IHN Brings Lifestyle Medicine Education to the Next Generation of Health Professionals
This summer, the Institute of Human Nutrition (IHN) partnered with CU-HERE (Columbia University Health Sciences Exploration and Research Experience) to bring interactive nutrition and lifestyle education to high school students from Harlem and the Bronx interested in pursuing careers in medicine and healthcare.
Nutrition and lifestyle behaviors play a major role in many of the chronic diseases that are among the leading causes of death in the United States. Poor nutrition and physical inactivity increase the risk of conditions including cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, and certain cancers, making prevention an essential component of long-term health. For future health professionals, understanding these connections early can help shape both how they care for their patients and how they care for themselves.
Founded in 2022 by Columbia breast surgeon Lisa Wiechmann, MD, CU-HERE provides high school students with immersive exposure to careers in healthcare through clinical observation, research, and hands-on learning. The program was created to give students an opportunity to experience the breadth of the medical field while connecting with clinicians, researchers, and other health professionals across Columbia University Irving Medical Center.
As part of this experience, IHN alumni Autumn Porter, MS, a researcher in the St-Onge Lab, and Sam Fisher, MS, led interactive Lunch and Learn sessions and hands-on workshops exploring nutrition, physical activity, sleep, and culinary medicine.
From Nutrition Science to Everyday Life
The sessions introduced students to the foundations of nutrition while emphasizing how to translate science into everyday choices. Students explored macronutrients and micronutrients; key nutrients including iron, magnesium, fiber, and omega-3 fatty acids; balanced meals; and healthy dietary patterns such as the Mediterranean diet. The curriculum also highlighted the principles shared across healthy cultural food traditions.
Interactive activities gave students opportunities to put that knowledge into practice. They evaluated meals and identified realistic ways to improve them, learned to interpret nutrition labels, examined added sugar in common beverages, and discussed practical strategies for hydration and nutritious snacking.
Hands-on culinary medicine workshops extended those lessons into the kitchen, allowing students to connect nutrition science with the practical skills involved in preparing nourishing meals.
Connecting Nutrition, Sleep, and Health
The program emphasized that lifestyle behaviors are interconnected. Students learned about the importance of sleep for metabolic health, cognition, emotional regulation, learning, memory, and immune function, as well as the increased sleep needs of adolescents.
They also explored the bidirectional relationship between sleep and diet, including how insufficient sleep can influence food choices and energy intake and how dietary patterns and specific nutrients may influence sleep quality. Together with discussions of physical activity, these lessons encouraged students to view health holistically and understand how everyday behaviors work together to influence well-being.
Preparing Healthier Healthcare Professionals
Future physicians and health professionals will spend their careers caring for others, making it important that they also develop the tools to care for themselves. Establishing healthy habits around nutrition, movement, sleep, and cooking early can support their well-being and help prevent burnout as they progress through college, medical school, and their future careers.
These skills can also shape how they eventually care for patients. Health professionals who understand both the science and practical realities of healthy eating, physical activity, sleep, and behavior change are better equipped to incorporate prevention into patient care and translate evidence into realistic guidance.
By introducing lifestyle medicine at the beginning of students' journeys, the IHN and CU-HERE collaboration aims to help cultivate a generation of health professionals who recognize the power of prevention and understand that caring for their own health is an important part of caring for others.