The Tribune

By ALESHA CADET

Tribune Features Reporter

acadet@tribunemedia.net

COMBINING her love for health and wellness with her love for music, Tanya Hanna, in collaboration with her husband Paul Hanna, has debuted a cookbook and CD.

The launch of the project, entitled “Embracing You”, was recently held at Graycliff Restaurant, attracting many vegetarian and vegan food lovers.

Mrs Hanna is as a pianist, vocalist, entrepreneur and health coach. In “Embracing You”, a self-help guide featuring vegan and vegetarian recipes, she focuses on bridging the gap between noncommunicable illnesses and foods that can be used for treatment and prevention.

She told Tribune Health that the book is also a product of a publishing course that she completed at the Institute of Integrative Nutrition (IIN) in New York.
Mrs Hanna said at IIN she also received training in more than 100 dietary theories and studied a variety of practical lifestyle coaching methods.

“In the Bahamas we are number one in having diabetes, cancer. Health challenges come about because of the combinations of food that we eat; we don’t understand how to combine food properly and how to prepare food properly. You’re eating food that is robbing you of minerals and we are not aware of it so that it why I say food preparation is important. So you can understand why I cover these things in my book,” she said.

Mrs Hanna said when it comes to her job as health coach, she enjoys the fact that she has the opportunity to offer information on how to eat properly and make better food choices.

“On the CD you have healthy dozen tips and it is all in music. Even if you don’t remember what you read or what you should do, you’ll get it in the CD. There is also music that you can exercise to, positive music to let you know that you can be all that you want to be. I did it this way because I am a musician and it keeps me tied to my musical element. My husband is a musician, all of my family, everyone. We don’t all perform in terms of a profession, but my husband and I do. I am currently a musician at Graycliff Restaurant on weekends and I play the piano and sing there going on 14 years now,” she said.

In the cookbook readers can find recipes like ‘The Tamarind Tart’ and ‘The Healthy Macaroni and Cheese’.

“What I’ve done is turn the mac and cheese from being a food that would increase your cholesterol into something healthy where it is now a protein. Can you imagine a macaroni that becomes a healthy protein? The Tamarind Tart, it’s sweet but yet it is sugarless. The food (at the launch) was so well received that the owners at (Graycliff) are going to put some of that food on their menu, some healthy food,” said Mrs Hanna.

The project also caught the attention of many businesses and groups that are now partnering with “Embracing You”; they include the Bahamas Diabetic Association, Bonaventure Medical Laboratory, Healthy Lifestyle Deli, After Touch Music, Maximumbass and You In Music.

In the new year, one dollar from the sale of every copy of “Embracing You” will go to the Bahamas Diabetic Association to assist with its juvenile diabetes programmes.

Mrs Hanna said “Embracing You” will also tour wellness workshops to be held in Inagua, Abaco, Andros, Eleuthera, Grand Bahama, Cat Island and Nassau.

She said readers can also look forward to a TV show to be aired at the end of January. For updates and more information regarding “Embracing You” contact telephone number 323-5688 or visit www.wholenesslifestylecooking.com.