Medical students study effect of food on health
Florida university offers course in culinary medicine
Add a chef, a dietitian and a doctor in a University of Central Florida kitchen. Mix in a group of medical students. Blend to create a culinary medicine course.
The course is a combination of white coats in a nontraditional setting that’s becoming more common in U.S. medical schools as a recipe to combat the obesity epidemic and other chronic diseases.
“We have limited time to counsel patients about nutrition and healthy eating, but we haven’t been taught how to discuss these topics with our patients efficiently and effectively in the time that we do have,” said Dr. Robert Karch, a pediatrician at Nemours Children’s Hospital and associate professor of pediatrics at UCF College of Medicine. “The goal is to teach medical students how to better communicate and counsel patients on healthy cooking and healthy eating at home,” said Karch, who helped implement the course at UCF, where he directs the medical nutrition curriculum.
The program was first launched at Tulane University in New Orleans six years ago, and it’s now in nearly 40 medical schools across the nation. UCF College of Medicine is among the latest to add the course to its list of electives, with an inaugural class of 13 medical students.
“I’m going into pediatrics, and there’s a huge obesity epidemic among children,” said medical student Chris Atkins, 29. “I want to understand for myself and for my patients how to do a healthy diet and create a healthy lifestyle … This course shows you how to talk to families in five minutes; how to pick a few topics and techniques to teach them what to do.”
UCF’s course — a four-week elective for fourth-year medical students — is a collaboration between Nemours Children’s Hospital and UCF College of Medicine, Rosen College of Hospitality Management and YMCA of Central Florida.
Students spend a day each week at a teaching kitchen at Rosen College of Hospitality Management, where they learn how to cook healthy recipes and hear from chefs and dietitians about a wide range of topics, including Mediterranean diet, healthy food shopping, food preparation and reading nutrition labels.
They then spend the rest of the week sharing what they’ve learned — including meal planning, reading recipes and labels, portion size and different types of fat — with the public by leading and teaching nutrition and cooking sessions in the community.
“That’s when the real magic begins to happen,” said Dr. Timothy Harlan, associate dean for clinical services at Tulane University School of Medicine and executive director of the Goldring Center for Culinary Medicine at Tulane. “Because we teach medical students, and they teach the community.”
For its first course, UCF collaborated with YMCA of Central Florida to offer free Culinary Medicine Cooking classes to the public taught by the medical students.
“It’s a lot of fun in the classroom and in the community,” said medical student Brian Nagle, who’s planning to specialize in neurology. “The community asks questions that we hadn’t thought of, and it gives us insight about the types of questions patients might ask,” added Nagle, who used to cook for his fraternity house in college and has a food blog.
It’s no secret that food plays a central role in health and well-being, but there have been challenges in educating patients and giving them practical strategies to develop healthy eating habits, especially during short doctor visits.
“There’s a disconnect between food and health,” said Roniece Weaver, a registered dietitian and executive director and founding partner of Hebni Nutrition Consultants in Orlando. “I’m married to a cardiologist, and you see how doctors interact with patients and give them a piece of paper with information and expect results. Or they increase their medications. But when you put food in the forefront, you’ve put in preventive measures in lifestyle to help reduce, say, your cholesterol. This class is amazing … and it helps doctors understand what dietitians are needed for,” said Weaver, who is one of the teachers of UCF’s culinary medicine course.
Lauren Popeck, a registered dietitian who’s been part of an Orlando Health internal medicine practice for the past four years, said by just being there at the practice doctors are more aware of addressing patients’ diets.