I could see tears welling up in her eyes. I waited in line to ask a question to the speaker after a talk about how nutrition affects diabetes and witnessed a moving moment. An elderly woman came to the medical school campus to listen to this talk because of her personal battle against diabetes. After seeing the evidence from the speaker’s research and learning about practical ways to change her diet with more natural foods, a sense of hope, lost since her diagnosis, was restored within her. A short talk about nutrition translational research and evidence-based practice empowered a patient to take control of her health. I stood there amazed. In a similar way, I want to promote natural foods as a tool to guide and equip my future patients and their communities to make more healthful decisions as a primary care physician. As an avid home cook, learning about the biochemistry involved in vitamins and minerals gave a newfound appreciation for the natural foods that I ate and cooked. Given how things we consume substantially affect our health, it shocked me that the bulk of our preclinical training as it pertained to nutrition did not go beyond the generic advice of eating healthier and exercising more. However, through the Community and Urban Health scholarly concentration available at my school, I was able to engage in topics relating to food insecurity and participate in a longitudinal service-learning program with a nonprofit organization that provides nutritionally tailored meals and diet counseling for chronically ill patients and their families. I recognized that my overlapping interest in food, basic science, and public health could be utilized in health interventions and the empowerment of disadvantaged and marginalized members of our society to achieve better health outcomes. After my first year of medical school, I participated in the Clinical Nutrition Internship Program held by the American Society for Nutrition. I worked alongside physicians and dietitians and practiced different strategies in the education and coaching of patients to better follow diets consisting of natural foods. I also participated in cooking demonstrations at farmer's markets to show how fresh produce some people may be unfamiliar with could be used day to day. This internship motivated me to continue pursuing avenues that can promote health through healthy eating and natural foods. I currently am a patient navigator at the Family Lifestyle Program with the Children's National Hospital in Washington DC, where I connect families to community resources that can encourage healthier lifestyles. Many of our patients are from food deserts and do not have easy access to natural foods. A big part of my role is to register families with federal programs that make eating natural foods easier, such as SNAP and WIC. I also introduce families to many partnering organizations such as community gardens, farmers markets, and cooking classes and find ways to overcome barriers to accessing these resources. I have also engaged personally in the cooking classes, many of which promote the Mediterranean diet and encourage the use of olive oil to promote heart health. I am confident that this work gives me a fluency of the resources in my community and a comprehensive understanding of how my patients engage with natural foods. Like the speaker whose lifework in nutrition and diabetes made a profound impact to an audience member who heard him speak, I hope to make meaningful contributions to the lives of my patients and communities with the work I do and I will continue learning and seeking opportunities to help individuals eat more natural and healthy foods.

The voices of healthcare professionals carry immense weight. Even as a medical student, I see how I can facilitate change in the lives of my friends and family when I share about the things I learn, such as with my father regarding his diet and recent pre-diabetes diagnosis. As a future physician, I realize that the things I say and do have the power to profoundly impact the lives of those around me and I am committed to focus my energy for the underserved and marginalized. I desire to leverage my voice as a future medical professional in the advocacy and empowerment of my patients and their communities alongside an inter-professional team of healthcare providers. During my preclinical years of medical school, I volunteered at an organization called Food and Friends that provides nutritionally tailored meals for chronically ill patients and their families. As a volunteer, I prepared and delivered food to patients, many of whom live in wards 7 and 8, DC’s poorest neighborhoods without access to healthcare or affordable, nutritious foods. I entered patients’ homes and saw how their living situation made it difficult for them to store their food and medications and hear about the difficulties of managing their chronic conditions. I saw firsthand how illness touches every aspect of a person’s life and how individuals from historically marginalized communities face unique challenges that lie at the intersection of physiology and the social determinants of health. My experiences volunteering informed how I worked with patients as a volunteer and patient navigator at the Healing Clinic, a free clinic that serves low income and uninsured patients. A patient named Ms. K, came to the clinic to follow up on hypertension. I learned that she faced increased anxiety due recent unemployment and also had a lapse of health insurance coverage. This anxiety has also compromised the quality of her sleep. The attending and I counseled her on sleep hygiene and also adjusted her medications. As a patient navigator, I connected Ms. K to a community health worker to enroll her in insurance and also free behavioral health services to help her manage her anxiety. Within a month, her blood pressure, anxiety levels, and sleep quality improved markedly. Exploring things other than Ms. K’s physiological symptoms allowed me to counsel her in a way that empowered her with specific tools in light of her current situation. In addition, I saw how crucial it was to engage a multidisciplinary team that included a patient navigator and behavioral health specialist to approach her case from a variety of perspectives. Working with patients like Ms. K also motivated me to gain a MPH to gain insight on the structural factors that affect a patient's health. The experiences I have now are preparing me for my future career in primary care. Clearer understanding of the social determinants of health as well as how illness profoundly affects a patient’s experiences brings greater strength to my voice as I grow as physician and public health professional.