Doctors need more nutrition education
Despite the connection between poor diet and many preventable diseases, only about one-fifth of American medical schools require students to take a nutrition course, according to David Eisenberg, adjunct associate professor of nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He discussed the topic May 8, 2017 on PBS NewsHour in a segment that featured the Healthy Kitchens, Healthy Lives program that he founded. Co-sponsored by Harvard Chan School and the Culinary Institute of America, the program provides doctors and other health professionals with a crash course in how to build food and nutrition into their medical practices to improve health.
“Today, most medical schools in the United States teach less than 25 hours of nutrition over four years. The fact that less than 20 percent of medical schools have a single required course in nutrition, it’s a scandal. It’s outrageous. It’s obscene,” Eisenberg told NewsHour.
Watch the video: To improve patient diets, the doctor is in … the kitchen
Learn more
Q&A with Dr. David Eisenberg: On self-care skills, teaching kitchens & thinking outside of the box (The Harvard Chan Nutrition Source)
Crash course in healthy cooking aims to help docs better help their patients (Harvard Chan news)
Teaching Patients About Healthy Lifestyle Behaviors: Communication is the First Step (Center for Executive and Continuing Education article)
