Griffin Baum is the author of a cookbook that features recipes, cooking techniques and recommendations on how to organize a kitchen.
But Baum is not a chef. He’s a neurosurgeon who specializes in spinal surgery, and for years he’s heard from his patients that cooking is a challenge. “I always ask my patients, what’s something that you used to be able to do that you can’t do anymore, that you wish you could continue to do?” Baum says. “Almost universally, people talk about being able to cook for their family and entertain.”
To help his patients and others suffering from back pain, Baum teamed up with epicurean powerhouse America’s Test Kitchen to create The Healthy Back Kitchen cookbook. Baum combines his knowledge of back pain and spinal trauma with his love of cooking to offer a guide for people who want to protect their backs while whipping up dinner.
“I’m not here to cure your back pain, because I can’t do that,” Baum says. “My goal is to help you get to the place where you can do the things that you want to do [despite] back pain.”
The book features recipes approved by the culinary experts at America’s Test Kitchen and lays out the best tips and tricks for making kitchens and cooking tasks more ergonomic and less physically demanding. These include limiting standing time, building in breaks, cutting down on the back strain that can come from filling a pot of water for pasta, and considering where pots are stored in the kitchen.
Here are 10 tips from Baum to help you prevent back pain and continue to enjoy your time in the kitchen.
1. Be realistic. Don’t bite off more than you can chew. Be realistic about how long it’s going to take to set up equipment and create the dishes you want to cook, Baum says.
2. Start with a plan. Baum recommends gathering everything you need to make a recipe in advance — from equipment and utensils to ingredients. Even opening cans, washing herbs and chopping onions ahead of time can make it easier to actually enjoy cooking. “If you don’t plan properly, you end up doing these sorts of either prolonged standing sessions or putting yourself in really awkward positions,” he says. “Sometimes it’s just one awkward movement that can put your back in pain.” Consider investing in a rolling cart that helps keep everything close by.
3. Don’t rush. “The thing about rushing is you tend to lose track of where your body is in space,” Baum says. “And the next thing you know, you’re in a weird position for 5, 10, 15, 20 minutes, and it can be really harmful.” This is why prepping and planning are so important for minimizing back pain.
4. Avoid standing for too long. “When you know you have like 20 or 30 good minutes before your back starts to scream,” Baum says, make every moment count. Consider prepping while seated. If it is comfortable to stand, invest in quality footwear similar to what surgeons wear in the operating room and chefs wear in the kitchen. “The gold standard is closed-toe clogs that are easy to slip on, have a great, sturdy sole with excellent arch and heel support, and have built-in cushioning that conforms to your foot for a perfect custom fit,” he writes in the book. Cushioned, anti-fatigue kitchen mats can also reduce the wear and tear on your joints and spinal column.
5. Organize your kitchen ergonomically. “When you move into your house or redo your kitchen, you put stuff where it fits” instead of thinking about what might be used the most, Baum says. “If you’re going to have to open a drawer more than three times, think about relocating items so they’re more accessible.” In addition to placing your most-used items in a reachable utensil crock on the counter, for example, the book suggests putting pots and pans on hanging racks and reorganizing your spice drawer and pantry to avoid bending.
6. Don’t use too many pots and pans. Pulling out pots and pans from cupboards or drawers can trigger back pain, so consider one-pot meals. The book features recipes with that goal in mind. “There’s no recipe in this book that makes you fill every burner while using the oven and some other thing,” Baum says. “It’s usually either a convenience appliance or a single skillet or some sort of thoughtful combination.”
7. Don’t make too much food. Lifting a whole roasted chicken or a giant baking tray of lasagna out of the oven can be a challenge for folks with back pain. A better option may be to make smaller portions. Consider baking lasagna in loaf pans, for example. “You can keep doing what you’re used to doing, but just scale it down,” he says. “Focus on making those two portions the best you can instead of making six or eight or 12 bad portions.”
8. Embrace pre-prepped food. Baum is a fan of anything that makes it easier to get in and out of the kitchen without hurting your back, and that includes using pre-prepped food, such as pre-chopped vegetables or pre-cut chickens. “Unless you’re working at a three-Michelin-starred restaurant or you’re some professionally trained chef and you can’t live life without your perfectly prepped vegetables, why waste the time and effort?” Baum says. “Realize that all of … those pre-prepping steps like dicing onions or vegetables — that could be all it takes to derail your whole meal or derail your whole weekend or derail your whole month if you have a really severe pain episode.”
9. Avoid putting heavy pots in hard-to-reach places. “If there are pots you don’t use very often, you end up hiding the stuff, and then when you need it, half your workout is just getting it out of there,” Baum says. Instead, he recommends making the heaviest pots more accessible when you want them. For his family, that means leaving out the heavy Dutch oven for stew season. “We found one that is orange and is shaped like a pumpkin, and once we put it out, we keep it out. It just became part of the decor,” Baum says.
10. Know that you can still find ways to do what you love. “Every human being beyond a certain age has back pain — and there’s nothing wrong about that. It’s just how our bodies were built, how we’ve evolved,” explains Baum. “I just want people to know, you’re not alone. You can make the modifications to still do all the things that you love to do.”