{"id":44559,"date":"2024-03-06T13:52:38","date_gmt":"2024-03-06T03:52:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/?p=44559"},"modified":"2024-03-13T13:23:03","modified_gmt":"2024-03-13T03:23:03","slug":"kitchen-fit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/blog\/kitchen-fit\/","title":{"rendered":"Kitchen fit"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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\u201cThey say \u2018never trust a skinny chef\u2019,\u201d says chef Daniel Abou-Chedid. \u201cWell, I reckon you can never rely on an unhealthy one.\u201d The New South Wales Central Coast chef recently lost 35kg and is now an advocate for better health for Aussie chefs.<\/h4>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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\u201cDuring lockdowns I took a hard look at myself and realised I needed to change things in my life,\u201d he says. Daniel had learned a lifetime of bad eating habits causing weight and health problems. He was eating leftover chips from the bowl, eating scraps from the grill, sampling those last few strands of pasta in the pan. \u201cIt is not what you\u2019re eating \u2013 it\u2019s when and how are eating that\u2019s the problem,\u201d says Daniel. \u201cI was eating badly under the pressure and stress in the industry.\u201d<\/p>

He cut out carbs, fruit and pulses and concentrated on eating fresh vegetables. After he lost weight, he realised he needed to build strength. \u201cFor years I was carrying heavy boxes using my belly!\u201d says the chef with a laugh. \u201cI wasn\u2019t working my shoulders or core muscles.\u201d Now fit and under 100kg, he has a new lease on life. His mental health has improved significantly and he is exercising and loving his improved relationships. \u201cI used to sit on the couch after work trying to wind down to get to sleep,\u201d says the chef enthusiastically. \u201cNow I go to the gym for 45 minutes and I fall asleep when my head hits the pillow.\u201d He adds, \u201cNow I am breathing fresh air instead of smoke from the deep fryer.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

Up in the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales is Sam Gowing, a woman who is seen as a guru in the hospitality industry. \u201cChefs and hospo workers spend their lives looking after other people,\u201d she says, \u201cbut they often forget to look after themselves.\u201d The wellness chef has spent a lifetime working in hotels and restaurants and is now an expert in food, health and education and is Club Med\u2019s wellness ambassador. \u201cI see a lot of people in this game with muscular-skeletal problems and pain caused by inflammation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

She points to the work-hard\/play-hard culture in the industry as being not good for health. \u201cBooze is a big cause of inflammation,\u201d she says. \u201cWe finish a shift and knock off with a few drinks \u2013 sometimes a bottle \u2013 even a few colas,\u201d says Sam. \u201cThis causes inflammation in the joints and muscles and really affects the pain receptors.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

Sam knows pain. She broke her leg in four places and suffers occasionally from sciatica. \u201cI need to keep an eye on the weight. The sciatic nerve does not like being in a body that is overweight.\u201d To keep herself fit and healthy Sam has a diet rich in leafy greens, especially watercress. She says parsley is great, as well as nuts high in Omega 7 oils such as macadamias and seeds such as pepitas that are a good source of Omega 3 and 6. \u201cBut not kale,\u201d she says with a laugh. \u201cThat actually causes inflammation.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

She also makes healthy protein central to her diet, such as oily fish, and uses loads of fresh seasonal veg. Eager to share her knowledge as a wellness chef with the industry she works as a mentor to other chefs and in January this year, launched a new online training program on her website\u00a0<\/span>foodhealthwealth.com<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>

One health professional who has treated some of the best chefs in the country is Matthew Green from BodyGuide, a health professional who has treated some of the best chefs in the country. He is known around Australia for his work as a consultant for injury prevention and workers\u2019 compensation. \u201cI have seen thousands of injured bodies over the past 14 years,\u201d says Matthew. \u201cAnd most of that pain could have been avoided.\u201d<\/span><\/p>

He says that different roles in the hospitality industry present different problems. \u201cBaristas have a lot of trouble with shoulders, the rotator cuff,\u201d he says. \u201cThey are wrenching the group head (on the coffee machine) all day long. That is an unusual movement that is done repetitively and with force. The result is shoulder pain so severe it can stop our coffee makers from sleeping.\u201d He says chefs have problems with knees and backs because of bending to lift trays out of ovens and lifting pots off stoves into cool rooms which is exacerbated by benches being one size fits all. Matthew points out that the same height bench will be used by a short person who will be using their arms at ergonomically incorrect angles \u2013 and the tall chef will have to stoop.<\/span><\/p>

\u201cThe hospitality and catering industry has a culture where people soldier on and struggle to look after their bodies,\u201d says Matthew. He says that with proper training chefs, cooks, baristas, front-of-house workers \u2014 anyone working in the industry \u2014 can avoid pain. \u201cThere are some really simple recovery and self-massage techniques people can learn to help calm aches and pains. Aside from his work with employers, Matt has an app and book available on his website\u00a0<\/span>bodyguide.com.au<\/a>\u00a0to help people learn about their bodies. \u201cNo one should live in pain,\u201d he says. \u201cOften there is a simple solution to a problem that has been years in the making.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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As seen in autumn 2024<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSee more<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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\u201cThey say \u2018never trust a skinny chef\u2019,\u201d says chef Daniel Abou-Chedid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":44542,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[31],"class_list":["post-44559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry","tag-appetiser-2"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44559"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44842,"href":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44559\/revisions\/44842"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bidfood.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}