MEET DR. SHAD MARVASTI | SEPTEMBER 8TH, 2024
First, for those who may not know you. Please share a little background about yourself and your journey as a physician and medical educator.
Dr. Shad Marvasti is a physician trained in family medicine, public health and integrative medicine. Dr. Marvasti notes that the chronic diseases of our time are sensitive to both diet and lifestyle. Recent research has shown that the social, behavioral, and lifestyle determinants of health that vary depending on our zip code and how we live are more impactful than our genetic code for determining risk for chronic diseases like diabetes or heart disease. Dr. Marvasti has been working to redesign medical education and healthcare to take a proactive, prevention focused approach rather than a reactive, acute care approach.
Can you share more about your work to innovate the current medical school curriculum to integrate more food into medicine topics and why that is so important?
Acting to transform medical education as an associate professor, Dr. Shad is redesigning the 4-year medical school curriculum to include wellness, nutrition, culinary medicine, integrative and lifestyle medicine to prevent disease and maintain health throughout the lifespan.
Dr. Shad served as Adjunct Clinical Faculty at the Stanford School of Medicine from 2011 to 2019. He has been a part of the faculty at The University of Arizona College of Medicine Phoenix since 2014 and currently serves as an Associate Professor. He has brought over 1 million dollars in foundation support for a number of innovative programs that he has started at the university. Dr. Shad is the founding Director of The Culinary Medicine Program at the University of Arizona College of Medicine Phoenix and the co-founder of the UArizona Culinary Medicine Initiative. Dr. Shad is also the founding Director of the Wellness, Integrative Medicine, and Nutrition Certificate of Distinction at the University of Arizona College of Medicine Phoenix.
What guidance may you have for pre-med students, medical students, and residents to engage patients in culturally sensitive and humble ways about making changes in their lifestyle?
Dr. Marvasti believes that it is “important to know that every culture has its eating traditions and versions of traditions that are based in real foods. He also believes that “it is important to look at cultural traditions, and to recognize the difference between processed and real foods, and to find variety in culture and flavors.” For example, the Ayurvedic diet, classifies foods, depending on the type of dosha (translates to “fault, defect, or one to cause a problem, a word originated from the Sanskrit language).
We are hearing a lot in the news about various medications on the market being used for for weight loss, like the GLP1 medications. For patients who are concerned about medication side effects or do not have insurance coverage for medications like these, are there approaches to food choices and dietary practices that might also be very effective?
Dr. Marvasti believes that, for example, for those who have type 2 diabetes or are overweight, diet can not only prevent/treat these health conditions but reverse them. Specifically, at Dr. Marvasti’s practice, he gives his patients “food prescriptions,” which are ways patients can access local produce through a healthcare setting. For example, Dr. Marvasti created a plan to treat someone with uncontrolled blood sugars so their sugars could be reversed, and within 3-4 months, the patient’s A1C was reversed entirely, just by diet and lifestyle changes. Even for other conditions like hypertension and hyperlipidemia, diet/lifestyle changes are essential.
For people on a GLP-1 medication, it is advised for patients to include protein in the body, practice resistance training, and eat nutrient-dense foods along with healthy lifestyle changes.
In your integrative medicine practice, what do you find to be reliable sources of evidence-based medicine to choose between various therapy options?
Dr. Marvasti recommended PubMed, a free and accessible database from the National Institute of Health (NIH). Dr. Marvasti did a 2-year fellowship in Integrative Medicine at the Andrew Weil Center for Integrative Medicine.
One of my hobbies is making fresh smoothies and plant-based foods. Do you have a favorite smoothie recipe you’d like to share or a healthy snack you use as a go-to during days that are very busy?
A favorite smoothie recipe Dr. Marvasti shared that could also be used as a go-to during very busy days, would consist of raw tree nuts/seeds (walnuts, pecans, pistachios, almonds, pumpkin seeds) paired with whole fruits. However, Dr. Marvasti's favorite smoothie consists of blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, avocados, soy milk, a little bit of vanilla extract, maple syrup or dates.
As a medical educator, physician, and patient advocate, what do you most want to accomplish during your career or want your legacy to be?
Dr. Marvasti wants to “be able to create a model of medical education that focuses on prevention rather than only on medications. Diet is the number one risk factor for preventable premature disease and death so there needs to be more nutrition in medical education.” Dr. Marvasti shared that “despite having 19 hours of nutrition education, there is a big disconnect on how much physicians are learning.”He also shared that we are learning and developing nutrition competencies to become a standard part of our curriculum. We are also creating innovative models of healthcare, focusing more on prevention, food and exercise prescriptions, and more on value-based healthcare.
Dr. Marvasti also shared during the interview that there are different food-based medicine institutes that share the same approach as the University of Arizona College of Medicine-Phoenix, such as the Tufts Food/Medicine Institute.
What advice do you have for pre-medical or medical students who want to integrate culinary medicine into their future practices?
Some of the specific advice that Dr. Marvasti shared for pre-medical and medical students who want to integrate culinary medicine into their future practices would be to “look into resources and websites that focus on evidence-based courses,” such as the following (Bluezones Health, Andrew Weil Center For Integrative Medicine, National Center For Complimentary Health At the National Insitute of Health (NIH), UC Irvine, UCLA, UCSF, and Duke).
Lastly, if you had to recommend one single food to people globally, what food would you recommend and why?
One specific food that Dr. Marvasti would recommend to people globally would be whole plant foods that have protective chemicals, such as berries, nuts, leafy greens, and beans.
By: Dr. Shad Marvasti and Himanshi Kapoor