Health advocate writes cookbook for a positive lifestyle in Cebu
MOST people are complacent when it comes to their unhealthy habits, so the’re always feeling tired, sluggish, irritable, and unable to perform. For these reasons, Healing Present Nature and Wellness Center founder Eleanor Rivera launched a book to inspire people to adopt a healthy and positive lifestyle.
Rivera’s book, “Organic, Divine, Gorgeous: Recipes to a Passionate Cook” was launched at Healing Present Organic Bistro, which she owns, in BC Homes Subdivision, Lahug last June 29. The cookbook shows how to prepare breakfast, lunch and dinner with over 200 pages of appetizers, entrees, soups, salads, smoothies and desserts.
As the head health coach and integrative nurse of Healing Present Nature and Wellness Center, Rivera herself designed the center’s treatment programs, products and menus. Healing Present guests who had the privilege to partake in the meals she prepared often asked her to share recipes.
After numerous proddings from her adherents, Rivera decided to publish “Organic, Divine, Gorgeous: Recipes to a Passionate Cook.” The Recipes section of the cookbook teaches how to prepare healthy plant-powered vegan meals. The book also teaches how to revitalize meals with essential enzymes, vitamins, minerals, phytonutrients, proteins, healthy fats and fiber.
“The magic that Healing Present has is to make these plant-based meals so yummy. That’s why we titled the book Organic, Divine, Gorgeous,” Rivera said, as she tells the story of how eating organic helps in digestion and healthy living. She explained that each person “has that organic quality” and “we can activate that organic gorgeousness in us – dili lang outside, kung dili samot na inside.”
Apart from recipes and showing how to live a healthier lifestyle, the cookbook also carries testimonials from participants who regained their health with the help of Healing Present, and stories of the farmers and other people who work with Rivera in giving service to their customers.
Since 2011, Healing Present Nature and Wellness Center has helped communities stay healthy through Organic, Divine, Gorgeous cuisine. The center educates communities on long-lasting health, nutrition and integrative medicine to treat illnesses, as well as teach farmers healthy farming methods and organic farming.
Rivera said the book, a collaboration that involves the community folk, serves as her thank you to them. “This is the most compassionate thing that I can do,” Rivera said. (Julie Mae Altamira & Vania Mae Lim/USJ-R Interns)
* “Organic, Divine, Gorgeous: Recipes to a Passionate Cook” is a limited edition coffee table book at P3,500 available in the Healing Present Bistro and on their website, healingpresent.org. It is also available in Café Georg on Gov. M. Cuenco Ave., Cebu City, Presents and Such on Gorordo Ave., Abaseria Deli and Café in Kasambagan, Cebu City, and Diana Stalder By Dermline at SM Megamall in Mandaluyong, Metro Manila. Eleanor Rivera will soon go around the United States, and in Canada to share this cookbook.
