Gita Patel is a registered dietitian, certified diabetes educator, and certified LEAP (Lifestyle Eating and Performance) therapist specializing in diabetes, women’s health, heart disease, vegetarian nutrition, healthy aging, migraines, IBS, IBD, Celiac disease, gastrointestinal problems with food allergies, food sensitivities and food intolerances, and multiple sclerosis.
Her new vegetarian cookbook, Blending Science with Spices: Tasty Recipes & Nutrition Tips for Healthy Living, is the culmination of her traditional Indian background, the varied foods she grew up eating, and her extensive training in modern nutritional science.
FULL BIO: Gita Patel was raised in a traditional vegetarian family in India, and her first experience with food involved health and medicine. She credits her mother, Dayalaxmi, with kindling her passion to understand how food affects the body. Though initially Gita questioned her mother’s faith in food as medicine, she later found herself studying the effects of foods on the body.
“Ironically,” Gita says, “My studies led me to share my mother’s faith in the Ayurvedic principles that see medicine and diet as complementary and inclusive and that recognize the powerful effect food has on physical health, mental clarity, and spiritual progress.”
Thanks to her mother’s influence, Gita turned her clinical focus to nutrition. Her resulting life’s work has become helping individuals incorporate the health benefits of a vegetarian lifestyle. She notes, “With current research connecting the effect of what we eat on how we feel, food preparation is the one place where I can reflect daily on that fundamental relationship.”
Gita has taught nutrition through vegetarian cooking in a variety of venues, including television, and shares her extensive background in modern nutritional science through a combination of education and practice, partnering with individuals and organizations that need the science of nutrition translated into a healthy vegetarian lifestyle.
A registered dietitian, certified diabetes educator, and certified LEAP (Lifestyle Eating and Performance) therapist, she specializes in diabetes, women’s health, heart disease, vegetarian nutrition, healthy aging, migraines, IBS, IBD, Celiac disease, gastrointestinal problems with food allergies, food sensitivities and food intolerances, and multiple sclerosis.
She is a member of the American Dietetic Association, the American Association of Diabetes Educators, and a variety of dietetic practice groups. A professional speaker and author of numerous articles, she has also addressed numerous national conferences, including the American Diabetes Associates and the national MS Society.
“Helping people feed their health is my goal in life,” she concludes. “By making your kitchen into an ‘instant take-out’ hub and showing you how to stock your freezer and pantry with wonderfully healthy grains, beans, hummus, pesto, and one-dish meals that are ready to thaw and serve, you can put the concept of Feeding Health™ into action quickly and permanently.”