Gaps in knowledge about disease prevention and specific dietary counseling largely stem from inadequate education throughout medical school and residency. Although some actively seek out this type of training, student physicians receive minimal preparation for understanding and teaching pillars of lifestyle medicine and factors for disease prevention.3 The level of nutrition training also significantly varies across medical schools without standard requirements or education models. Overall, this is harmful to the standard of care patients can ultimately receive because schools are not translating the most evidencebased knowledge to students or equipping them with the tools to evolve with the science. The top five longest-living populations in the world have long known that foods grown from the earth preserve quality of life.13 The academic world is now translating this knowledge into a prescription for disease prevention and reversal. When it comes to nutrition, the unequivocal agreement is that the superior diet is one rich in fruits, vegetables, grains, whole grains, nuts and seeds, and low in ultra-processed foods. To label the most evidencebased diet for prevention of disease is one predominantly made of whole-food plants (WFPBN).4 Red meat, poultry, dairy products, and ultra-processed foods are minimally consumed or in some cases avoided entirely in this style of eating. Yet, there is still little to no education for student physicians in the United States about general nutrition or utilizing this specific evidence-based eating pattern for disease prevention and reversal.14 However, medical schools are starting to emerge with optional and sometimes even mandatory courses on culinary medicine such as “Health meets Food,”15 the science of food nutrition, and even plant-based nutritional interventions.14 This year, as a medical student, I decided to ask my peers what they thought about our nutrition education. I developed a survey and distributed it to peers around the country using social media and was able to receive data points from 675 students, across 82% of medical schools in the United States. While data is preliminary, as of 2023 most schools are still not requiring more than two hours of nutrition education across all four years. Education that is occurring and being tested on tends to revolve around vitamin deficiencies including B1, B6, thiamine, B12 and folate. Yet, students report not being taught about the details of how dietary and animal cholesterol leads to cardiovascular, malignant, and metabolic disease. Students also report very little instruction on basic nutrition science, how to research facts within the field of nutrition, or how to educate a patient about their diet and lifestyle. Throughout this year, I plan to share the details of nutrition education in the United States as of 2023, but as for right now, we stand in a place of knowledge without a plan for dissemination. The data is not unclear about what our diets should predominately be comprised of and the ultra-processed foods we should limit. The limitations at present are how we teach medical students to be fluent in the language of preventative medicine, in addition to the knowledge we provide them about clinical diagnostics and therapeutic medicine. Students should, at minimum, graduate from medical school with an understanding of whole food plantbased nutrition, ultra-processed foods, eating disorders, behavior change, and motivational interviewing. This starts with understanding where our baseline education is at, engaging stakeholders within the medical field, and creating standardized principles to incorporate into the curriculum. 1. Bassin SR, Al-Nimr RI, Allen K, Ogrinc G. The state of nutrition in medical education in the United States. Nutr Rev. 2020;78(9):764-780. doi:10.1093/nutrit/nuz100 2. Micha R, Peñalvo JL, Cudhea F, Imamura F, Rehm CD, Mozaffarian D. Association Between Dietary Factors and Mortality From Heart Disease, Stroke, and Type 2 Diabetes in the United States. JAMA. 2017;317(9):912. doi:10.1001/jama.2017.0947 3. Devries S, Agatston A, Aggarwal M, et al. A Deficiency of Nutrition Education and Practice in Cardiology. Am J Med. 2017;130(11):1298-1305. doi:10.1016/j.amjmed.2017.04.043 4. Tuso PJ, Ismail MH, Ha BP, Bartolotto C. Nutritional Update for Physicians: Plant-Based Diets. Perm J. 2013;17(2):61-66. doi:10.7812/TPP/12-085 5. Barnard ND, Cohen J, Jenkins DJA, et al. A Low-Fat Vegan Diet Improves Glycemic Control and Cardiovascular Risk Factors in a Randomized Clinical Trial in Individuals With Type 2 Diabetes. Diabetes Care. 2006;29(8):1777-1783. doi:10.2337/dc06-0606 6. Vang A, Singh PN, Lee JW, Haddad EH, Brinegar CH. Meats, Processed Meats, Obesity, Weight Gain and Occurrence of Diabetes among Adults: Findings from Adventist Health Studies. Ann Nutr Metab. 2008;52(2):96-104. doi:10.1159/000121365 7. Lin MN, Chiu TH, Chang CE, Lin MN. THE IMPACT OF A PLANT-BASED DIETARY PATTERN ON DEMENTIA RISK: A PROSPECTIVE COHORT STUDY. Innov Aging. 2019;3(Supplement_1):S734-S734. doi:10.1093/geroni/igz038.2691 8. Khan MA, Kassianos AJ, Hoy WE, Alam AK, Healy HG, Gobe GC. Promoting Plant-Based Therapies for Chronic Kidney Disease. J Evid Based Integr Med. 2022;27:2515690X2210796. doi:10.1177/2515690X221079688 9. Remde A, DeTurk SN, Almardini A, Steiner L, Wojda T. Plant-predominant eating patterns – how effective are they for treating obesity and related cardiometabolic health outcomes? – a systematic review. Nutr Rev. 2022;80(5):1094-1104. doi:10.1093/nutrit/nuab060 10. Vetter ML, Herring SJ, Sood M, Shah NR, Kalet AL. What Do Resident Physicians Know about Nutrition? An Evaluation of Attitudes, Self-Perceived Proficiency and Knowledge. J Am Coll Nutr. 2008;27(2):287-298. doi:10.1080/07315724.2008.10719702 11. Keevican M. Poll: Most doctors want to discuss nutrition with patients but feel unprepared. https://www.pcrm.org/news/news-releases/poll-mostdoctors-want-discuss-nutrition-patients-feel-unprepared. 12. Harkin N, Johnston E, Mathews T, et al. Physicians’ Dietary Knowledge, Attitudes, and Counseling Practices: The Experience of a Single Health Care Center at Changing the Landscape for Dietary Education. Am J Lifestyle Med. 2019;13(3):292-300. doi:10.1177/1559827618809934 13. Buettner D, Skemp S. Blue Zones. Am J Lifestyle Med. 2016;10(5):318-321. doi:10.1177/1559827616637066 14. Mulpuri L, Allen N, Lunde A, et al. Rooting for Wellness: An Initiative Introducing Plant-Based Nutrition to First Year Medical Students. International Journal of Disease Reversal and Prevention. 2021;3(2). doi:10.22230/ijdrp.2021v3n2a283 15. Health Meets Food. https://culinarymedicine.org/ 2023. Health Meets Food. References 39 |
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