BMINDS Cooking Workshop nourishes minds and bodies
Health and wellness researchers raise awareness about healthy lifestyle choices and improved mental wellbeing
BMINDS (Binghamton Mentors for the Interdisciplinary Nutrition and Distress Study) is a research team within the Division of Health and Wellness Studies at Binghamton University’s Decker College of Nursing and Health Sciences with a mission to educate the public about the connection between diet and mental health, and how making healthy lifestyle choices can improve mental wellbeing.
Under the guidance of Lina Begdache, PhD ’08, assistant professor of health and wellness studies, the team proposes studies, creates abstracts and poster presentations, and writes manuscripts. This year’s team consists of seven research assistants and three interns who organize various outreach events, including the BMINDS Cooking Workshop, seminars and de-stress events.
The BMINDS Cooking Workshop, held at Hinman Makerspace on Binghamton’s Vestal campus, was a two-day event in April that drew more than a dozen students. It included demonstrations on preparing Mediterranean-style dishes such as avocado toast, avocado egg salad, lettuce chickpea wraps and peanut butter energy oat balls. Each student received three meals and a snack, and they were given a cookbook with cost breakdowns to help combat food insecurity.
The students attending the workshop enjoyed learning about the dishes, seeing the demonstrations and hearing about the team’s ingredient choices and techniques. The BMINDS team created a cookbook for the workshop that was distributed to program participants.
The team plans to host the BMINDS Cooking Workshop every semester.
The 2023-24 BMINDS team includes Ushima Chowdhury, Katerina Nagorny, Sabrina Bubis, Elliot Ifraimov, Gabrielle Castillo, Sarah Livshits, Alexis Valerius, Danielle Crivelli, Rania Khan and Katelyn Wasilenko.