Could Learning to Cook Again Be the Best Prescription for Traumatic Brain Injuries?

DETROIT, Feb. 26, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Before she suffered two concussions on the same day, Susana Stoica, Ph.D., was an excellent cook. But, like many other people with brain trauma, as she started recovering from her injuries, Susana found she could no longer follow a recipe, even ones she had made for years, taste what she was cooking, or even shop for food the way she had before.

This was a profoundly depressing loss and one she was determined to do something about. She devoted ten years of her life to creating a unique method that allows people with traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) to cook independently again. She shares that method and many easy-to-follow recipes with families, caregivers and other traumatic brain injury sufferers like herself through her new book series, Cooking after Brain Injury: Easy Cooking for Recovery, Books 1, 2 and 3.

Concussions and other traumatic brain injuries are more common than many people think. According to the Brain Injury Association of America, 3.5 million children and adults experience a significant brain injury each year. The Virginia-based association reports that one out of 60 people in the U.S. is coping with a traumatic brain injury disability.

Stoica says, "When you can cook, you eat healthier – something very important after a brain trauma, your social life improves, as does your self-esteem. You can invite people over and you can bring things you made to other people's houses. This can be huge for people struggling with brain injuries." She also adds that the books offer a simple way for anyone to learn how to cook, even if they did not have a brain injury. "My son is also using them to learn how to cook."

The three Cooking after Brain Injury books contain recipes of increasing complexity accompanied by colorful illustrations. The recipes are rated for ease of cooking, relative calorie count, if they are vegetarian or include meat, the relative glycemic index, and if they are free of the most common allergens: gluten, corn, soy, milk, and eggs, and are easy to make and delicious. For example, these books contain detailed instructions for cauliflower soufflé, mashed potato with eggs, cream of mushroom soup and apple pie. As shopping for the ingredients is also a challenge for people with brain trauma, the author provides shopping lists and labels for each dish, as well as instructions on how to use them to avoid cooking mistakes.

About the author:
Susana Stoica has a lifelong passion for understanding how the brain works. She has a Ph.D. in computer engineering with a thesis in designing computers with circuits that model the brain cells, and she also worked in the field of expert systems which model the human thinking process. The founder of Healing Alternatives, LLC, she is a healer, engineer, inventor, and speaker. In July 2018, she gave a workshop on brain injury recovery at Harvard Medical School. She also spoke at Kaiser Permanente – the largest medical insurer in California, at University of Michigan - Ann Arbor, Wayne State University, and at the Michigan Holistic Nurses Association.  Stoica talks about the capabilities of the brain to continue recovery even decades after a trauma and about how to best integrate alternative healing methods with mainstream medicine. 

Availability: Detroit area, nationwide by arrangement, and via telephone.
Contact: Susan Stoica, Ph.D., at (248) 895-5784; [email protected]
https://HealingBrainInjury.com

SOURCE Susan Stoica

Related Links

https://HealingBrainInjury.com