(NaturalPath) A story that ran on NPR detailed the movement at Tulane University of Medicine in New Orleans, Louisiana of teaching doctors how to cook. The story cites a recent poll saying that less than one-quarter of doctors feel they have sufficient training to be able to give their patients nutritional advice. While the medical students learn about the Hippocratic Oath, we can’t forget what else he said, “Let food be thy medicine.”
Most medical schools don’t emphasize the use of food in treatment of diseases, but thanks to Dr. Timothy Harlan, AKA Dr. Gourmet, that’s changing at least at Tulane University. He is the executive director of the Goldring Center for Culinary Medicine at the school where they don’t just teach nutrition, but have a practical discussion about food.
“We know from the literature that when people go home and start cooking from real ingredients for themselves that their health improves,” Harlan says. “We also know that they don’t really know how to do that.”
Tulane’s medical school was among the first to take on a licensed chef as an instructor. Its curriculum, developed in partnership with the College of Culinary Arts at Johnson & Wales University, has been sold to 16 other medical schools.
For more information, read the full story.
Razi Berry, Founder and Publisher of Naturopathic Doctor News & Review (ndnr.com) and NaturalPath (thenatpath.com), has spent the last decade as a natural medicine advocate and marketing whiz. She has galvanized and supported the naturopathic community, bringing a higher quality of healthcare to millions of North Americans through her publications. A self-proclaimed health-food junkie and mother of two; she loves all things nature, is obsessed with organic gardening, growing fruit trees (not easy in Phoenix), laughing until she snorts, and homeschooling. She is a little bit crunchy and yes, that is her real name.