Healthy Eating Month Interview: Chris Garasic

We are excited to present our first of several to come Healthy Eating Month Interviews! In our first installment, we interviewed Chris Garasic, Executive Chef at Shade Hotel, Manhattan Beach.

GG: What does healthy eating mean to you?

Chris: To me eating healthy means eating the right foods that contain the highest nutrients possible for your body to stay healthy and happy.  Eating the right foods can give you more energy, make you feel lighter on your feet and support your immune system.  Staying within the food groups for snacks and at meal times can make you feel on top of the world where junk food and fast food fail and just drag you down.

GG: Why do you think it is important for children to learn about healthy eating?

Chris: It’s important for children to learn about healthy eating for multiple reasons.  Starting eating healthy when you are young gives your growing body a chance to get the nutritional support it needs to sprout into young and healthy teenagers and all the way through life to adulthood.

GG: What can we do to urge children to choose healthy options?

Chris: The best way we can urge and help children to eat healthy is to learn how to make the so called “scary foods” taste great through cooking.  Learning how to cook and fabricate healthy foods through flavor and presentation can really sway the little ones into eating healthy and staying on that path to lead a healthy life.  Flavor is key, if a child eats something that’s doesn’t taste great he or she will always remember that.  So to start out on the right foot, learn how to infuse the best flavor possible to avoid that initial bad experience.  Also presentation can be key using fun shapes, colors, the way it’s arranged on the plate or even the plate or dish itself can sell healthy.