Nutrition Initiative at Psynergy Improves Client Care

November 1, 2017 - Over the past year, Psynergy Programs has introduced an important nutrition initiative in order to improve and support the care given to clients. Psynergy’s approach to food has always been a priority. We follow the philosophy of using food as medicine, as an aspect of our holistic approach to care. Because of this, meals have always been served fresh, healthy and delicious. The decision to introduce a new nutrition initiative is motivated by the desire to further enhance the effect of healthy and tailored nutrition alongside serving scrumptious meals to our clients.

At Psynergy we have identified that the majority of our clients have medical conditions that have special nutritional requirements and thus require a special diet. Medical conditions include diabetes, high blood pressure, heart health, obesity and constipation.

We have implemented a number of important changes to menus and recipes to ensure that the meals served at our facilities meets our clients’ nutritional requirements. We have done this in such a way that we are able to serve the same meal for diabetic diet, DASH/heart healthy diet, and weight loss diet. Additionally we offer vegan and vegetarian meals, which are visually similar to the standard diet.

The outcome is that the food served at Psynergy is unlike food served at any other facility or hospital. There is no processed, pre-made food served here. Careful thought and planning is put into every menu, ingredients are sourced fresh and locally and all meals are made by the professional head chef Christophe Haefele.

In addition to his many years of culinary experience, Christophe continues to gain knowledge in nutrition and healthy food by attending seminars and conferences. He demonstrates his rich knowledge and experience by creating menus and dishes that are interesting, appetizing, visually pleasing and healthy. The menus change weekly which offers our clients variety.

Throughout the nutrition initiative Christophe has found interesting and creative ways to improve favorite dishes without changing the taste. He often makes subtle changes to reduce refined sugars and incorporate more fiber into meals. For example, delicious breakfast pancakes are made from whole wheat flour and freshly ground flax seed meal, instead of plain refined white flour. Soups are made from fresh seasonal vegetables and are flavored using spices and fresh green herbs. Bouillon cubes or powder (which are high in sodium) are never used in this kitchen. Mashed potatoes are made with a mixture of cauliflower puree and potatoes. And these examples are only a few of his innovative and delicious ideas.

The nutrition initiative has implemented changes that have further improved the excellent meals that are served at Psynergy. We look forward to monitoring how these changes benefit the overall well-being of our clients, in keeping with Psynergy’s philosophy that food is medicine.

Commentary from Peri Gershoni, registered dietician and consultant to Psynergy Programs.