In 2018, The Association for Nutrition (AfN) accepted responsibility for the undergraduate nutrition curriculum for medical students and formed an Interprofessional Working Group on Medical Education (AfN IPG). Since then, the group has brought together expert professionals and organisations, such as Public Health England, NHS England, nutrition and dietetic professionals, medical royal colleges, doctors, and training providers to develop a modern curriculum for medical students and provide fundamental nutrition knowledge and skills needed by future doctors.

The curriculum builds knowledge and understanding in eight critical nutrition topic areas including Nutrition Screening and Assessment, Nutrition in Illness Prevention, Malnutrition and more, which have been identified to conform to the domains of the new medical licensing assessment (MLA), due to commence in 2024.

There are widespread reports of insufficient nutrition education during medical training in UK and globally. Data suggests most UK medical students feel their nutrition training is inadequate, with more than 70% reporting less than two hours of nutrition education across their academic and clinical training.

“Doctors do not need to be nutritionists, but they can play a critical role in reducing the health impacts of poor nutrition” states the AfN IPG, “Namely, by recognising the contribution of nutrition in clinical and population health, and developing the knowledge, skills and confidence to either offer advice or refer on appropriately depending on the context”

Modern stressors such as COVID-19, the obesity pandemic and environmental concerns have introduced a critical need for effective nutrition education for medical doctors and healthcare professionals as they are most often at the frontline of public health.

Suboptimal diets are now the leading preventable cause of a range of chronic diseases and in 2017, poor diet was responsible for more deaths globally than smoking. In the UK, prior to the pandemic, undernutrition was estimated to affect over 3 million people at a cost of £23.5 billion and has resulted in a significant rise in micronutrient deficiencies with large portions of the population having low intakes of various essential vitamins and minerals.

To ensure nutrition advice becomes part of a holistic, patient centred model of care, it is recommended that it be embedded into the current medical training curriculum, rather than being a stand-alone module, as it can be beneficial to many areas from biochemistry and physiology to safe prescribing (preventing drug/nutrient interactions) and assessing how nutrition can assist with the treatment of complex cases.

The AfN IWG states a need to make better use of allied health professionals such as registered nutritionists and dietitians (RD) to create multidisciplinary teams during clinical and community training to enhance both interprofessional skills and nutritional knowledge as well as developing formal and rigorous assessments of taught content to produce doctors who are competent to use nutrition as a therapeutic option on graduation and throughout their careers.

“There is a clear opportunity now for medical schools to distinguish themselves based on the integration of nutrition practice into holistic healthcare training to adequately prepare graduates with the knowledge and skills in nutrition care with the ultimate goal of improving patient care.”