A four-week series on nutrition and cooking presented by Easthampton physician Nora Hanke will be offered at the Easthampton Congregational Church next month.
The Reverend Sherry Tucker and the Treehouse Community and Treehouse Foundation are working with Hanke to coordinate the event.
Hanke presented Food for Life nutrition and cooking classes at the church last year, and Tucker has invited her back for a new series about cancer.
It is being funded by Cooley Dickinson Health Care.
Tucker says there is a need for the community to become better informed about the power of food to prevent and help patients survive common chronic illnesses. She says she is concerned about the number of people she knows diagnosed with cancer in the last year.
Hanke’s program was developed by the nonprofit Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and launched in 2001.
She says that certain diet patterns seem to have a significant effect in helping people diagnosed with cancer live longer, healthier lives. She points out that National Cancer Institute research shows that as much as 33 percent of cancer risk may be related to diet.
Participants will be taught which foods are believed to help reduce the risk of developing cancer as well as prevent recurrence. The classes will also cover the effects of different dietary patterns, and Hanke will prepare dishes for everyone to sample.
Hanke advocates a low-fat diet with adequate fiber. She says that dietary fat not only hinders the immune system, it also drives hormone production, which can mean higher rates of hormone-related cancers such as breast and prostate. She says fiber helps the body rid itself of toxins, waste hormones, excess cholesterol, chemicals and other undesirables.
In each Food for Life class, Hanke will show how to prepare low-fat dishes made from whole grains, legumes, vegetables and fruits. Participants will be challenged to try a 100 percent plant-based diet for 21 days.
In addition to the four-week series, she will offer two stand-alone classes: Breast Cancer Prevention and Survival and Prostate Cancer Prevention and Survival.
The Treehouse Community and the congregational church also will host free viewings of the 2011 film, “Forks over Knives,” which advocates a plant-based lifestyle. The showings are scheduled for Saturday and April 19.
Treehouse Community and Treehouse Foundation also were awarded separate grants from Cooley Dickinson Health Care to continue existing nutrition programs such as Community Supported Agriculture membership and a community garden.
For details about the Food for Life classes and film viewings contact Hanke’s office at 527-2101 or go to her website, drnorahanke.com.
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Friday, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., Gateway Regional High School, 12 Littleville Road, Huntington
Saturday 9 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., Williamsburg First Congregational Church, 4 North Main St., Williamsburg
March 22, 12 p.m. to 5 p.m., Cooley Dickinson Hospital, 30 Locust St., Northampton
March 23, 12 p.m. to 6 p.m., University of Massachusetts Campus Center, 1 Campus Way, Amherst
March 24, 12 p.m. to 5 p.m. Holy Family Parish, 29 Sugarloaf Street, South Deerfield