Back pain shouldn’t prevent you from cooking. Here’s how you can adapt – WFSU 8225670622173 SCOTT SIMON is the HOST: Cooking is a physically demanding activity. You may have to bend, lift, and twist just to boil pasta. Back pain sufferers may also have to moan and wiggle a lot. NPR’s Pien Hui tells us about the new cookbook that has recipes designed to reduce strain on the cooks’ back. PIEN HUANG BYLINE: The cookbook is called “The Health Back Kitchen” and it’s produced by America’s Test Kitchen. It’s for Julie Bozzo Cote. She has suffered from back and neck pain that has severely limited her ability to cook for the last 15 years. Her family’s typical dinner is… JULIE BOZZO COTE: Frozen pizza. It’s a lot frozen pizza, salads or salads with mac and cheese or angel hair. Cote is a chef at America’s Test Kitchen. She didn’t work on the book but received an early copy for review. She wants to cook but is unable to due back pain. COTE: It’s intimidating to chop up a whole chicken for soup or to roast a chicken on a weeknight. You have to think about using the knife as leverage and standing while pushing. HUANG: A butcher can spatchcock a small chicken purchased at the grocery store. This is just one of the many suggestions in the book that will help you reduce the strain on your back when cooking. Along with clear, glossy food photos and recipes, there are also lessons on spinal anatomy. It was written in collaboration with Dr. Griffin Baum a spine surgeon from Northwell Health, New York City. He says that it is a reflection of two realities in life. GRIFFIN BAUM GRIFFIN BAUM GRIFFIN BAUM GRIFFIN BAUM GRIFFIN BAUM GRIFFIN BAEM: All humans have to eat. You have to eat. All humans will experience back pain. It’s part of life. No one can live their entire life without experiencing back pain. HUANG: This book is for people who suffer from chronic back pain. It’s often caused by arthritis of the neck and spine. Baum says that this condition cannot be cured. It can only managed. BAUM: That’s our approach, not like, how can you eat better for back pain? No, the question is how to make changes in the kitchen. How can you manage your back pain by cooking and eating? HUANG: It’s done by preparing ingredients while seated and using a rolling trolley to move tools around the kitchen. Baum says that they spent weeks trying to figure out how to load a oven without bending. BAUM: We came up with a pretty cool solution on how to remove the rack from a 350 degree oven when it is sweltering hot. How do you set up the stool? What’s the best size and how do I set something on it? HUANG: Baum states that standing for more than 15 minutes can cause back pain. The recipes are designed with breaks. On good days you can chop up extra onions and freeze. On bad days you can be extra gentle and toast nuts in the micro. This could be helpful for people with other ailments. Dr. Linda Xu, a primary care doctor at Kaiser Permanente San Francisco, teaches cooking to patients. LINDA XU : I agree with the idea that we should simplify this recipe. Let’s give you, you know, lighter, easier to use cooking equipment. In many cases, these sorts of streamlining would be applicable. HUANG: Anyone who has difficulty cooking, whether they are recovering from surgery, or have mobility issues. The book is more than just a collection of recipes and tips for Cote. It gives her hope she can cook healthy meals and still have energy to do other activities. COTE: We can have dinner, then go outside to play, or go on a bicycle ride before dinner, and then quickly put together the meal. Again, it’s not just frozen pizza. HUANG: Her neck pain is bad today, but she will spend 15 minutes this morning chopping leeks and onions. She will take a long break from standing up before preparing a rich, creamy soup of cauliflower for dinner. Pien Huang, NPR News. (SOUNDBITE FROM DOROTHY ASSBY’S “COME LIIVE WITH ME”) Transcript provided NPR, Copyright NPR.

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Cooking can be a physical activity – bending, lifting, twisting just to boil a pot of pasta. For people with back pain, it can also require a lot of wincing and moaning. NPR’s Pien Huang tells us about a new cookbook with recipes designed to place less strain on the cook’s back.

PIEN HUANG, BYLINE: It’s called “The Healthy Back Kitchen,” and it’s published by America’s Test Kitchen, that cookbook empire. It’s for people like Julie Bozzo Cote. She’s had back and neck pain for the past 15 years that seriously limits her ability to cook. A typical dinner for her and her family is…

JULIE BOZZO COTE: Frozen pizza. It’s a lot of frozen pizza and salad or mac and cheese and salad or angel hair and salad.

HUANG: Cote works for America’s Test Kitchen. She wasn’t involved with making this book, but she got an early copy to review. She wants to cook more, but with back pain, it seems out of reach.

COTE: Chopping up a chicken for soup, which is something I love to do, or for just a weeknight, roast chicken is very daunting – thinking about trying to use that knife to get leverage and standing and pushing.

HUANG: One possible solution is to get a small chicken from the grocery store spatchcocked by the butcher. It’s one of many suggestions from the book to reduce the strain that cooking puts on your back. Along with clear recipes and glossy food photos, there are lessons in spinal anatomy. It was written with Dr. Griffin Baum, a spine surgeon at Northwell Health in New York City. He says it addresses two realities of life.

GRIFFIN BAUM: All human beings have to eat. So you have to eat. And all human beings will have back pain. That’s just, like, part of – like, there’s no person who goes their whole life without back pain.

HUANG: The book speaks to people with chronic back pain, often caused by arthritis in the neck and spine. That can’t be cured, Baum says. It can only be managed.

BAUM: So that’s the approach that we have, which is not, like, how do you eat better to cure back pain? No, it’s how do you make modifications in the kitchen? How do you approach the act of cooking and the act of eating in order to manage your back pain?

HUANG: You do it by prepping ingredients while seated, using a rolling cart to schlep tools around the kitchen. Baum says they spent weeks figuring out how to load an oven without bending.

BAUM: You know, we ended up coming up with what I think is pretty cool, on, like, you know, how do you pull out the rack when it’s, like, searing hot, 350 degrees, and using tongs? And how do you set up a stool, and what’s the right size stool, and how do you set something on there?

HUANG: Baum says standing for more than 10 or 15 minutes at a time can aggravate back pain, so the recipes have built-in breaks. On good days, you can chop extra onions and freeze them. On bad days, you can be extra gentle with yourself and even toast nuts in the microwave. This could be useful for people with other conditions. Dr. Linda Xu is a primary care physician who teaches patients to cook at Kaiser Permanente in San Francisco.

LINDA XU: I think the same idea of, OK, let’s simplify this recipe. Let’s, you know, give you kind of lighter, easier-to-use cooking equipment. Those sorts of streamlining things would apply in many cases, actually.

HUANG: Where people are recovering from surgery or dealing with mobility issues – anyone who struggles with the stamina to cook. For Cote, the book offers more than just tips and recipes. It gives her hope that she can cook a healthy meal and still have the energy to do other things.

COTE: So we can have dinner and then go outside and play or be able to go on a bike ride before dinner and then quickly put it together, and, again, not just be frozen pizza.

HUANG: Today, her neck pain is pretty bad, but she plans to spend 15 minutes chopping onions and leeks this morning. She’ll take a long rest from standing before pulling together a lush, creamy cauliflower soup for dinner.

Pien Huang, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF DOROTHY ASHBY’S “COME LIVE WITH ME”) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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