On Saturday, July 22nd, APIFM hosted a Healthy Eating & Active Living (HEAL) Community Festival in Little Tokyo at the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center (JACCC) in partnership with Sustainable Little Tokyo (SLT) and the Little Tokyo Service Center (LTSC). The event opened with Tai Chi & Qi Gong exercises lead by Jacqueline Rice (who teaches free classes every Monday from 6:50pm to 7:50pm at Casa Heiwa) in the beautiful Japanese garden at the JACCC. This was followed by a healthy fruit smoothie demo, a brief nutrition education on how to read nutrition labels, and a healthy cooking demo lead by three amazing aunties of Little Tokyo (Patty Nagano, Amy Honjiyo, and Kathy Masaoka). The food demo included a simple quinoa summer salad with blueberries and a lemon vinaigrette as well as a healthier take on a Japanese favorite (onigiri or rice balls).
Instead of using white rice the aunties demonstrated how people could substitute sprouted brown rice for their musubi/onigiri instead and shared about the added healthy benefits of using sprouted brown rice over white rice.
The event also provided Japanese and Spanish interpretation. To be included in events like these, be sure to subscribe to APIFM and JACCC’s facebook page or visit our website: www.apifm.org.
