New Paper Published on Medical Nutrition Education

We are very excited to share the new paper our Deputy Chief Executive and members of the AfN Inter-Professional Group on Medical (Nutrition) Education have had jointly published in the British Journal of Nutrition & BMJ Nutrition, Prevention & Health.

The paper titled “Putting nutrition education on the table: development of a curriculum to meet future doctors’ needs”, details the need for our future doctors to receive a foundation of training in nutrition science and the development of the AfN UG Curriculum in Nutrition for Medical Doctors, which has been created to support medical schools in meeting this need.

“The NHS Long Term Plan shone a spotlight on the inadequacy of nutrition education in the medical training of the majority of our future doctors. The curriculum this paper reports on is not about training our doctors to be nutritionists or dietitians, but it is about providing them with the skills and confidence to be able to identify when nutrition could be influencing a patient’s health, being able to start a conversation about one of the most significant influencers on our health, and them having the understanding to know who, when and how to refer on to nutrition professionals when additional support and expertise is required.”

Dr Glenys Jones RNutr
Deputy CEO, Association for Nutrition

Jones, G., Macaninch, E., Mellor, D. D., Spiro, A., Martyn, K., Butler, T., Johnson, A. and Moore, J. B. (2022) Putting nutrition education on the table: development of a curriculum to meet future doctors’ needs, British Journal of Nutrition. Cambridge University Press, pp. 1–9. doi: 10.1017/S0007114522001635.

NB – This paper was published as online editions during the period of mourning for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. Therefore as a mark of respect for the Queen and her families’ devoted service to the nation, promotion of this paper has not been undertaken during the period of mourning.