{"id":10486,"date":"2018-08-15T13:27:17","date_gmt":"2018-08-15T17:27:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/?p=10486"},"modified":"2018-08-16T09:06:58","modified_gmt":"2018-08-16T13:06:58","slug":"food-as-medicine-integrating-nutrition-education-into-the-medical-education-curriculum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/2018\/food-as-medicine-integrating-nutrition-education-into-the-medical-education-curriculum\/","title":{"rendered":"Food as Medicine: Integrating Nutrition Education into the Medical Education Curriculum"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Source: Shutterstock<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Eating a nutritious diet, along with other lifestyle choices, is an integral part of maintaining good health, yet many physicians and medical students struggle not only to provide counseling to their patients, but to make healthy choices themselves. Like many of us, they cite constraints of time and a lack of nutrition and culinary know-how as barriers.<\/p>\n

While research shows that 60 percent of patients believe physicians are experts in nutritional knowledge, only 14 percent of physicians feel comfortable offering nutrition advice. The reason: in most medical school curricula, nutritional content is fragmented and informal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is increasing recognition of the important role nutrition plays in many of the most prevalent and expensive to treat chronic diseases in America today\u2014type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and obesity are at epidemic proportions,\u201d says Rand Swenson, MD, PhD, a professor of medical education and neurology and chair of medical education at Geisel. \u201cAny solution to this problem must include attention to basic nutritional principles.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an effort to stem this burgeoning problem, Geisel is integrating evidence-based nutrition content across all four years of its curriculum.<\/p>\n

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Rima Itani Al-Nimr, MS, RDN, LD (Photo by Rob Strong)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThis is a trailblazing initiative,\u201d says Rima Itani Al-Nimr, MS, RDN, LD, director of the school\u2019s Nutrition in Medical Education program, which launched in August 2017. \u201cIn order to help graduate the complete physician\u2014in line with Geisel\u2019s mission\u2014a comprehensive nutrition curriculum is crucial to the medical school\u2019s success. Geisel is among only a handful of medical schools in the nation with this level of nutrition education integration.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the year since its inception, the program has been the driving force behind implementing the nutrition curriculum\u2014content has been added to many first- and second-year courses where medical students learn the links between the medical sciences, diseases, and nutrition science, and in On Doctoring, where students practice nutrition-specific motivational interviewing techniques. This fall, the third-year OB\/GYN clerkship includes nutrition content and more will be added to other courses as the implementation process evolves. By the time students graduate, the newly minted physicians will be able to perform nutrition assessments of their patients leading to better managing their health. They will also have the tools to take better care of themselves.<\/p>\n

Doctors play an important role in explaining nutrition\u2019s metabolic effect on health. They are more likely to advise patients to adopt healthful eating habits if they themselves eat well\u2014though knowing what to eat isn\u2019t the same as knowing how to prepare nutritious meals or helping others to do so. Translating nutrition knowledge into practical skills is a necessity. \u201cTeaching culinary skills should be part of this comprehensive curriculum. We can\u2019t do one without the other,\u201d Al-Nimr says.<\/p>\n

Culinary medicine, an emerging field that incorporates research on healthful food, nutrition, and cooking into the practice of medicine in order to promote health and to assist with the management of chronic disease, is capturing the attention of physicians and medical students.<\/p>\n

Richard Rothstein, MD, the Joseph M. Huber Professor of Medicine, senior associate dean for clinical affairs, and chair of the Department of Medicine at Geisel and Dartmouth-Hitchcock (D-H), was an early advocate of culinary medicine and says it is an important part of the hospital\u2019s culture, including its Weight & Wellness Center and Culinary Medicine Program<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Citing the rise in obesity and morbid obesity as looming healthcare concerns that will affect the cost of delivering care, Rothstein says treatment is not as simple as telling patients to lose weight. \u201cOur focus is more holistic\u2014we encourage patients to develop healthy attitudes about life, food, and fitness, which we believe naturally leads to weight management.\u201d<\/p>\n

Though obesity is tied to many chronic illnesses\u2014nearly half of all cardiovascular mortalities in the U.S. are linked with dietary factors\u2014nutrition science encompasses more than just weight loss. Nutrition therapy is an intricate part of an overall treatment plan for a wide variety of diseases\u2014from heart disease and diabetes, to cancer and kidney disease.<\/p>\n

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Auden McClure, MED\u201999, MPH\u201908 (Photo by DHMC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nutrition also affects clinical outcomes\u2014surgical patients do better when they are well nourished while malnourished patients take longer to heal. And poor nutrition in utero appears to affect future health.<\/p>\n

The hospital\u2019s Culinary Medicine Program, directed by Auden McClure, MED\u201999, MPH\u201908, a trained chef and pediatrician at Children\u2019s Hospital at Dartmouth-Hitchcock, offers evidence-based nutrition and culinary learning with the aim of providing physicians, medical staff, patients, and community members with the knowledge and practical skills to better embrace healthy lifestyles.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur goal is to help participants translate nutrition recommendations into making healthy food choices over their lifetime,\u201d McClure explains. \u201cThis includes meal planning, shopping, and prepping food to fit healthful meals into a busy schedule. Health coaches and dietitians partner with our chef to explain healthy cooking techniques and food choices as well as strategies to make this happen at home even when cost may be a barrier.\u201d<\/p>\n

For first- and second-year medical students, a Culinary Medicine Program enrichment elective aims to not only teach important counseling and lifestyle skills but to promote student wellness\u2014recognizing the importance of caring for oneself as one works to care for others. McClure says, \u201cThe culinary piece is very exciting and innovative because it builds on what Rima is teaching in the classroom and demonstrates how to provide practical skills and nutrition counseling to patients and their families.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA majority of first-year Geisel students have said nutrition education is a topic of interest,\u201d Al-Nimr notes. \u201cWe are giving students the knowledge and power to guide patients when it comes to nutrition\u2014just as they do when it comes to prescribing medications or explaining surgical procedures.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In response to nutrition\u2019s role in maintaining population health, and to improve nutrition education geared toward medical students, Geisel is among a handful of schools integrating evidence-based nutrition content across all four years of its curriculum.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":10488,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[9,1],"tags":[54,35,201],"class_list":["post-10486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-news","tag-dartmouth-hitchcock","tag-medical-education","tag-nutrition","author-12"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2018\/08\/nutrition-shutterstock_780674809.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4r3h1-2J8","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10486"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10486\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10510,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10486\/revisions\/10510"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10488"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/geiselmed.dartmouth.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}