UW School of Medicine and Public Health Ready for a Food Fight
- Students log food they've eaten in the previous two days and enter the information into a computer program that tells them how closely their selections match the national food pyramid.
- Students examine their eating habits through the eyes of a person who may have diabetes or high cholesterol, to see what they might need to alter to follow nutrition recommendations for these conditions.
- By the time they finish their four years, they have studied the biochemistry of nutrition and learned how to scientifically evaluate confusing claims about nutrition.
Perhaps most important, students are prepared to be doctors who get involved in community efforts that promote healthy eating.
The SMPH's recent transformation into a school that combines medicine and public health has added a new dimension to nutrition study: looking at the impact of nutritional choices on groups of people - including different subsets of the population - and infusing a prevention perspective.
"The obesity epidemic is really a population health issue; it will not be solved by clinicians alone," he says. "Our country and the developing world as a whole will have to make some serious decisions about this. Most of the important health care issues that affect our globe are related to either under- or over-nutrition."
Several years ago, McBride and Underbakke received a National Institutes of Health grant to develop a nutrition curriculum that's relevant to the youngest medical student and the most mature health care practitioner alike.
And McBride most recently served as chair of the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) committee that drafted curriculum guidelines for teaching students about overweight and obesity. All medical schools in the country are urged to use the new instructional guidelines.
Date Published: 04/30/2009