Medical students get schooled in nutrition by chefs
By Kristin Gourlay, NPR
For the past few weeks, the culinary arts students at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, R.I., have been working with some less-than-seasoned sous chefs.
One of them, Clinton Piper, may look like a pro in his chef’s whites, but he’s struggling to work a whisk through some batter.
“I know nothing about baking,” he says.
Luckily, he’s got other qualifications. Piper is a fourth-year medical student at Tulane University School of Medicine, and he’s here for a short rotation through a new program designed to educate med students and chefs-in-training about nutrition.
“I think it’s forward thinking to start to see, to view food as medicine,” he says. “That’s not something that’s really on our radar in medical education. But with the burden of disease in the United States being so heavily weighted with lifestyle disease, I think it’s a very, very logical next step.”
So, is this a program at LTCC? I hope lots of these innovative ideas are brought to the table at the Visioning Session at LTCC (coming soon! – remind me the date, as I thought I put it into my calendar). Weekend alternative medicine programs could be offered at LTCC — what med student would not want to come here to attend such a program, and get CTE’s?
The visioning session is today (Friday), 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. in the Aspen/Board rooms. A weekend nutrition institute targeting medical professionals is indeed an intriguing idea.
I am an RN, my wife is an MD. We went to school together at the same time, just different paths in the same field. It always had amazed us that at that time (within the last 2 decades) that nutrition was not included at all in med school, nor was it addressed in the first year of residency. (they are all still “GP’s then until they truly specialize) Where as RN’s need an extensive knowledge in nutrition before they can even enter Nursing School or if not required for entry, it is one of the core curriculum classes. It is very important that medicine focus on preventative care. Become healthy and stay healthy for less problems down the road. Too bad it has taken this long for our medical system begin to realize that doctors should keep people healthy, not just deal with their problems once they become unhealthy.