Bush Doctor offering “Healing through Nutrition” Seminars in 2018

This year marks a decade since the Bush Doctor, a family owned juice bar, opened in Bed Stuy. Their specialty is homemade ginger beer, ginger coffee and ginger hot coco. Ginger is a natural remedy known for lowering cholesterol and treating ailments such as nausea and joint pain. The juice bar also offers other healthy food options like organic veggie burgers and air fried sweet potato fries. Recently the Bush Doctor teamed up with Maureen Medina, a health coach, to offer a trio of “Healing through Nutrition” seminars. The first of which was held in March.

Speaking after the seminar, Medina said that she has seen first hand the healing benefits of food. Due to a heart condition, before the age of 25 Medina survived two open heart surgeries. While the surgeries were a success, Medina said she still suffered from migraines and other health conditions. The headaches were so severe that the glare from sunlight streaming through a window would cause debilitating pain. That is until for ethical reasons she decided to adopt a plant based lifestyle where she was only eating fruits, vegetables and grains. Medina said it didn’t take long for her to notice the health benefits. The headaches just disappeared. “One day I thought about it and I couldn’t remember the last time I had a headache,” she said. This was three years ago. Today Medina is an advocate for plant based eating through her coaching practice called “Live Instead.”

For the seminar attendees, Medina prepared a complimentary vegan meal with baked potatoes, fresh red cabbage topped with dressing made from pureed carrots, sesame oil, rice vinegar and a dash of brown sugar. Medina, who describes herself as a “foodie,” says she has no “cheat” days where she indulges in meat dishes from her former lifestyle. She says when she gets a taste for barbeque, she replicates the taste with a vegan dish. “You should enjoy every meal,” she said and noted that a food processor makes preparing vegan meals much easier.

Learning how to put together a healthy meal is indispensable. According to the Brooklyn Community Health Needs Assessment Report, Brooklyn residents experience high rates of diabetes, hypertension, obesity, depression and other illnesses. Lack of a proper diet contributes to many of these preventable diseases. Eric Adams, the Brooklyn Borough President, adopted a vegan diet after being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 2016. Adams told Edible Brooklyn that he discovered through a consultation with a physician and his own research that a plant-based diet can actually reverse chronic health conditions and improve overall health.

Adams said that he is a very disciplined and had little trouble adjusting to a vegan diet after just a few weeks. Many others struggle to give up lifelong eating habits. Medina said that as a health coach she does not dictate restrictions to the individuals she works with, rather she encourages behavior modification and what she refers to as “crowding out.” For example if you love to eat two cheese burgers for a meal, Medina suggests starting the meal with fruits and vegetables, chances are you won’t want that second cheeseburger. Then graduate to one plant based meal per day.

“We make hundreds of decisions a day,” said Medina. “You can always choose. Choose life.”

Medina is a graduate of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition. Tiecha Merritt, owner of the Bush Doctor said that the juice bar’s “One Day Juice Cleanse” which consists of 7 healthy drinks, will now include a consultation session with Medina at a reduced rate.

The second “Healing Through Nutrition” seminar will be held on April 15.

For more information visit http://www.thebushdoctor.net/

*Photo of Tiecha Merritt and Maureen Medina courtesy of Yaw Aboagye