“Disanapianta”: who are Lorella, Silvia and Francesca Braglia? (part I)

2017-05-24 They’re called “Disanapianta” and they’ve designed a revolutionary new way of promoting awareness of nutrition. They’ve done it by emphasising just how important natural food is for good health.
The cultural association set up by sisters Lorella, Silvia and Francesca Braglia runs cookery courses for all abilities, hands-on workshops, seminars and conferences as well as providing consultancy and teaching services. They work closely with hospitals, schools, institutions and events which encourage healthy, conscious lifestyles.
“Disanapianta” started life on 21st March 2012 in Reggio Emilia. It was the first day of spring, a fact the Braglia sisters took as their inspiration. In this season of birth and fertility, bursting with beautiful flowers and brimming with lightness and new beginnings, they encouraged their vision of food to bloom.
The flowers that Lorella, Silvia and Francesca planted and continue to nurture so brilliantly today are “winter’s dreams told in the morning at the table of the angels”, in the words of poet Kahlil Gibran. The roots of their projects go way back to when their hearts told them to change jobs.
In 2007 oldest sister Lorella left a successful career as a fashion designer at the clothing company she helped found. Why? To widen her knowledge of food by travelling through Asia. Her goals: to pursue her interest in macrobiotics and natural cooking, investigate their influence on health and understand the relationship between food and spirituality in traditional Chinese medicine and Ayurvedic cuisine.
Francesca, the youngest, is a Biological Sciences graduate. In 2008 she left her post as Research and Development manager designing diagnostic kits for food intolerances and allergies. Why? She’d decided to apply her scientific skills to the field of nutrition, continuing her study of nutraceuticals and the therapeutic properties of phytochemicals in food.
Middle sister Silvia, a Geology graduate, worked for years as a personal development and life coach in Italy and beyond. In 2007 she left her job to concentrate on bringing up her children and continue studying the Steiner method. Her interests gradually widened to take in nutrition and food for children as well as bread-making and natural leavening.
Even before they started “Disanapianta”, when the three sisters got together talk would always turn to food, and they loved any excuse to cook together. When they tried their hand at teaching natural cooking to help a friend with serious health issues, they realised that passing on their knowledge of nutrition and natural foodwas a shared mission.
So Francesca, the bothersome youngest sister, suggested to Lorella, the stressed-out career woman, that they set up something together. They both brought in Silvia, the “sweetest” of the whole bunch. Read our next post to find out what happened…

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