Teaching has always been at the back of her mind, but life and work got in the way. Low Hooi Bee was then with the marketing department of a nutritional supplement line. For five years, her responsibility was marketing fish oil supplements targeted at children with dyslexia.
In the course of her work, she got to know many parents who had children with dyslexia, learning disorders or autism. It sparked her passion. She started finding out more about the disorders and discovered a programme called Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA), which is tailored to kids with developmental disabilities and autism. She studied to become an ABA therapist.
In 2008, she left her marketing job to become a full-time therapist. She started working with kids with autism and dyslexia.
“Doing the programme changed my priorities completely. I wanted to do something for the kids, and it became a big part of my life,” she says in an interview at her home in Petaling Jaya, Selangor.
Currently, she works with three special kids. She also does marketing for a child development centre called Kidzgrow in Selangor. As she learnt more about the kids’ conditions, she started researching the effects of food on behavioural disorders.
“I have cooked since I was 19. I hosted a cooking show called Menu Asia on RTM1 back in 1991. This time, I started looking at gluten-free cooking. Through research I discovered that a casein-free and gluten-free (CFGF) diet is beneficial for kids with autism and ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). There were vast improvements in their behaviours,” she says.
When autistic kids or kids with ADHD were fed a gluten-free diet, Low could see vast improvements in their behaviours and they developed faster mentally.
Last October, she decided to start cooking classes that taught parents how to prepare simple, fast and nutritional meals for their kids. She holds her classes at At 19 Culinary Studio in Damansara Heights, Kuala Lumpur.
Her aim is to equip new cooks with the confidence and skills to cook a nutritious meal for the whole family.
“Many people don’t realise that the Asian diet actually uses very little gluten. Rice is our mainstay, not wheat, so having a nutritious gluten-free meal is easier than you think,” she says.
“As long as you avoid anything that uses flour. The only pitfalls you have to watch out for are the hidden gluten in things like oyster sauce, soy sauce and canned food,” she continues.
On the availability of gluten-free products, Low notes that there are lots out there in organic shops and such. “But I usually try to buy local, everyday food. People don’t have to hunt for it. It’s readily available, like fresh local produce and meat.”
Pricing is higher than non-organic stuff, up to twice or three times more. Low also urges parents to learn to read labels.
“There’s a lot you can find out from the labels on the can. If you see anything that says ‘flour’, ‘modified starch’ or ‘thickener’, the food contains gluten. If you see ‘textured vegetable protein’, that’s actually MSG!
“We’re very blessed because we have at our fingertips dishes like kuay teow (flat rice noodles) and chee cheong fun (steamed rice noodles). We have delicious produce like sweet potato and potato. The key is to indulge in whole, fresh foods, and to stay away from processed foods,” she says.
Low thinks it is great that just by being a little mindful with food preparation, parents can see a world of difference with special kids. Even in the average household, she thinks whole, fresh food is the way to go. Processed foods often have preservatives and added sugar, which are obviously not good for kids.
“At my classes, which are three hours long, I teach busy mothers and new cooks how to make balanced meals. A lot of people think cooking is difficult and time-consuming, and when they hear the term gluten-free cooking, they’re even more put off. It’s not. You can make a (gluten-free) meal out of very basic ingredients. It beats any meal you can have outside,” she says.
For more information on Low Hooi Bee’s classes, visit www.at19culinary.com/.
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