The path to a med student’s brain is through the stomach: the importance of food in medical school

Wait…anatomically that doesn’t make any sense?  Though I guess glucose does have to make it through your gut before your brain can use it as fuel!

Timbits, free pizza, fruit trays, snacks for small group learning, lunchtime sandwiches…This post is all about food and the relatively central role it seems to be playing in my medical education. “Food? Really?…central to medical education?” you might ask. Yes…it comes up a lot- just ask any medical student. I am not talking about learning diet counselling for patients (maybe something we should learn more about), I am talking about medical students’ consumption of food. Here are just a few examples of what I mean.

• When interest groups (extracurricular student-led groups that are focused on specific areas of medicine i.e. Family Medicine, Psychiatry, Aboriginal Health, HIV etc.) are advertising an event the type of food being served is promoted equally or more than the presenter or topic.
  
• For small group learning sessions (6 students + 1 faculty member) we often assign roles including facilitator, note-taker and snack provider. In fact, the role of snack provider was highlighted in the course introduction as essential.
• We used red and blue smarties to learn about gas exchange. Then we get to eat the smarties.
• Our class has a close connection with the wonderful lady who runs the coffee shop in the medical building. We give her birthday gifts, stop to chat and always grab a cup of Joe.
• It’s a great day when the person sitting next to you brings a box of timbits for an early morning lecture. That person always seems to share generously.
• One student in our class bakes cupcakes, truffles or some other delicious snack each and every month for 100 students to celebrate the birthdays
• Food in the hospital could be a whole other topic! Maybe I’ll discuss again clerkship. Funny anecdote for now: We are all enjoying some apples and caramel dip when a nurse comes. One person asks “did you get the dip [referring to the caramel and apples]”. “No I couldn’t get her to pee [referring to her patient that needed a urinalysis]”.

So, what are the implications of all this food that works its way into medical school both formally and informally. I would argue they are huge.

• First off, there may be a few more people in our class who later choose to practice  family medicine. It is well known that the Family Med Interest Group has the best food. They don’t do pizza. They bring in Thai food, Greek food, sushi etc. The real deal, every Monday night. Now, I am not saying that people choose family medicine for the food but the food gets them out to the meeting, they like what they hear then think “hey, maybe this is for me”. No joke, food (whether it be interest groups or at rounds) might be impacting students’ career choices. Somebody should study this.
• The idea that food can be an important part of  an effective team is working its way into our understanding. Now is this true? I think so. Evolutionarily it is hard to believe that coming from primates we have a desire to share food. But a few reasonable theories exist about why we do so:

1. We share food with children so that they can survive [pretty good reason but not applicable to med school].
2. We share food with unrelated adults for sex [again not particularly applicable to med school but may substantiate the saying “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach”]
3. We share food with unrelated adults to form and strengthen coalitions [now this makes sense for teams in med school]

• Many of us spend a bunch of time eating alone…grabbing a bite to eat while we are studying, or a quick something on the way home from the gym. Sharing of food at school is something that we don’t do often enough outside of class so we find another way to work it into our lives. This might be evidence that we need to work harder to find time to share food outside of the classroom.

So here are the take home messages- medical students like food, medical students like free food, medical students should spend more time sharing food in a social setting and yes, food likely makes teams more effective. What is your experience with food in medical school or teams?