Amy Jasperse: Culinary Medicine Specialist
Amy Jasperse is changing the way we think about food in the Greenbrier Valley; and she’s taking that information to future doctors as well.
Jasperse, a pharmacist and certified diabetes educator, has lived in the Lewisburg area for 17 years. She became a diabetes educator in 2009. Now, while she still works in the field of pharmacology, her real passion lies with creating health through a plant-based diet, inspired by her work with her diabetic patients.
“I saw more and more people becoming overweight and diabetic at younger and younger ages. As my patient load increased, my pharmacy hours decreased. I developed a fascination with how food affects overall health and the development of disease,” says Jasperse. Then, as she continued her education, she was introduced to the concept of culinary medicine when she attended a seminar with Dr. Neal Barnard on reversing Type-2 Diabetes through plant-based eating. She was inspired, but didn’t plan to use it as part of her work at home.
“I knew it would be a hard sell in my home state of West Virginia where we love our sausage gravy and biscuits and meat-and-potatoes lifestyle,” she says, but personal experience offered proof that it could work.
“My dad decided to read Dr. Barnard’s book and start eating plant-based meals. The change in his blood sugar was jaw-dropping for me, and I felt like I would be negligent if I didn’t at least let patients know that they had a viable option to possibly reverse diabetes and improve blood pressure, cholesterol and lose weight in the process,” she says.
Today, she councils all her clients on plant-based eating, and through a partnership Dr. Bob Foster of the West Virginia School of Osteopathic medicine, she is teaching rising doctors the value of culinary medicine as part of their overall medical education through an elective class. Jasperse, now a certified culinary medicine specialist, follows the whole-food, plant-based diet herself, and has done so for years. She does it for the way it makes her feel, and in order to support her overall health.
“In December of 2011, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I was 42 years old at diagnosis and had multiple tumors; those two factors make me high risk and increase my risk of recurrence. That led me to research nutrition and cancer prevention. I learned there are many nutritional changes that can be made to help decrease the risk of recurrence,” she says.
Jasperse isn’t alone in this thinking. The American Diabetes Association, the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society have all recognized that plant-based eating could improve health.
“For me, it’s not only about reducing disease risk; I am blown away by how much better I feel in general. The standard American diet that the majority of us eat increases inflammation in our bodies and contributes to pain, foggy thinking, sleep disturbances, constipation, etc.,” she says. “I could talk about it all day!”