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At UT Southwestern, an elective course teaches medical students basic culinary skills and explores the connection between nutrition and health outcomes.
DALLAS – Dec. 6, 2024 – Poor diet is linked to seven of the top 10 causes of death in the United States, from heart disease to diabetes to certain types of cancer. However, many doctors are unable to advise patients on healthy eating, and most medical students and trainees do not receive adequate training in the field.
To address this issue, a national panel of nutrition and education experts, including the director of culinary medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center, has proposed 36 competencies to be integrated into the medical education of aspiring physicians.
Jaclyn Albin, MD, is an associate professor of pediatrics and internal medicine at the Peter O’Donnell Jr. School of Public Health at UT Southwestern. She is also the Director of Culinary Medicine.
Jaclyn Albin, MD, associate professor of pediatrics and internal medicine and in Peter O’Donnell Jr. School of Public Health at UT Southwestern co-authored the consensus statement published in JAMA network opened. Currently, required, consistent nutrition training competencies are lacking in medical training programs nationwide. The proposed competencies include areas such as basic nutrition knowledge; assessment and diagnosis; communication skills; public health; joint support and treatment for specific illnesses; and instructions for transfer.
“Our aim was to create standardization and this was the first national attempt Bringing together nutrition experts and education leaders to define “What medical students and residents need to know about the impact of diet on health,” said Dr. Albin, who founded UTSW’s Culinary Medicine Program in 2017. If we don’t teach doctors properly, we can’t help people in a holistic or meaningful way. This is an opportunity to make people healthy, not just manage disease.”
In addition, scientific literature suggests that health care workers who receive targeted nutrition education change their own lifestyles and demonstrate more confidence when discussing food and dietary decisions with their patients, according to the panel’s findings.
Because of the increasing impact of obesity and diet-related diseases, the issue has gained increased attention in Congress in recent years. Peer-reviewed studies estimate that total Medicare costs for these conditions were approximately $800 billion in 2019, and federal spending on graduate medical education exceeded $16 billion in 2020. Another source at the Rockefeller Foundation, a philanthropic science research organization, reported that the U.S. spends about $16 billion to $1.1 trillion on treating diet-related diseases.
In May 2022, the U.S. House of Representatives passed Resolution 1118, calling for improved training to better prepare physicians to provide practical, evidence-based, and culturally sensitive advice on food and nutrition. In response: 37 national medical educators and residents, nutritionists, registered dietitians and practicing physicians After four rounds of in-depth consultations, 36 areas for curriculum improvement were collected and identified.
“In many ways, UT Southwestern is ahead of the curve when it comes to culinary medicine, which is a marriage of food, nutrition and medical science that empowers people to develop and maintain a delicious and nutritious dietary pattern,” said Dr . Albin.
Following the philosophy “food is medicine,” Dr. Albin co-designed UT Southwestern’s Eat for Health curriculum strategy for nutrition education and advocated for its current integration into required medical student coursework.
UTSW was the first medical center in the country to license the Health Meets Food curriculum to strengthen students’ understanding of nutritional principles and practical skills. The adventure course under the direction of a team of doctors and nutritionists teaches Students of medicine and other health professions essential culinary skills and explores the relationship between nutrition and health outcomes. Introduced in 2017, the course remains one of the most popular electives at UTSW year after year.
Culinary medicine goes beyond “nebulous ideas about what is good or bad food,” said second-year medical student Sahej Bhatia, who completed the course and remains involved as a student leader. “In medicine, we are sometimes confronted with the idea that high-sodium diets and saturated fats are linked to cardiovascular disease, but what does that actually mean? If I tell a patient this, what changes can they implement based on this information alone?
“There remains a reluctance, a fear of what to do,” Bhatia said. “Culinary medicine breaks down this barrier because it presents examples of delicious, health-conscious meals that are realistic. That’s what it’s all about: teaching people how to prepare delicious food while giving them knowledge of ingredients and techniques that promote vitality.”
The success of UTSW’s teaching initiatives has translated into direct patient care. Dr. Albin co-founded a clinical culinary medicine service line with Milette Siler, RD, LD, a registered dietitian and senior dietetic instructor at UTSW. Their work seeks to address barriers to health such as lack of understanding and access to food, and patients benefit from three main services:
- E-consultation with a doctor and nutritionist to answer specific questions and provide information on how to better manage individual health
- Personalized coaching with a physician and nutritionist to develop nutritional strategies tailored to specific health conditions, circumstances and goals
- Shared medical appointments or local community classes that offer pragmatic lessons on food preparation and health benefits
UTSW was also the first medical center in the country to adopt a new cost-effective model for sustainable community partnerships. Faith-based organizations provide space for classes while the cost of services is covered by insurance-covered medical care due to the application of group experiences to individual needs.
“It’s not nutrition until people eat it,” said Dr. Albin. “Food has to taste good. It has to be culturally relevant and affordable.”
These considerations are reflected in the research team’s final recommendations, which called for greater awareness of food insecurity; environmental, psychological, emotional and cultural factors affecting diet; internal biases and judgment; food allergies and sensitivities; and socioeconomic status.
About UT Southwestern Medical Center
UT Southwestern, one of the nation’s leading academic medical centers, combines groundbreaking biomedical research with exceptional clinical care and education. The institution’s faculty members have received six Nobel Prizes and include 25 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 24 members of the National Academy of Medicine, and 14 Howard Hughes Medical Institute researchers. Its more than 3,200 full-time faculty are responsible for groundbreaking medical advances and are committed to quickly translating science-based research into new clinical treatments. Physicians at UT Southwestern care for more than 120,000 hospitalized patients, more than 360,000 emergency department cases, and nearly 5 million outpatient visits per year in more than 80 specialties.
