Ask your doctor how much nutrition education they received during their medical training and you’re apt to be surprised by what you learn. Not all medical schools offer dedicated nutrition courses.
UCI Health is one of more than 60 academic institutions to adopt the Health meets Food curriculum, administered by George Washington University, for medical student and resident training. It is offered through a collaboration between the Susan Samueli Integrative Health Institute and UCI School of Medicine.
This past year, faculty were offered the opportunity to fill their nutrition education gap with an adaptation of the curriculum focused on their needs.
“The culinary medicine training offers a multidisciplinary approach to food as medicine,” said Nimisha Parekh, MD, MPH, FACG, AGAF, director of Culinary Medicine. “It combines nutrition education and motivational interviewing with culinary skills to give healthcare providers at all levels effective tools to improve the health of patients and communities.”
Nine professionals representing areas such as internal medicine, family medicine and pathology, completed the inaugural faculty training during the fiscal year and began to apply their learnings with students, patients, community groups and in research. Three faculty program graduates shared how they have put their culinary insights to use.
The culinary medicine training offers a multidisciplinary approach to food as medicine.
Nimisha Parekh, MD, MPH, FACG, AGAF, director of Culinary Medicine
Dr. Dylan Hanami
Family Physician
UCI Health Santa Ana and UCI Health
Anaheim Federally Qualified Health Center
I work at a clinic located in a ‘food swamp’ where access to fresh and healthy foods is not readily available due to multiple factors — distance, cost, misinformation, behaviors. I noticed that I started feeling like a broken record in each patient room. I had the same conversation with patients 20 times per day.
We would dive deep into their dietary habits, and I would repeatedly give the same recommendations about eating more vegetables with each meal, eliminating sugary beverages, and incorporating more legumes.
Approximately 8.4 percent of Orange County residents — more than 267,000 people —struggle with food insecurity, according to 2021 data reported by Feeding America. In particular, the Orange County Latinx community faces many barriers with regard to access to healthy and nutritious foods that extend beyond our clinic doors. These barriers stack on each other and create a huge obstacle for patients.
Culinary medicine is one way we can lower one of the many barriers patients face. It teaches us to address the behavioral and psychological aspects of healthy eating and cooking. We can talk about what a healthy breakfast can look like, or how to make a heart-healthy and affordable lunch.
This past year, my culinary medicine training helped me contribute to the community through nutrition and cooking classes at CRECE Urban Farm in Santa Ana and in virtual nutrition and cooking courses with Madison Park Neighborhood Association, a community partner in Santa Ana.
I see patients enjoy being in community and cooking together. It does seem to get to the heart of a primal need that all people are seeking — connectedness. This is especially salient in our ‘post-pandemic’ world.
Culinary medicine is one way we can lower one of the many barriers patients face. It teaches us to address the behavioral and psychological aspects of healthy eating and cooking.
Dylan Hanami, MD, Family Physician
Dr. Tan Nguyen
Family Physician
UCI Health Santa Ana and UCI
Health Anaheim Federally Qualified Health Center
I had some basic training in nutrition at my medical school about 20 years ago, but it was nothing like this. There is a lot to learn! Besides learning more about the nitty gritty scientific facts about food and health effects, the course also taught fun culinary techniques like knife skills, and insider tips from Chef Jess [Samueli Institute Executive Chef Jessica VanRoo] on product evaluation, packaging, quality and sourcing, etc. I find those tips helpful as we evaluate the products that we use.
I have interactions with many medical students in didactics and clinical settings. This was a great opportunity to get to know them more, in a relaxed setting where we learn together and enjoy some fun time together. Not only do we get to have better tools to serve our patients, but I think the students also benefit as well for their own wellbeing.
We recently had an exciting opportunity to be at a community health fair at a local church in Anaheim. Our students had a table where they demonstrated healthy cooking and provided nutrition counseling after screening for diabetes and high blood pressure. Students used simple and easy-to-follow recipes and instructions to tailor their education to participants. I felt that the participants were happy to sample the simple healthy snacks and could see the correlation between their blood test results and what they eat or how they cook. Even a simple takeaway like that, I think, goes a long way.
I’m working with some of the students on trying to collaborate with the local food bank to improve the student experience. I think it would be really fun for the students to work with local farms to actually harvest the foods, package donated goods and distribute them to our community members. It would help us serve the community better knowing where the foods come from and how they’re processed and know the resources to share with our patients in need.
I had some basic training in nutrition at my medical school about 20 years ago, but it was nothing like this. There is a lot to learn!
Tan Nguyen, MD, Family Physician
Dr. Bavani Nadeswaran
Internal Medicine Physician, UCI Health
Bariatric Medicine Specialist
Susan Samueli Integrative Health Institute
Culinary medicine education empowers patients and providers to improve health, primarily through food. The program has expanded my knowledge of evidence-informed, simple cooking methods and skills that are specific to an individual’s health and condition. It combines the joy of cooking with the science of medicine.
It’s not only learning a recipe. It’s learning from the Samueli Institute’s executive chef, Jessica VanRoo, how to prepare healthy and delicious, culturally appropriate dishes. It’s being introduced to where and how to shop; which cooked foods can be stored and how to store them properly; how to prepare protein in different ways; what vegetables to buy and how to chop them properly.
I’ve learned a practical and effective way to talk with patients and families about culturally sensitive, affordable approaches to food and nutrition. I still prescribe medications, but now I also have the tools to educate patients on proven lifestyle interventions.
At the Susan Samueli Integrative Health Institute, we offer Healthy Weight group visits. Because these are medical visits, they are covered by most insurance plans and Medicare. The people who take part in the visits all have some degree of struggle with weight.
We get to know each patient at a basic level: what kind of food types they enjoy; how they eat; how often they go out to eat; what they understand about food, cooking and behavioral nutrition. It becomes a truly a personalized experience for the patients.
As a bariatric medicine specialist, I always find it rewarding to see an improvement in the objective outcome — like the weight going down, the body mass index improving, the blood pressure improving. When I hear patients make statements like, ‘I started doing this and I am absolutely enjoying it,’ I feel like these are things that they’re going to do for a long time. Culinary medicine is a way of looking at how you eat for the rest of your life.
It combines the joy of cooking with the science of medicine.
Bavani Nadeswaran, MD, Internal Medicine Physician
