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As Christina Pirello had expected to succumb to leukemia 30 years ago, she deems each day a delightful occasion to laud that which saved her — healthy cuisine.
Carving out a successful career as a natural and whole foods expert, the Pennsport dweller hosts an Emmy Award-winning public television series and pens books addressing the medicinal makeup of meals.
“It’s our birthright to feel well, and I think we’ve forgotten what it’s like to feel that way,” the 57-year-old said Monday from her home on the 200 block of Dickinson Street. “In many ways we’ve become our own worst enemies, but that’s partially because we believe so-called authorities too easily.”
Pirello experienced a bout with doubt in 1983 upon learning she had acute lymphoblastic leukemia and no more than nine months to live. With cancer having claimed numerous relatives, including her mother, she initially felt fighting would prove futile and planned to perish in Italy.
“Then I met Robert,” she said of her husband of 25 years, a whole foods touter who suggested dietary modifications. “Initially I had thought it would make no difference if I switched from eating pizza to brown rice, but I listened and learned.”
Having trusted her family’s food-based home remedies, staples of her northern New Jersey upbringing, Pirello accepted her eventual spouse’s tips and became cancer-free after 14 months through adopting meal plans laden with beans, grains and vegetables. Compelled to give back, she decided to make cooking, which had served as her first calling and had teamed with illustrating to form her professional existence, her lone vocation and means to promote improving longevity and satiety.
“We’re marketed to virulently, and the material is often subversive and subliminal,” the nutrient navigator said of corporations’ methods for distancing people from eating “real food.” “We need to gather around the hearth more and take control of our health.”
Pirello began backing her beliefs earnestly in 1988 by offering cooking classes, which have come to be multifaceted looks at the science behind food selections, even involving a four-month program dealing with the energetics of meals and Chinese medicine. Instruction has endowed the vegan with added concern for conveying that change, although often daunting, will add more years to one’s life and put extra life in one’s years. Teaching has also hatched her most recent and unexpected endeavors — writing and overseeing her own show, “Christina Cooks.”
“I had never intended to write,” Pirello, whose early 2014 e-book will become her eighth publication, said of scripting cooking manuals, “because I had not been one to use measurements. Instead, I was someone who loved developing and playing as elements of preparation.”
Formalizing recipes for the New York City-based Penguin Group, she became introduced to receptive readers and reviewers, with ’07’s “Cooking the Whole Foods Way” winning distinction from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine as the “Healthiest Cookbook of the Decade.”
“I’m not mad at consumers,” Pirello said of her target for ’11’s “I’m Mad as Hell and I’m Not Going to Eat It Anymore.” “I’m mad at what has been done to our food supply. There are many misconceptions about food, especially that no matter how well we eat we’re going to fall prey to certain diseases and that we can get away with eating junk food. There’s so much to learn.”
Her beau suggested in 1995 that Pirello take to television to intensify her outreach, yet she shunned the idea for two years before heeding and presenting her collection of pointers. More than 200 American stations air the show, which nabbed an Emmy Award its first season, with Discovery Health helping more than 50 countries to give her international favor.
“I’ve enjoyed the entire journey,” she said of rallying support for contemplating what fuels people. “As I’ve taken on more responsibilities, I’ve become much more tolerant and less zealous because I’m realistic and the goals are to make small steps and to show that plant-based diets are safe and healthy. We have to live sensibly.”
The macrobiotic maven, who enlists her partner as her executive director, paired with him five years ago to found her eponymous health education initiative, a nonprofit organization seeking to set everyone along the path to enhanced health. The brainchild has allowed her to visit numerous schools, including A.S. Jenks Academics Plus, 2501 S. 13th St.; Delaplaine McDaniel, 1801 S. 22nd St.; William M. Meredith, 725 S. Fifth St.; and George Sharswood, 2300 S. Second St., where she and pupils recently constructed an 85-foot hummus sandwich.
“We really need to help our children because in many ways, what is happening to them is criminal,” Pirello said. “South Philly, especially, has great nutritional potential, with farmers markets all around, and so many restaurants offering natural options. We just have to want to improve.”
Peering at her garden, she noted vegetables resound as the best items to eat more of, with soda, which she labeled “toxic,” as the top deterrent to well-being.
“I call for buying a new vegetable each week and cooking it,” Pirello said. “Use more herbs and spices, too.”
Set to leave next week for Italy, Pirello said she feels incredibly alive and energetic and yearns for others to emulate her. In an era where many live to eat, she stresses the need to reverse that stance.
“We have to understand then embrace a better way,” the 30-year South Philadelphian said. “Let’s give ourselves the power.”
For more information, visit christinacooks.com.
Contact Staff Writer Joseph Myers at jmyers@southphillyreview.com or ext. 124.
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