Course Recommendation: Nutrition for Health and Sustainability

Learn what makes up a healthy, sustainable diet and how certain food types can help to treat and prevent disease

Whilst?health is one of several factors influencing diets, it is a powerful one, especially in certain life situations such as illness and the birth of a child.?

Doctors have authority when speaking on matters of health and could play a key role in informing their patients on evidence informed nutrition and, through motivational interviewing empower them to change their eating habits – this can be achieved through consultations but also through other channels. The global ob*sity epidemic, the rise of personalised medicine and increased understanding of the microbiome are also likely to converge into a situation where doctors can prescribe?food as medicine, giving them influence over the decision, implementation, and confirmation stages as well.?

Both EIT and Nutritank (amongst many others) have identified medical professionals relatively lack of training in nutrition as a key obstacle to playing a stronger role in food systems transformation.?If medical doctors had better knowledge of the link between food, health, nutrition, and sustainability, they could play an active role in transforming our food system.?

How have EIT tackled this issue in their course??

To overcome this gap in knowledge and to reinforce behaviour change towards healthier and sustainable diets, EIT Food has developed a free short online course on nutrition targeting medical students. In addition, professionals in the medical sector may find this course?equally as?useful for providing an up-to-date analysis of topical nutrition debates.?

The course title is “Nutrition for Health and Sustainability”.?It is delivered in 3 modules, with 12 hours of content.

This course?will explore what makes up a healthy diet and see what types of foods play a crucial part in preventing diseases. You will have the opportunity to build an understanding of the relationship between food and disease and get accustomed to nutrition counselling techniques. You will also reflect on the possible biological, social, and psychological causes of unhealthy eating patterns, and interpret the importance of evidence-based nutrition both for human and planet health.?

The goal?is?to establish nutrition as a key part of healthcare.?

Why are Nutritank endorsing this course?

At Nutritank, we believe that your food and health are two sides of the same coin. This course is really comprehensive and encompasses a lot of key evidence-based information about Nutrition, Food, Health and Sustainability.??All the modules encourage you to think in depth about?changes you could make, there is a great balance of interactive and informative content.?

We want the HCPs of today and tomorrow to have the resources and knowledge to help their patients in a holistic way and we believe that this course can be one tool in our Lifestyle Medicine toolbox.