Written by Ally Jaffee, 4th year medical student & co-founder of Nutritank
What is Nutritank about?
I co-founded Nutritank with my medical student colleague Iain Broadley in 2017. We believed that nutrition and lifestyle medicine education in medical training was inadequate. Nutritank connects and empowers like-minded people who want to provide more meaningful patient advice, by expanding their knowledge of food, nutrition and lifestyle medicine. We believe that this will benefit medical professionals, patients and wider society.
We all have a responsibility to our current and future generations of doctors to make a change, and we are in the ideal position to make that difference. By working with medical schools, nutrition and dietetic organisations around the UK, Nutritank has evolved into an innovative information hub of food, nutrition and lifestyle medicine. Originating at Bristol Medical School in 2017, Nutritank now has over 15 Nutritank society branches at medical schools and is regularly involved with social media curating key projects on a local and national scale.
Our team is part of an inter-professional working group tasked by the General Medical Council (GMC) to ensure more nutrition education is integrated within UK undergraduate medical school curricula.
In 2019, we formed a coalition with the organisations NNEdPro (Need for Nutrition Education Programme) and Culinary Medicine UK, who share our belief in promoting greater nutrition and lifestyle medicine in medical education.
Check out our new website www.nutritank.com to explore our new e-learning resources around nutrition & lifestyle medicine and all the other amazing new functions.
Instagram: nutritank_official
Twitter: nutritank_info
Email: info@nutritank.com
What is Nutritank doing to support people during the Covid-19 pandemic?
1) Contribute to #beat_covid
2) Connect healthcare students with our Facebook platform – Healthcare Students United Against COVID-19
3) Collaborate with food brands to donate to NHS workers.
4) Create the social media campaign, #togetherevenwhenapart to promote community
What do we hope you learn from our content over this period?
We asked 20+ NHS workers and healthcare students* a series of questions to assess how they are coping with meal ideas, grocery shopping, and maintaining a healthy diet. The response was overwhelming! We hope it provides hope, support and empowerment.
We’ve also made a list of a few TAKE HOME MESSAGES – make sure to read at the bottom!
*we received permission to publish their data and their identities have been anonymised
Meal Ideas 🥝🥬🍑🍊🥑
Breakfast: Porridge
Lunch: Salad potato tuna etc, or egg on toast
Dinner: Spag Bol, chicken and rice, salmon and stir fry veg
GP- Manchester
Breakfast: Oats, blueberries and protein powder
Lunch: Fish/chicken, sweet potato chips and a vegetable
Dinner: Usually some meat/vegetarian option with veggies and rice
GP trainee
Breakfast: Yoghurt, granola and fruit (banana and frozen berries)
Lunch: Falafel wrap or salad
Dinner: Various. Fajitas, roast aubergine with tahini and pomegranate, roast veg salad, sweet potato fries with chicken, veg curry
Student in nutrition
Tips for healthy meal prep!
Batch cook on a Sunday, only have healthy stuff in your fridge! - GP- North West Surrey
Plan! If you can plan out a lunchtime and dinner menu, you will buy what you need and waste a lot less - Reg dietitian/ nutritionist
Break out the slow cooker, plenty of veg and loads of seasoning. GP-West Sussex
Essentials
Bananas (great frozen and blitzed into ice cream or made into healthy cookies/muffins). Eggs are a great source of protein and very versatile. Spinach is my go-to vegetable which can be stirred into any meal - GP- London
Make use of frozen, dried, tinned fruit and veg if you can! Be flexible with food combinations. Look after yourself - Reg dietitian/ nutritionist-West Yorkshire
LENTILS! Tinned tomatoes, beans, pulses. Aubergine. Spices. Bananas - Specialist Dr Bristol
Grocery shopping 🍎
Online local veg box - Specialist Doctor- King’s College Hospital, London
Prefer to use small local vendors in the area, rather than the big chains. Try to avoid peak/busy times, for obvious reasons! - Reg dietitian/ nutritionist- University of Surrey.
Online as much as possible once a week. If we can’t get a slot, we will shop once a week to minimise exposure. We’re also going to grow veggies in the garden - Reg dietitian/ nutritionist
Take home messages
Meal Preparation:
PLAN PLAN PLAN your meals to avoid waste and dissatisfaction
Keep it simple to save time and stress
Be creative with your ESSENTIAL staple ingredients
Make use of frozen tinned fruit & veg if you can’t get hold of fresh
Batch cook/Bulk make meals on the weekend when you have more time & STOCK your freezer with leftovers
Try to stick to normal routines – including regular meals!
Stock up on healthy snacks & avoid processed, sugary, unhealthy snacks
Groceries:
Those who can should make use of online food deliveries as they are able to receive a delivery
Buy local, avoid the crowds at big supermarkets!
Thank you for reading and stay safe everyone.
Lots of Nutritank love
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