Preceptors: Andrea J Glenn, Assistant Professor of Nutrition, MSc PhD RD & Sapana Shah, Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine, MD, MPH, DipABLM, FASAM
Contact: Dr. Andrea J Glenn, A.Glenn@NYU.edu 
Office: 411 Lafayette Street, 5th Floor, 554
Telephone: 212-998-5580

Prerequisites: None

Clinical Sites

NYU Food Lab and Classroom, Washington Square Campus, 35 West 4th Street, 10th floor

Description

This 4-week course is designed to teach students in healthcare-related fields the tenets of evidence-based whole food, plant-based nutrition for the prevention and management of common chronic diseases. Students will learn about the existing body of scientific evidence and understand nutrition’s role in promoting health and preventing disease. Each lecture class will come with a clinical case that will allow students to reflect on patients they may encounter during clinical practice. Students will also participate in hands-on cooking labs where they will learn to prepare delicious food in line with the nutrition topics of the course each week.  Students will also shadow providers at the Lifestyle Medicine Program at the Bellevue Ambulatory Care Pavillion and observe how culinary medicine and counseling on food are put into practice. They will also appreciate how food insecurity impacts counseling and learn strategies on how one can start to address this.

Students will select a chronic disease of interest, do a literature review regarding dietary and lifestyle interventions that have been shown to prevent, treat, or manage this chronic disease and present to the group.

Objectives of the Elective

Upon completion of the course, students will be able to:

1. Explain the principles of evidence-based, whole-food, plant-based nutrition and its role in the prevention and management of chronic diseases.
2. Analyze clinical case studies to identify and evaluate nutrition-related factors that contribute to common chronic diseases. 
3. Demonstrate practical skills in preparing and cooking whole food, plant-based meals that maximize nutrient density and flavor while adhering to dietary recommendations for chronic disease prevention.
4. Develop meal plans that meet the nutritional needs of individuals using whole food, plant-based ingredients, while considering cultural preferences, affordability, and accessibility.
5. Describe strategies to counsel and motivate patients to adopt and sustain whole food, plant-based dietary habits for health improvement and disease prevention.
6. Provide guidance on how to shop for whole food, plant-based ingredients on a budget and teach techniques to minimize food waste while preparing nutrient-rich meals.

Didactic program

This course uses a combination of didactic lectures, hands-on cooking labs, discussion of food and clinical practice, clinical case studies, and a hands-on clinical case study assignment, and shadowing of providers in the Bellevue Lifestyle Medicine Program. The didactic lectures will be in-person and on Zoom. The cooking labs will be in-person at: NYU Food Lab and Classroom, Washington Square Campus, 35 West 4th Street, 10th floor.

Weekly Schedule 

Week 1

Class	Cooking Lab	Required Readings	Assignments due
Intro to food as medicine Culture and food	Intro to the kitchen & knife skills	Asher RC, Shrewsbury VA, Bucher T, Collins CE. Culinary medicine and culinary nutrition education for individuals with the capacity to influence health related behaviour change: A scoping review. J Hum Nutr Diet. 2022;35(2):388-95.	Pre-test questionnaire
Cardiovascular disease	Traditional Mediterranean diet	Lichtenstein AH, Appel LJ, Vadiveloo M, Hu FB, Kris-Etherton PM, Rebholz CM, et al. 2021 Dietary Guidance to Improve Cardiovascular Health: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association. Circulation. 2021;144(23):e472-e87. Estruch R, Ros E, Salas-Salvadó J, Covas M-I, Corella D, Arós F, et al. Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease with a Mediterranean Diet Supplemented with Extra-Virgin Olive Oil or Nuts. New England Journal of Medicine. 2018;378(25):e34	Case study # 1

Week 2

Class	Cooking Lab	Required Readings	Assignments due
Type 2 diabetes	Lower carbohydrate & low glycemic index diets	Evert AB, Dennison M, Gardner CD, Garvey WT, Lau KHK, MacLeod J, et al. Nutrition Therapy for Adults With Diabetes or Prediabetes: A Consensus Report. Diabetes Care. 2019;42(5):731-54. Chiavaroli L, Lee D, Ahmed A, Cheung A, Khan TA, Blanco S, et al. Effect of low glycaemic index or load dietary patterns on glycaemic control and cardiometabolic risk factors in diabetes: systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials. Bmj. 2021;374:n1651.	Case study # 2
Chronic kidney disease	Sodium, potassium, phosphorus reduction	Kistler BM, Moore LW, Benner D, Biruete A, Boaz M, Brunori G, et al. The International Society of Renal Nutrition and Metabolism Commentary on the National Kidney Foundation and Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics KDOQI Clinical Practice Guideline for Nutrition in Chronic Kidney Disease. Journal of Renal Nutrition. 2021;31(2):116-20.e1. Joshi S, McMacken M, Kalantar-Zadeh K. Plant-Based Diets for Kidney Disease: A Guide for Clinicians. American Journal of Kidney Diseases. 2021;77(2):287-96.	Case study # 3

Week 3

Class	Cooking Lab	Required Readings	Assignments due
Cancer	Vegan diet (emphasize soy and high fiber)	Rock CL, Thomson C, Gansler T, Gapstur SM, McCullough ML, Patel AV, et al. American Cancer Society guidelines for diet and physical activity for cancer prevention. CA  Cancer J Clin. 2020;70(4):245-71. Fan Y, Wang M, Li Z, Jiang H, Shi J, Shi X, et al. Intake of Soy, Soy Isoflavones and Soy Protein and Risk of Cancer Incidence and Mortality. Front Nutr. 2022;9:847421.	Case study # 4
Gut health	Low FODMAP diet & fermented foods	Shah AM, Tarfeen N, Mohamed H, Song Y. Fermented Foods: Their Health-Promoting Components and Potential Effects on Gut Microbiota. Fermentation. 2023;9(2):118. Lacy, BE, Pimental M, Brenner DM, William DC, et al. ACG clinical guideline: Management of Irritable Bowel Syndrome. American Journal of Gastroenterology. 2021;116(1).  Black CJ, Staudacher HM, Ford AC. Efficacy of a low FODMAP diet in irritable bowel syndrome: systematic review and network meta-analysis. Gut. 2022;71(6):1117-26.	Case study #5

Week 4

Class	Cooking Lab	Required Readings	Assignments due
Controversies in nutrition	Cooking with more controversial topics	Examples of recent social media conversations around these topics will be provided, as well as evidence behind such controversies. For example, saturated fat: Hooper L, Martin N, Jimoh OF, Kirk C, Foster E, Abdelhamid AS. Reduction in saturated fat intake for cardiovascular disease. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2020;8(8):CD011737.	Case study #6 Post-test questionnaire

Method of Evaluation

Student evaluation in this course is based on clinical case studies, lab participation, and a final group project.

Requirement	Description	%
Case studies	Six case studies will be discussed in class and submitted each week based on the weekly lecture topic. Each case study will be worth 10%.	60%
Lab participation	Students will cook different recipes in groups during lab time. Attendance, participating in food prep, and asking questions/contributing to discussion will count towards your attendance grade.	10%
Final group case study	Students will work in groups and will be given a specific case study, and come up with meal options with recipes, shopping lists for grab-and-go items, pantry items to have on hand, by applying knowledge and skills they learned throughout the course.	30%

Scheduling information

Duration: 4 Weeks

Month Offered: February

Student point of contact before start of elective: Dr. Andrea Glenn, A.Glenn@NYU.edu

On day 1, students report to: NYU Food Lab and Classroom, Washington Square Campus, 35 West 4th Street, 10th floor

Students per elective block: 6-12