About Us

“Spice it up! Giving zest to your renal diet” is a recipe book series for dialysis patients and their friends and families, published by Elke Henneberg, Communication ebmed Inc., Cowansville, Quebec, www.ebmed.ca

This publication is made possible through unrestricted educational grants from our sponsors. Spice it up! booklets are available in English and French (Osez les saveurs !). They are distributed free of charge in dialysis clinics across Canada.

We received an overwhelming number of requests for the printed printed copies of Spice it up! Rave reviews and heart-warming letters from many renal patients and their families made us create myspiceitup.ca so that everyone can enjoy our recipes!



Our Team


Isabelle Côté, RD, M.Sc (Chef)
Quebec City, Quebec
Isabelle is a registered dietitian who started her career as a chemist. Gourmet cooking and gardening are her passions. She is putting her knowledge in nutrition to work by creating colourful recipes which are full of flavour and easy to prepare. Her passion for food and nutrition shines through in her private practice, in culinary workshops, and when developing recipes and teaching undergraduate nutrition courses. She is convinced that “eating well” is synonymous with “pleasure” and that it often only takes a few small changes and a little creativity to improve the nutritional value of the food we eat.

Elke Henneberg
Editor, Publisher
President, Communication ebmed Inc.
Cowansville, Canada

Elke is the editor and driving force behind Spice it Up! Her company, Communication ebmed Inc., specializes in creating support tools for people living with chronic conditions. With the experience of kidney disease in her own family in Germany she started Spice it Up! in Canada in 2009 to provide people with creative and delicious recipes to bring back joy into every day cooking and eating. Elke has a passion for cooking and healthy eating and believes that diet restrictions like in chronic kidney disease should not stand in the way of a good quality of life.

Karen Parinas, RD
Vancouver General Hospital, Vancouver Coastal Health
Vancouver, British Columbia

Karen is a renal dietitian working in hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis. She joins the Spice it up! team with a passion for food and helping people find ways to include favourite dishes in their renal diets. She finds the most rewarding part of being a renal dietitian is making connections with patients and supporting self-management of their kidney disease through nutrition.

Stéphanie Pasaman, Dt.P.
University of Montreal Health Center (CHUM)
Montreal, Quebec

Stephanie is a registered dietitian with close to 10 years of experience in a variety of specialties including diabetes, oncology, intensive care and nephrology. She further pursued her interest in nephrology by recently starting working exclusively in chronic kidney disease management and hemodialysis. Helping her patients find joy in cooking is at the core of her interventions. She is excited to be a part of Spice it up! and share some tasty and nutritious recipes with her patients. She hopes to empower them to improve their health through nutrition, with an approach that is always centered around benevolence and empathy.

Past team members: Thanks to all of you!


Karen Lynn Anderson (Chef)
Granby, Quebec
Karen Lynn Anderson is an expert chef who has cooked in Canada, France, and Italy. She shows us how to cook simple, healthy, delicious meals for those who must follow a renal diet. Karen developed all Spice it Up! recipes until Spring 2012.

Leslie Cairns (Chef)
Toronto, Ontario
Leslie Cairns is an established chef in the Greater Toronto area with a passion for pastry. Her interest in cooking for kidney patients stems from her work as a nutritional demonstrator in hospitals. With 14 years of experience and her background in both, nutrition and the culinary arts, Leslie develops fun and flavorful recipes for Spice it Up! that make it exciting to be in the kitchen! She was part of our team from 2012 - 2018.

Leonora Chao, RD, MSc
St. Paul's Hospital, Providence Health Care
Vancouver, British Columbia

Leonora joined our team in November 2009. She enjoys a healthy, active lifestyle and strives to find healthy, easy, tasty recipes to keep her body energized and healthy. She feels that there is no reason why her renal patients whether they are pre-dialysis, dialysis or transplant shouldn’t be able to enjoy the same. She recognizes the challenges that following any diet let alone a renal diet poses with limited time and energy so she looks for recipes that are not too elaborate and that are simple to prepare. And by substituting new ingredients and spices, she feels that there is always a way to Spice it Up! Leonora was part of our team from 2010-2022.

Jessika Langlois, P.Dt. (Chef)
Granby, Québec
After graduating from the University of Montreal Jessika worked in the food industry for many years before she started her own business. She developed recipes for a large chain of Canadian supermarkets and tested products for national organizations of food producers. Using her creativity to develop recipes for Spice it Up! is a great occasion to combine two of her passions, nutrition science and cooking. Jessika joined our team in 2018. Jessika developed all our recipes from 2018-2022.

June Martin, RD
Grand River Hospital
President, Canadian Association of Nephrology Dietitians
Kitchener, Ontario

June is a Certified Diabetes Educator and has been a kidney dietitian for over 20 years. She works with hemodialysis and CKD patients at Grand River Hospital in Kitchener and understands that food is more than just nutrition. She is passionate about good food and making sure that patients on kidney diets have every opportunity to enjoy wonderful kidney-friendly recipes like the ones in Spice it Up! June was part of our team from the beginning until January 2024.

Céline Quintin, P.Dt.
Centre Hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal (CHUM)
Past President, Quebec Association of Nephrology Dietitians (RNNQ)
Montreal, Quebec

After 30 years of practice Céline still has the same passion for her profession as a renal dietitian. She sees her role as a confidant and partner of her patients and not as someone who tells people what to eat and what they shouldn’t. She is always trying to give practical advice and is looking for new ideas to help people stay well nourished. Celine was part of our team from the very beginning and retired in 2023.

Our Sponsors

Our publication is made possible through unrestricted educational grants from
Gold Sponsors: Otsuka Canada Pharmaceutical Inc.
Silver Sponsor: Amgen Canada Inc.


Nutritional Values

ISSN 1918-302X Spice it up!

The nutritional values listed in this publication are intended for personal use only. It is recommended that you consult with your doctor and registered dietitian before beginning any new diet regimen.

All recipes in this publication have been reviewed by licensed dietitians, and were not independently verified by sponsors. Neither the publisher, ebmed Inc. nor the sponsors and their affiliates, make representations or warranties in respect to the contents of this publication and ebmed Inc., the sponsors and their affiliates disclaims any and all liability for any damages or losses (consequential or otherwise) arising from any statements made in it or any errors or omissions.

The nutritional values in this publication were calculated using The Canadian Nutrient File (CNF Version 2010 and later).
https://food-nutrition.canada.ca/cnf-fce/?lang=eng


Recommendations

We are proud that Spice it up! is recommended by