BP Adams Partners With Suny Downstate To Unveil New ‘Food As Medicine Initiative’ To Enhance Nutrition Education For Medical Students

Press release from the Office of the Brooklyn Borough President:

May 26, 2021

Brooklyn, NY – Today, Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams announced that he would be awarding a $10,000 discretionary grant from his office to State University of New York (SUNY) Downstate College of Medicine that will help fund a new Food as Medicine Initiative, a supplemental program to the existing nutrition curriculum in the school. The initiative will offer online courses to students free of charge from eCornell and the Gaples Institute to SUNY Downstate College of Medicine and School of Public Health, which will be open for enrollment this month.

“My own personal health journey of overcoming Type 2 diabetes taught me the importance of a healthy diet. During that time, I also learned how few practicing doctors are aware that food can be medicine, and students training for the medical profession often receive little to no nutrition education. We believe the Food as Medicine Initiative will change the paradigm, ensuring that future doctors, nurses, and other health care professionals are armed with the knowledge about the benefits of plant-based eating, so they can more effectively treat patients suffering from certain chronic diseases and encourage them to lead a healthier lifestyle,” said Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams.

“This program is a testament to the dedication of our student-run Lifestyle Medicine Interest Group and the wonderful collaboration between the SUNY Downstate Committee on Plant-Based Health and Nutrition and the Office of Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams,” said SUNY Downstate Otolaryngology Distinguished Professor and Chair Richard Rosenfeld.

“Diabetes and cardiovascular disease are highly prevalent in our communities, and plant-forward nutrition is a powerful tool for prevention and treatment. We are excited to share this great educational content with our medical and public health students,” said SUNY Downstate Epidemiology and Biostatistics Associate Professor and Interim Chair Elizabeth P. Helzner, PhD, MS.

Last year, SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University created the Committee on Plant-Based Health and Nutrition, a multidisciplinary effort by the College of Medicine, School of Public Health, and the Office of the Brooklyn Borough President. Within the College of Medicine, students initiated the Downstate Initiative on Nutrition Empowerment (DINE) Club and a Lifestyle Medicine Interest Group (LMIG), the latter being the only official LMIG in the New York metropolitan region under the auspices of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine. Together, these initiatives aim to help the population of Central Brooklyn, an area that suffers from the highest rates of diet-related illnesses in the entire city, prevent, treat, and potentially reverse, conditions that include Type 2 diabetes, obesity, heart disease, and some cancers.

In September 2020, Borough President Adams released a report in partnership with the Harvard Law School’s Food Law and Policy Clinic outlining several steps the City and State could take to promote more physician and health professional training on diet and nutrition. The report noted that several comorbidities associated with COVID-19 were diet-related, underscoring the urgent need to fight these diseases and improve health outcomes, particularly in underserved communities.

This press release was produced by the Office of the Brooklyn Borough President. The views expressed are the author's own.