Who turned around two centuries of Moravian baking? Donna Ziobro, a registered dietitian with the Heart Center of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center. She modified Old Salem recipes to reduce cholesterol, fat and sodium.

Ziobro also revised numerous Moravian recipes to make them easier to prepare in your own kitchen. Without omitting ingredients, she simply reduced quantities.

Early Moravians used products they had on hand — molasses, cloves, ginger, cinnamon, butter, eggs, flour. Perhaps not baking daily, they prepared enormous amounts at one time since families were much larger than the two to four people that’s average today, Ziobro explains.

Winkler Bakery in Old Salem follows that tradition of preserving the heritage of those first settlers while supplying the demand of frequent customers who are eager to sample old-style breads, cookies and cakes.

When the daily baking begins, 96 one-pound loaves go into a single wood-fired oven every couple of hours, filling the small shop with an irresistible aroma of fresh bread. Authentically dressed men and women scurry around with large trays of sugar cakes and batches of cookies that join displays of white and wheat breads.

On the shop counter, Ziobro’s revised recipes printed in a colorful brochure disappear quickly from Winkler Bakery, manager Jennifer Yates says. Visitors to the small store express a great deal of interest, particularly those who are diabetics or dieting, she adds.

Ziobro’s recipes are not being used by the small bakery itself. The main facility, up the street, has been practicing with the wheat bread with good results, Yates says. The larger bakery makes products by hand but uses commercial ovens.

It seems natural that Ziobro, a Salem College nutrition major, would someday step “next door” to Old Salem to apply her expertise to the famed Moravian delicacies one expects to find at the living history town that depicts the 18th and 19th centuries.

She achieved her goal to make the recipes user-friendly by scaling down amounts, lowering sodium, using egg white or egg substitutes, reducing fat with 1 percent milk and by switching butter with I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter, a soybean oil product.

Working in her own kitchen and fortunate enough to have her husband as taste-tester, Ziobro made changes in many of he Moravian baked goods. Only eight are printed in the brochure. The Moravian Chicken Pie recipe is not included, nor was it intended to be since “you must use Crisco for that nice and flaky crust,” Ziobro says.

The collaboration of Ziobro, Wake Forest Heart Center and Old Salem does offer clearly written directions and nutritional facts, along with photographs of Lovefeast Buns, Winkler Moravian Sugar Cake, Winkler Sugar Cookies, Moravian Ginger Cookies, Winkler Gingerbread, Winkler Honey Wheat Bread, Pumpkin Muffins, and Winkler White Bread.

“Nothing that will put off the present day homemaker, who is cab driver and short order cook,” says Ziobro, who fully understands that cooking in the home is a dying art, no longer passed from generation to generation. “Aunties, grandmothers, sisters are five states away or on the West Coast,’’ she says.

Perhaps such recipes will help to bring people to the kitchen for a special time together, teaching history and cooking, especially to children who are more accustomed to drive-through eating, Ziobro says. “Ten minutes later, you can’t remember what you’ve eaten and the next day you wish you hadn’t eaten it at all.”

A bonus will be the wonderful smell that baking bread and spices will create in the home.

For about 20 years, Ziobro honed and used her skills in research, study, presentation and hands-on experiences focusing on healthy eating habits for people with illnesses to those merely seeking healthier ways to live.

She’s a consultant for Baptist Medical Center, having left after nine years of full-time staff employment as a clinical dietitian. Her primary job since 1998 is as a renal dietitian with Salem Kidney Center.

She prefers “real world application” rather than strictly research and applauds Baptist Medical Center for its community outreach and awareness, placing emphasis on preventative service. “It’s quite extraordinary to spend dollars this way rather than for the development of a new medical procedure.”

The Baptist Medical Center was the first in the Southeast to sponsor various classes such as heart-healthy and ethnic cooking instruction and offer a community education store with a registered nurse and regular screenings at Hanes Mall.

Ziobro, a transitional vegetarian who eats seafood monthly, believes strongly in nutritional management for herself, her family and the community. Poor diet, smoking and lack of exercise are risk factors for health problems, including hypertension and heart disease, says Ziobro.

She sees an increase in people interested in more active lives, fitness and better eating habits. People who come for treatment at the Heart Center want to know where they can get healthier meals. Realizing that over 50 percent of people eat in restaurants year-round, Ziobro turned her attention to those in Winston-Salem.

With a computer program designed for nutritional analysis, Ziobro examined dishes already on the menu, then made suggestions to chefs on how to alter their recipes for heart health. About two years ago, Lucky 32 on Stratford Road and its locations in Greensboro and Raleigh began designating menu items approved by the Heart Center Dining Program. Nine other restaurants now in the program use a heart symbol on their menus.

Ziobro wanted to see this heart-friendly dine-out program for nearly 15 years. “We’re the first in our state. Finally I think our area is ready to follow what the West Coast has been doing.”

What comes after the Old Salem and Dining Program?

Ziobro’s next challenge is working with an upscale grocery store which offers prepared food. Take-out meals also may be healthier.

Educating people about good nutrition is no simple task. “We have a generation of girls whose mothers were on crash diets.” Ads both encourage people to overeat and ironically illustrate unrealistic body images to young girls, she says.