When Carley Eissman was 15 years old and started ketogenic diet therapy for her uncontrolled seizures, she didn’t know how dramatically it would change her life. Carley just wanted to be free of seizures so she could play basketball on the high school team with her friends. Her parents, Lori and Carl Eissman, vowed to follow the diet with Carley to provide her support. Together, the family learned how to cook “carb-less”. By limiting Carley’s carbs to 20 grams per day she gained three and a half years of seizure freedom. With her new lease on life, not only was Carley able to play on the basketball team, she graduated high school, started college, and was living the life every teen wants. Then in 2011, Lori and Carl got the news no parent wants to hear, at the young age of 19, Carley died tragically due to a seizure related accident.
In their grief, Lori and Carl looked for a way to honor their amazing daughter and help others with seizures. It was then that they formed the non-profit organization, The Carley Eissman Foundation. The foundation is focused on culinary education as an adventure that provides awareness, emotional support and learning on how to master carb- less cooking for those dealing with epilepsy.
Through their free monthly cooking classes held at The Wellness Center, next to the Keck School of Medicine at The University of Southern California, families learn via a hands-on culinary experience how to create delicious carb-less recipes.
On January 18th the KetoVie team was privileged to join in the fun! The menu this month included many of the KetoVie Café products. Dr. Partikani, the director of child neurology at U.S.C., thought KetoVie’s Chocolate Peanut butter shakes were a great end to another tasty carb-less meal. To the twelve families present, this evening was clearly so much more than just the food. Carley’s Carb-less Kitchen is a way for families to explore Modified Atkins diet (MAD) therapy and ask other patients about their experiences before committing to start the diet. It gives patients new to therapy a way to learn tricks and tips of low carb cooking. And the established families had their sleeves rolled up cooking right along with the rest of the all-volunteer kitchen crew.
Dessert is served! KetoVie shakes and parfaits.
KetoVie Cafe Wholesome Bread with turkey and pepper jack cheese served as an appetizer.
Carb- less chicken and waffles! Yum!
Individuals received door prizes including gift certificates and Kwik Mix!
Before the night concluded, victories over seizures were shared with the group. A teenaged girl shared she is now able to compete as well as her older sister on their soccer team. An eighth grade boy, whose mom was helping to cook that night, has been seizure free for two years. One of the newest participants, a woman in her early twenties, shared that she has been seizure free since starting MAD therapy in September of 2016.
If you ask Lori why she and Carl created Carley’s Carb-less kitchen she will say “our sole purpose was to tell the world that dietary therapy stopped our Carley’s seizures in their tracks. We want to show other families how healthy and delicious eating carb-less can be for the whole family.” To learn more about these classes or the Carley Eissman Foundation, check them out at http://www.carleyeissmanfoundation.com/. If you want to know more about how to start classes like this in your area contact Lori directly at carleyfoundation@gmail.com
