Cooking Your Way Through Nutrition: An Innovative Approach for Connecting Diet and Health

 (Lto r) Tyler Ryan, Deen Debryn, Tracey Burg, Ann Sheng, Jarrod Moore, Ali Siddiqui, Anh Cheng.
(Lto r) Tyler Ryan, Deen Debryn, Tracey Burg, Ann Sheng, Jarrod Moore, Ali Siddiqui, Peter Lin, Anh Cheng.

This spring, eight first-year medical students participated in Eat to Treat, a seminar aimed at increasing their knowledge about nutrition and how it relates to a person’s health.  Along the way they also honed their cooking skills!

The six-week seminar focuses on integrating nutrition and diet education through cooking and counseling techniques. “It provides future physicians with a deeper understanding of how nutrition and diet impact chronic conditions and the challenges many patients face in attempting to maintain a healthy lifestyle,” said Oliva Weinstein, RD/MS candidate and seminar contributor.

Now in its second semester, Eat to Treat takes place at the BMC Teaching Kitchen and offers interactive, hands-on sessions covering nutrition education, meal preparation based on nutrition education, practice counseling with a focus on cultural competency. It culminates with a cook-off competition between students based on the skills and knowledge acquired during the course. Resources for the seminar are supplied by the BMC’s Nutrition Resource Center which includes the Preventive Food Pantry, Teaching Kitchen and Rooftop Farm.

First-year medical student Ann Sheng said, “This class has provided me with many life skills …  I learned how to prevent food waste by making my own stock from a rotisserie chicken!  I think these skills will help relate to the challenges families face accessing food.” First-year medical student Ann-Dao Chen said, “The class does a good job addressing cultural differences …and different perceptions of food. This is important when counseling [patients].”

The course was conceived by: Kate Donovan, RD, LDN, MS, BU Sargent College Adjunct Clinical Instructor of Nutrition, Clinical Coordinator of  BMC’s Pediatric Nutrition and Fitness for Life (NFL) program; Katie Epstein, RD/MS candidate at Sargent College; Ty Sweeny, second-year BUSM MD student; and Ms. Weinstein.

Carine Lenders MD, MS, ScD, Associate Professor of Pediatrics at BUSM, Medical Director of BMC’s Pediatric NFL program, Director  of Pediatric Nutrition Support Services at BMC; Suzanne Sarfaty, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs, BUSM served as mentors and advisors.

Tracey Burg, RD, LDN, head chef and dietitian, BMC’s Teaching Kitchen, secured the facility and supplies and taught several of the sessions.

The course has been presented at the national Teaching Kitchen Collaborative in Napa Valley, Calif., and will be presented at the John McCahan Medical Education Day on May 30.