[LEAKYSEALS951]

As a dental student, we got a lot of basic stuff as "hand me downs" from the med classes. For the first two years, many syllabus's (syllabi?) would have M1 crossed out and D1 written in it's place.

I hope med students get more. We had thorough teachings on biochemistry and how various things are processed in the body, but little on nutrition. Whereas premed course would teach the basics- organic chemistry "trans-fats, etc", the medical/dental biochem courses went into thorough details on all the chemical pathways. I remember briefly knowing it inside and out- how things were absorbed, how carbs got burnt, or got converted into fats, and vice versa. It was like Neo figuring out the matrix. For a brief moment, it was all clear.

Ironically, the biochemistry course I took had a catch. If you had an "A" average after the the majority of exams, you were exempt from the last portion of the class.

And the last portion of the class you could opt out of?- a week devoted to nutrition. Guess who was exempt from the last section- yours truly. In the context of all the other work/ exams going on, it was a strategic decision, yet I still remember wishing I had of been there that last week.

Since school, I have been to several continuing education classes that focus on nutrition. Even though they were not dentally related per se, I have always gotten a lot out of them.

Hopefully med schools these days do better. edit- even if the med schools do a thorough job on teaching it, there is the issue of how the doctor should teach it to a largely unreceptive audience in a gluttonous environment/society.