“You are what you eat…”
You have heard that statement many times growing up – but I always dismissed it. Lately I”m beginning to realize just how real it is. Sometimes these simple sayings are the ones that mean the most. We are very much what we eat. If you eat nothing buy sugary and fatty foods, chances are you are overweight and unhealthy; whereas if you eat nothing but vegetables and fruit, chances are you are thin and healthy. This isn’t always the case, but more times than not it is. The key is balance obviously.
What troubles me the most is the small role nutrition plays in the field of medicine. Considering how important your nutrition and diet is to your health, you would think that nutrition would be the keystone of curriculum in Medical Schools… think again! Of the random ten medical schools I have evaluated online, only one had a “Nutrition and Exercise Physiology” type department, class, or focus area…
The fact that Nutrition is so hidden in the Medicine field is a little confusing to me. It should be more integrated into Medical School”s curriculum and have large division or department to handle it. I sometimes see Nutrition under “Human Environmental Sciences” or other Arts and Science colleges, however, it needs to be in the big leagues right next to Cardiology, Molecular Pharmacology, and Obstetrics in a School of Medicine.
Medicine is the field of applied science related to the art of healing by diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disease – doesn’t ones diet/nutrition help prevent future cardiac problems, diabetes, and other major health issues? I believe so! So why is it so hidden and disconnected with Medicine in Higher Education?
The problem goes much further than the upper level classrooms… It needs to be engraved into our children at young ages and have a deep root in our public education system. Children don”t need to just learn the value of Nutrition, they need to live it.
This again arises yet another problem; as our society is built around fast food, mass production of meat, sugary candy and soda.
Maybe I am looking at this all wrong, but the fact that I don”t even see the word “Nutrition” in most of the online Medical School websites I have visited is very alarming…