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For
almost two years, the American Botanical Council’s (ABC) Education Coordinator
Jenny Perez has directed the Food as Medicine and Garden Apothecary internship projects
as essential components of ABC’s internship programs for dietetic and pharmacy
students, respectively. The programs are conducted in conjunction with Texas
State University’s Dietetics Program and the University of Texas College of
Pharmacy. Upon Jenny’s arrival at ABC, she collaborated with ABC Special
Projects Director Gayle Engels to develop the curriculum.
“We were just trying to figure out a way of tying in ABC’s extensive herb gardens
to the internships,” said Perez (oral communication, June 16, 2014). “It’s one
of our most important assets here…. It was a way we could connect the student
to the garden and the research to the food.”
ABC’s Food as Medicine project is based on a course Perez taught at Bastyr
University in Kenmore, Washington, called “Herbs and Food.” She challenges
students to study plants from a more creative and scientific perspective,
looking beyond conventional nutrients like macro- and micronutrients to other bioactive
compounds and their therapeutic properties. “We also focus on the reason the
students themselves chose the path of being a dietitian,” said Perez. “The
typical rotation includes a focus on food security, organic versus conventional
food production, why people have such a limited diet, and how we can try to
change that…. I think it broadens their ability to understand plants.”
Dietetic interns join the ABC team for a two-week rotation as part of a series
of required internships designed to expose the students to a variety of
potential jobs in their field. Pharmacy interns choose these rotations as an
elective, and they come to ABC for six weeks. “Most of the pharmacy interns who
have studied at ABC want to be community pharmacists so they need to know about
those brown bottles with dropper
tops and the variety of dietary and herbal supplements that are out there that
people self-select,” said Perez. “If the healthcare provider has no
understanding of those supplements, herbal medicine is not going to have a
place at the table.”
“It made me a more holistic practitioner, that I’m better at seeing a bigger
picture to health,” said Anne Semrau, who came to ABC as a dietetic intern in
early June from Texas State University (email, June 20, 2014). “The most
interesting part was learning to think of the secondary metabolites as being
just as significant to health as the other nutrients. The most challenging was
trying to understand the chemistry! …. I really appreciate the science-based
aspect at ABC.”
The Food as Medicine project encompasses botany, ethnobotany, horticulture, and
basic kitchen medicine. Interns study the origins of a specific plant that is in
season in Central Texas at the time of their rotation and design a simple
consumer handout as well as a more complex, clinician-oriented community
nutrition document about the therapeutic aspects of the plant’s constituents.
Students are encouraged to get “back to the roots” (“Pun intended,” Perez said
with a laugh) of health and medicine and spend most of their rotation out in
ABC’s medicinal gardens and greenhouse, occasionally making side trips to
farmer’s markets and meeting with local herbalists. Many of the students have
little-to-no background in herbal medicine or gardening, which Perez perceives
as vital but frequently absent skills. Without a basic understanding of how
soil, seeds, and plants are connected, she is concerned that the information
they learn will be less meaningful and complete.
For their final project, the students deliver a short presentation on their
chosen plant and prepare a simple dish that features it. The presentations
include the interns’ handouts and information on their selected plant’s nutritional
and therapeutic qualities, so they must research and analyze the current
scientific literature on their topic. Previous Food as Medicine projects have
highlighted strawberries (Fragaria vesca,
Rosaceae), green onions (Allium
fistulosum, Amaryllidaceae), and butternut squash (Cucurbita moschata, Cucurbitaceae). “It’s an interactive show-and-tell,
taste-and-smell experience for everyone,” said Perez. With simple adapted
recipes, the students showcase not only the healing benefits of their plant,
but also how to make it appealing and relevant to their audience."
“I would read stuff [about herbals] that I came across and I always thought it
was interesting, but [I] really [had] no prior knowledge,” wrote Semrau, who
researched and presented on anise seed (Pimpinella
anisum, Apiaceae) for her project. “[Now] I am drinking different kinds of
herbal teas and seeking out new ones for therapeutic benefits. I am trying new
foods, like gobo (Arctium lappa, Asteraceae)
— I always thought that burdock was just an obnoxious weed.” She added that the
internship experience gave her an enhanced understanding of health and
medicine.
Perez says that she hopes ABC will put the students’ handouts and community
nutrition documents through its editorial peer-review process and make them
available online as part of ABC’s educational content. She believes that the information
will enlighten readers about the unexpected benefits plants have to offer,
encourage creativity, seasonal eating, and passing up processed food in favor
of fresh produce. “I like to say that every plant has a story, and every plant
needs an advocate,” said Perez. “We co-evolved with these plants and they’re
here to help us out.”
—Hannah Bauman
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