Phoenix Medical Students Cook Healthy Meals to Pass Knowledge on to Future Patients
March is National Nutrition Month, created to teach people how to make smart food choices and develop healthy habits. Now, students at one Arizona university are going from the classroom to the kitchen to learn how to cook and pass that knowledge on to their future patients.
Fourth-year medical students from the University of Arizona School of Medicine in Phoenix are starting their day at class in the garden at the V.H. Lassen Elementary School off of 7th Avenue and Baseline Road. They will cook their meal from everything they pick from the garden.
Unlike many of their other classes, the students gather in the kitchen with a chef for class. The four-week elective teaches them how to make healthy meals from scratch.
Doctor Shad Marvasti is the founding director of the program. “We’re basically learning how to use food as medicine,” Marvasti said. He says this hands-on type of learning is crucial.