BENTON HARBOR — People slicing peppers, cutting up cilantro and stirring up muffin mix is a common sight on Tuesdays and Thursdays at the Corewell Health Center for Wellness in downtown Benton Harbor.
Camille Adams, a registered dietician at the center, said her students are learning to help control chronic health conditions like diabetes and hypertension through the food they eat.
She said the classes start with 30-45 minutes of nutrition education.
“Then we go into the kitchen and we make three to four recipes that make sense for the class,” Adams said last week before her class, “Centered: Cooking for Hypertension.”
Registered dietitian Camille Adams leads a culinary class to help people learn how to manage hypertension through the food they eat. The class was held Jan. 29 at Corewell Health Center for Wellness in downtown Benton Harbor.
Don Campbell / HP staff
After preparing the food, she said they eat together while socializing.
“That part is really transformational and important and really closes the loop on what we’re trying to do because they get to talk,” Adams said. “They have a common interest on why they’re all coming to the program. They can share stories. They can share recipes that work for them. It’s really special to be a part of those conversations. We really just become a family.”
She said the idea of using food as medicine has been around a long time, but there’s been a bigger push recently.
“It’s really starting to get noticed because it really works,” Adams said.
Chef Cam Sheppard, center, runs the hands-on portion of a culinary class to help people learn how to manage hypertension through the food they eat. The class was held Jan. 29 at Corewell Health Center for Wellness in downtown Benton Harbor.
Don Campbell / HP staff
She said the hands-on portion of the class is critical, but often not part of traditional nutrition classes.
“I can sit with people for 10 sessions,” Adams said. “We’re learning a lot of great nutrition education, but they’re still asking me, ‘What do I eat?’ and ‘How does that translate to what is on my plate and what is in my fridge?’”
She said she worked as a private chef while obtaining her dietician degree and decided to integrate both skills.
“When you do the actual cooking classes using hands-on skills, not only is it empowering the individual that they can do it and that healthy eating isn’t that hard, they’re involving all of their senses,” Adams said. “There’s a much higher chance that they may go purchase the ingredients, that they may redo what’s in their pantry, rather than just us sitting and talking about why it’s important to eat healthy.”
Three bean and basil salad is prepared during a culinary class designed to help people learn how to manage hypertension through the food they eat. The class was held Jan. 29 at Corewell Health Center for Wellness in downtown Benton Harbor.
Don Campbell / HP staff
Success story
Baroda Township resident Mindi Logan said she took the diabetes cooking class early in 2025 and was so impressed that she now volunteers once a week to help with the classes.
“I was prediabetic for years,” Logan said. “… I had taken a couple of classes. One was online. None of those seemed to click with me. I definitely didn’t understand the online thing. I wrote a bunch of notes but it really didn’t make sense to me.”
She said she attended one of center’s quarterly Breaking Bread events with a friend, where she signed up for an upcoming diabetes class.
“In the first class, I learned things and it made sense to me,” she said. “I didn’t feel pressure from Camille that I needed to change my entire life immediately. It was gradual so you’d be successful in overcoming (diabetes) long term.”
Within six months, she said her A1C went down to normal levels.
“It made a difference for me,” Logan said. “As I ate less and less sugar, I didn’t crave it as much.”
Cassandra Broadway, center, and Regina Robinson prepare muffins during a culinary class designed help people learn how to manage hypertension through the food they eat. The class was held Jan. 29 at Corewell Health Center for Wellness in downtown Benton Harbor.
Don Campbell / HP staff
Breaking habits
Chef Cam Sheppard said everyone grows up with certain habits they learned about food and how to prepare it.
“When you’re raised to eat in a certain way or raised in a certain circumstance where you can only afford certain types of food, you don’t have access to certain fresh foods, you don’t have local farms and things like that – your habits become one of the main barriers in the way you eat and the way you see food,” Sheppard said.
He said providing the hands-on experience is critical.
“You can still eat some of the same things that you’re accustomed to eating, but there’s a different way to prepare it to where you don’t have all the extra saturated fats and things like that that do no justice to your body,” he said.
Seasoned chicken is prepared during a culinary class held to help people learn how to manage hypertension through diet on Jan. 29 at Corewell Health Center for Wellness in downtown Benton Harbor.
Don Campbell / HP staff
He said he can show people how to make oven fried chicken that’s not deep fried, “but you still have the same texture, you still have the same flavors, and it’s much healthier.”
“A lot of ailments can be controlled or reversed or you’ll never experience them if your diet is where it’s supposed to be,” Sheppard said. “Unfortunately in our country, we just don’t have that education and some people don’t have access to certain things, so you just go with what you’ve been going with your whole life. That’s why we get all these diabetes cases, and they’re getting younger and younger. We’re getting children with Type 2 diabetes.”
He said he had the students in one of his classes recently make stir-fried vegetables.
“A lot of the comments were – ‘I never knew vegetables could taste this good,’” he said. “A lot of it is just not knowing.”
Upcoming classes
Adams said her culinary program is part of chronic disease management at the center, along with the fitness classes.
She said the other two pillars at the center are maternal/infant health and mental health and social cohesion.
Registered dietitian Camille Adams leads a culinary class to help people learn how to manage hypertension through the food they eat. The class was held Jan. 29 at Corewell Health Center for Wellness in downtown Benton Harbor.
Don Campbell / HP staff
“We all have a shared goal of making people healthy in mind and spirit,” she said.
Anyone in Berrien County can sign up for the free classes, which are held at 133 W. Main St., Benton Harbor.
A link to a list of the classes can be found at https://corewellhealth.org/locations/LOC0000194579/corewell-health-lakeland-hospital-center-for-wellness.
Call the center at 269-408-2258 for more information.
