Since its founding in 1954, St. Tammany Health System’s flagship St. Tammany Parish Hospital has proudly stood ready to cater to the healthcare needs of its Northshore neighbors. But that’s really only half of its mission.
The other half is to prevent illness to begin with, through community education and screenings.
With February being American Heart Month – as well as bringing us Valentine’s Day – one particularly heart-healthy initiative gets the spotlight in today’s installment in our 70-part series on the health system’s history.
Installment No. 27: “Eat to Your Heart’s Content”
Today’s artifact: “Eat to Your Heart’s Content,” a 1997 cookbook featuring health-minded recipes submitted by St. Tammany Health System colleagues and community members.
Why it is significant: In Louisiana, we plan pretty much everything else around eating. That’s the way it’s always been, and that’s probably the way it will always be.
But there’s no reason we can’t satisfy our gastronomic passions with food that is both delicious and nutritious.
That was the idea behind 1997’s “Eat to Your Heart’s Content,” which was sold for $10 in the hospital gift shop on behalf of the St. Tammany Regional Heart Center, a one-stop cardiology shop the health system operated at the time across South Tyler Street from the hospital.
Boasting 100 pages and 150-plus recipes, it is a blast from our culinary past, reflecting the nation’s 1990s obsession with everything fat-free.
At the same time, it is a physical representation of St. Tammany Health System’s longtime efforts to care for the community through community outreach.
Today, those efforts are as robust as ever, thanks to such things as our Be Well Bus, a 40-foot mobile health clinic designed to bring a variety of health screenings directly into the communities we serve. In service since mid-2021, you can watch for it at fairs, festivals and other local gatherings all year round.
From a culinary standpoint, our Community Engagement team also joins with our Healthier Northshore partners to host free quarterly cooking demonstrations featuring local chefs walking attendees through their favorite garden-fresh recipes.
(The next one is scheduled for March 25. Watch for more information as that draws nearer.)
Scroll down for a sampling of recipes from the old “Eat to Your Heart’s Content” cookbook – although if you’d rather something a little more modern (albeit a little less health-conscious), St. Tammany Hospital Foundation published a new cookbook in January 2024 titled “Cooking from the Heart” and featuring recipes submitted by health system colleagues.
You can pick it up for $20 at the hospital gift shop, while supplies last.
Bon appétit – and be well.
Do you have a St. Tammany Parish Hospital story or item to share? We’d love to hear about it! Email us at CommDept@stph.org.
Next week – Installment No. 28: First place
Last week – Installment No. 26: Muses shoeses