Serving biochemistry with a side of shrimp

When two chefs started frying up a sizzling pan of fresh gulf shrimp onstage at the Tulane School of Medicine's main lecture hall recently, one thing was clear — this wasn't your typical lipids lecture.

Chefs Michael Makuch and Leah Sarris, both professors from the College of Culinary Arts at Johnson & Wales University, spent an hour showing first-year medical students how to use what they were learning about healthy fats to prepare healthy food in the kitchen.

The goal is to translate the nutrition science lesson into practical cooking advice that students can use and pass on to patients.

The demonstration was part of a pilot for a new School of Medicine plan to add cooking and nutrition into the first- and second-year curricula. It included a morning metabolic biochemistry lecture on lipid metabolism and a presentation about healthy fats, followed by the cooking demonstration.

The day concluded with a team-based learning class on lipid nutrition and patient case studies.

“We used the cooking demonstration as a touchstone to reinforce what they learned in biochemistry, and the team-based learning class was about the clinical applications of tying it all together for patients,” says Dr. Timothy Harlan, assistant professor of clinical medicine.

Harlan organized the program with David Franklin, associate professor of biochemistry, and Dr. Chayan Chakraborti, assistant professor of medicine.

The idea is part of a new movement Harlan calls “culinary medicine,” which recognizes that physicians must address food and unhealthy eating habits that contribute to today's leading health problems such as obesity, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure and more. So far, students are hungry for more.

“It's exciting,” says MD/MPH student Dominique Monlezun. “This is a new way we can reach patients that is creative, bold and has a lot of promise.”