Metabolic Health and Nutrition

The national Metabolic Health and Nutrition Across the Life Span CME summit June 15-16 was a brainchild of my colleagues (Wolfram Alderson, Leslie Lee Sutton, and Dr. Uma Pisharody) at the Institute for Responsible Nutrition, a national organization I founded that has subsequently merged with EatREAL.org. Leslie has now joined with Dr. Pisharody and the amazing team at Swedish. Dr. Pisharody made headlines when she was successful getting juice off of the pediatric menu at Swedish. You may be aware of the research I have done showing the benefits to children after cutting fructose out of their diets for just 10 days. There are a number of reasons why such a CME conference is not only helpful to healthcare professionals, but groundbreaking:

• A third or less of doctors get nutrition education in medical school, and those that do, might only take a course or two. There has been a national call for improved nutrition education for doctors since the first dietary guidelines were launched in 1980, based on a 1977 report by the Senate Select Committee on Nutrition called, Dietary Goals for Americans.
• The stats on nutrition education in medical schools are getting worse not better – so the best place, right now, to educate healthcare professionals is in the “after-market” CME framework which is institutionalized and commonplace.
• Unfortunately, CME programs on nutrition have been infiltrated by companies such as Abbott or Nestle, who use their so-called nutrition “institutes” as a front for peddling CME programs / nutrition “education” that is nothing but a vehicle for marketing their sugar-shake products like Ensure or Boost. Even worse, CME programs are promulgated by mainstream healthcare institutions that promote drugs, devices, procedures and outdated nutrition information that is not only wrong, but harmful. Often these CME events are sponsored by big pharmaceutical companies and commercial interests – the CME programs are supposed to have policies in place to prevent influence, but as they say in Spanish, “Con dinero baila el perro.”

So, the dream of a national CME summit that would bring together movers and shakers who are busting paradigms and moving us away from coopted and misinformed (metabolic health and nutrition science) information came true – thanks to Swedish Hospital.

Present at our first CME summit, Pediatric Metabolic Health and Nutrition, (2017) was Dr. Guy Hudson, then Medical Director, and now CEO of Swedish. With a history in pediatrics, he was a natural advocate for our efforts. We focused on the the pediatric population first.

This year (2018), the focus was broadened to Metabolic Health and Nutrition Across the Life Span. In addition to forging out-of-the-box concepts and themes of the CME summit, hosting and facilitating, etc., my colleagues recruited nationally and internationally known talent, and, in order to really bring together a blockbuster group, all speakers were asked to forgo their speaker fees, which they have done, both year one and two, an indication of how much “skin in the game” our CME summit faculty has. Check out the brochure for this event.

There is a free companion event to this year’s CME summit, called “Metabolical You,” features myself and Dr. David Ludwig (our keynote speaker at the CME summit) is also being offered to the general public. Elliott Bay Books is also on board with the event.