title: [The teaching of nutrition at medical schools:current situation].
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Although doctors, students and teachers all coincide in acknowledging the need for an appropriate knowledge of human nutrition in order to practice medicine, the inclusion of this discipline in the undergraduate curriculum has been rather scant. Until a few years ago, there were only two medical schools in Spain with a compulsory course in nutrition as part of the syllabus.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  An attempt will be made to assess the current status of the teaching of nutrition within the syllabuses for a degree in Medicine and Surgery at Spanish universities.
  
  
  METHODS
  The syllabuses of 27 Faculties of Medicine in Spain have been consulted to find out: 1) if there are specific subjects on nutrition, feeding and/or dietetics, 2) if these subjects are compulsory or optional, and 3) if there are specific issues from this area included within other subjects.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results of the query show that 7 schools (approximately 25% of the total) teach a compulsory subject on nutrition or dietetics whereas 17 have at least one optional subject in this field, particularly during the second or specialization stage, with a mean content worth 4.5 credits. Furthermore, 3 of the schools offer both compulsory and optional courses simultaneously. Within the course material of the core subjects included in the second stage of the degree, the subjects of Endocrinology, Metabolism and Paediatrics seem to be the ones most commonly including clinical nutrition topics, generally with a very small relative weight.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results obtained show an increasing interest in the creation of distinctive subjects for nutrition and/or dietetics. Nonetheless, this is still mainly an optional subject and the integration of human nutrition into the syllabus for core subjects seems insufficient for its to be considered a good alternative.
authors.affiliation: Unitat de Nutrició Humana, Facultat de Medicina i Ciències de la Salut de Reus, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Sant Llorenç, 21, 43201 Reus, España.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sánchez
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: García-Lorda
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bulló
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Balanzà
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Megias
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Salas-Salvadó
mesh_terms: D003479:Curriculum / Q000592:standards*; D004501:Education, Medical; D006801:Humans; D052756:Nutritional Sciences / Q000193:education*; D012577:Schools, Medical / Q000458:organization & administration; D013030:Spain; D013663:Teaching; D014495:Universities / Q000458:organization & administration