Off The Clock: Spreading the Word

Happy Joes Robert Lewis teaches diabetics about balance and moderation based on personal experience.

By Maya Norris, Managing Editor -- Chain Leader, 7/1/2006

When Robert Lewis is not overseeing menu development and training at Bettendorf, Iowa-based Happy Joe’s Pizza & Ice Cream, the training guru and chef of the world (his actual title) teaches cooking classes and writes cookbooks for diabetics—a cause close to his heart.

Lewis was diagnosed with diabetes in 1998. A graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, he started developing diabetic-friendly recipes when he couldn’t find many diabetic cookbooks written by chefs. The next year he began demonstrating those recipes at health fairs and for hospitals and health groups. Because attendees asked him where they could get his recipes, Lewis decided to write a diabetic cookbook. He published Get Happy, Get Healthy: Recipes from the Kitchen of Chef Robert Lewis, the Happy Diabetic in 1999 and Simply Desserts the next year.

Outside the Kitchen
Lewis now spends at least three hours a week writing and testing recipes for two cookbooks he’s working on. One follows up his first book with more appetizers, entrees and desserts for diabetics. The other features finger-food recipes for diabetic children to cook with their parents.

He also conducts diabetic-cooking demonstrations two or three times a month. During the hour-long classes, which range in size from 10 to 500 participants, Lewis prepares an appetizer, entree and dessert. His quick, easy recipes have 10 ingredients or less, use fresh herbs, and contain a balance of protein and carbohydrates. Lewis also cooks on Paula Sands Live, a local TV show, two or three times a month in five-minute segments.

Whether in person or on TV, Lewis wants to show that healthful meals can be flavorful and easy to cook. “What I try to bring to diabetics is that there’s hope. That there are all kinds of good foods that you can be eating and all kinds of ways that you can be cooking than to just be lazy and eat a lot of fast food and some burgers,” he says. “So I try to bring restaurant-style cooking that’s really simple to the masses.”

Lewis also stresses portion control and moderation. “There’s really nothing we really can’t eat,” he says. “Every food has a part of a healthy diet with maybe the exception of cotton candy.” For example, if he eats a sandwich with white bread, he’ll pair it with celery instead of potato chips.

Lifestyle Changes
It’s a strategy that’s worked well for Lewis. He now eats five small meals a day, including a lot of fruits and vegetables. He also walks 1 or 2 miles a day with his wife, Cindy. As a result, he has dropped 15 pounds and has more energy.

Lewis will need that energy as he continues to balance his obligations to Happy Joe’s, his family and his fellow diabetics. But he says it’s worth it. “I feel this compassion for people who are hurting that have diabetes,” Lewis says. “I’d much rather drive three hours for a one-hour cooking demonstration for 20 diabetics than play a round of golf. I just have this passion to spread the word of hope.”