Brooklyn, NY – SUNY Downstate Well being Sciences College not too long ago introduced the launch of its brand-new College Hospital of Brooklyn (UHB) Meals as Medication Initiative, a supplemental course program for college kids about eating regimen, diet, and well being. A $10,000 discretionary grant from the Workplace of Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, SUNY Downstate’s Committee on Plant-Primarily based Well being and Vitamin, and the student-run Way of life Medication Curiosity Group supported the initiative.
This system, headed by Dr. Richard Rosenfeld, is comprised of two on-line programs with about six hours of up-to-date proof about eating regimen, diet, and well being. The programs — developed by the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutrition Studies and the Gaples Institute — complement the present Faculty of Medication diet curriculum, which emphasizes macronutrients and deficiency states, with a extra holistic emphasis on meals as drugs. Fifty-one Faculty of Medication and College of Public Well being college students accomplished this system, which was made out there to college students at no cost by Borough President Adams’ funding.
“We have now recognized concerning the therapeutic properties of diet because the days of Hippocrates, who famously stated ‘Let meals be thy drugs.’ However too many well being care workers-in-training don’t obtain sufficient training in medical college about how eating regimen can fight sure power ailments, which results in poorer well being outcomes, and a widespread false impression that power ailments can simply be ‘managed’ with medicine. My very own private well being journey of reversing my Sort 2 diabetes by a whole-food, plant-based eating regimen challenges that narrative. That’s why I used to be proud to fund this Meals as Medication Initiative in partnership with SUNY Downstate. This initiative builds on our earlier advocacy, together with the Plant-Primarily based Way of life Medication Program at Bellevue Hospital. It’s my hope that we will scale up packages like these at medical colleges all through the town within the years forward and guarantee all well being care employees are outfitted with the information concerning the significance of nutritious diet after they enter the workforce,” stated Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams.
“We’re at all times impressed to increase our collaborative choices, and particularly these the place we will concentrate on illness prevention,” stated College of Public Well being Dean Kitaw Demissie, M.D., Ph.D. “We’re grateful to our Faculty of Medication, the Way of life Medication Curiosity Group, and Borough President Eric Adams’ continued dedication to participating the group concerning the significance of eating regimen, well being, and diet. In communities with excessive charges of power sicknesses, we should put together our healthcare professionals to look intently at these variables.”
“There is no such thing as a higher manner to assist sufferers heal themselves than to offer them with this invaluable info,” stated Anika Daniels-Osaze, Ed.D, MPH, Director of Range Training and Analysis in Downstate’s Faculty of Medication. “I consider that each scholar trying to enter a profession in a well being occupation and each healthcare supplier ought to be required to take this course — notably as we proceed to deal with well being disparities in underserved communities.”
Plant-forward diet is a robust and sometimes missed strategy to stopping, treating, and — in some instances — reversing power ailments corresponding to coronary heart illness, diabetes, and stroke. The Meals as Medication Initiative will deal with how stopping these situations will create a extra sustainable and equitable healthcare future.
“Everybody ought to have entry to this info. Too usually, pharmacological remedies are the go-to for power illness administration as an alternative of dietary interventions which might be clearly backed by science,” stated Aliye Talal Mosaad, MPH, a public well being doctoral scholar. “I modified my dietary habits after finishing these certificates programs and shared the information I realized with my household to assist them enhance their diets.”
SUNY Downstate Well being Sciences College plans to proceed providing the Meals as Medication coursework and its present academic programming round way of life drugs. Downstate is house to one of many first Way of life Medication Curiosity Group (LMIG) within the New York metro space beneath the auspices of the American Faculty of Way of life Medication. Moreover, SUNY Downstate has an lively Committee on Plant-Primarily based Well being and Vitamin, a multidisciplinary effort by the Faculty of Medication, College of Public Well being, and the Workplace of the Brooklyn Borough President. Lastly, the student-led Downstate Initiative on Vitamin Empowerment (DINE) Membership not too long ago put in a vegetable backyard on campus to facilitate group gathering and academic initiatives round agricultural sustainability and dietary wellness.
For extra details about SUNY Downstate’s Meals as Medication Initiative, please go to https://www.downstate.edu/plant-based/.
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