9/23/2024 –
Groundbreaking nutrition and cooking classes at UT Southwestern are curricular options for medical students and prescribed to patients.
Physicians undergo at least seven years of training after college to learn how to keep patients healthy, but many don’t receive any instruction or guidance on what can be the most critical factor in maintaining one’s health: food. UT Southwestern’s groundbreaking culinary medicine program, led by Dr. Jaclyn Albin and Program Director Milette Siler, aims to change the narrative, one cooking class at a time. Research from the Mayo Clinic found that a poor diet is now the No. 1 cause of early death and early disease in the country. If physicians want to impact their patients’ long-term health, being able to influence their nutritional choices can go a long way. Albin’s journey to be a leading voice in the country in the food as medicine movement began when her husband fell ill during her first year of combined internal medicine pediatric residency. He was losing weight despite eating well, and had chronic respiratory issues. The couple couldn’t figure out what was wrong, but eventually, a lightbulb went off…
