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As Americans, we think of food as something that should fill our belly and please our mouth. Sure, food should do both these things, but it seems like we underestimate the importance of nutrition<\/em>. Food should also provide vitamins and nutrients \u2013 nourishment.<\/p>\n Do you like how I use we<\/em> here \u2013 my seemingly passive aggressive way of saying other people? <\/em>But, I don\u2019t really mean other people, by we<\/em> I mean me<\/em>, the me I was in my 20s. I spent the first 25 years of my life with a vague recollection that broccoli was good for me. Clearly this post is all about the new me lecturing the old me. Good, now that we\u2019ve got that out of the way\u2026<\/p>\n When I was diagnosed with cancer, my gastro intestinal problems were so bad I was hardly eating. I was starving, malnourished. None of my doctors ever mentioned nutrition. The cancer video they showed in the chemo room only encouraged us to \u201ctreat\u201d ourselves to our favorite sugary, fatty foods.<\/p>\n Research increasingly points to the link between nutritional deficiency and illness<\/a>. A new study shows the lack of nutritional education at medical schools. Most schools don\u2019t provide the recommended 25 hour minimum<\/a>.<\/p>\n If doctors don\u2019t talk to their patients about nutrition aren\u2019t they leaving out an important part of healing? But where does nutrition fit in the already long and complex medical training?<\/p>\n Combine that lack of knowledge and information with the dismal state of hospital food and it seems like the medical system needs a Jamie Oliver-style cafeteria overhaul. Dr. Preston Maring might be the perfect candidate. He\u2019s a gynecologist and obstetrician with three decades as a surgeon, who is well known as a former physician-in-chief at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Oakland. He\u2019s established an organic farmer\u2019s market outside the doors of the hospital<\/p>\n