesse their counseling skills and motivate patients to make a real lifestyle change.  But for most practitioners, it is all too easy to become cynical and resigned to the idea that patients are going to keep their unhealthy lifestyles.  We would love to motivate some of these people to get involved in the effort as well; when a provider sees that they have influence not only directly with their patient, but also on their environment, it’s a game changer.
 
3. Are whole grains a part of WooFood Certification? 
 
Absolutely!  WooFood certification consists of seven general categories of certification of which one is entirely devoted to whole grains.  Each category has certain prerequisites in addition to other opportunities for a restaurant to earn points and a higher level of certification.  
The prerequisite for whole grains is that a 100% whole grain option is offered for all major grain products including pasta and bread.  Additional points can be earned if whole grain products are the default option for appetizers and meals.  It was amazing to us that although whole grains are now so readily available to consumers, they are wholly underutilized in restaurants.  No pun intended!
 
4. As a budding physician, why do you think that whole grains are an important part of a healthy diet? 
 
For some reason, whole grains seem to be the hard sell.  Probably because the mantra everyone heard from their mother was “eat your vegetables” but not “eat your 100% whole grains”.  Even the USDA has dropped the ball on this, only recently recommending that a mere 50% of your grains be whole.  Despite studying biochemistry in way too much detail, the WooFood’s philosophy is to keep it simple.  The less processed the better, and the more plant-like the better. We aren’t vegans or vegetarians by any means — we just prefer to eat lots of vegetables, fruits, and whole grains!  
 
5. What are some of your favorite whole grains? 
 
Though not as well versed in the variety of whole grains that are available as I’m sure you are at Oldways and the Whole Grains Council — here is what we enjoy:
 
Adam — Quinoa
Mitch — Kamut (Pasta)
Matt — Wheat
 
7. Do you have any creative tips for our readers to help them eat even more healthfully at restaurants? For instance, are there universal substitutions we can make that we might not be aware of? 
 
The end goal of WooFood is to make it so easy for your readers to eat healthfully at restaurants that they don’t have to think about it at all!  We shouldn’t have to work so hard in trying not to poison our bodies when we go out to eat.  The way things are at most places, eating healthfully at a restaurant is like trying to navigate a minefield when all you are doing is trying to enjoy a walk in the park!
 
One of our seven categories focuses on portion sizes and making it easier for consumers to control them.  Our “dinner for now, tomorrow’s chow” option means that restaurants will offer to wrap up half of the meal before it is served.  Even if this is not officially offered at a restaurant — realistically, any restaurant can do it, so asking for this is one way to control portion sizes, which is really America’s biggest problem (again, no pun intended).
 
Finally, readers are welcome to subscribe to our blog as well at www.woofood.org where we have other specific tips, like how to prepare a healthful breakfast for an entire week in a short amount of time.
 
8. We encourage our readers to “Just Ask For Whole Grains” wherever they are, to increase demand and awareness at their favorite restaurants. Do you think that simply requesting whole grains and other healthy foods can make a difference? What else can consumers do to encourage local restaurants to offer more healthy choices? 
 
Asking for whole grains can definitely make a difference, but not in a vacuum.  In fact, WooFood got its start when one of us asked what kind of fat a diner used to cook their home fries.  There is a marketing saying/factoid that someone has to hear about something 3 times in order for it to stick.  In this case, WooFood is approaching businesses directly (time #1), then we hope they will see us in an article, or hear about us by word of mouth (time #2), and then, when they see us again (time #3), they will be ready to work with us.  The same principal should work with whole grains — but someone needs to be advocating for it on top of things (The Whole Grains council, in this case!)
 
If you live in or near Worcester, MA, look for WooFood-certified restaurants in the coming months. If you live somewhere else, why not consider setting up a program like WooFood for your community? If we work together, we can make a big difference! (Sarah) 
 

 

Add a Comment