Medical specialties involving nutrition?

[glue19]

Hey guys!
(Hopefully this is not the wrong place for this, but let me know if it is!...)
So I'm wondering if anyone has any ideas which medical specialties might be somewhat related to nutrition? Now that I'm finally accepted somewhere I feel like everyone keeps asking me what type of doctor I want to be, and it's kind of freaking me out a little cause I have no idea. So I know this is really premature, but I was a nutrition major and was wondering if there are any specialties/ areas of medicine that relate somewhat (even just a little) to nutrition? I guess preventative medicine or primary care might, but any other ideas?
Thanks!!!

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[The Knife & Gun Club]

So there are definitly some areas of medicine where nutrition is huge. However I don’t think it’s the same kind of “nutrition” you’re thinking of.

Nutrition majors at my college mostly talked about things like social effects of trans fats, what is/isn’t in a healthy diet, metabolisms of different types of foods, and how to improve diet in well people.

In hospital I know critical care deal heavily with nutrition, but usually it’s in critically ill patients receiving their nutrition intravenously. They focus on maximizing healing and meeting metabolic demands in people who are profoundly ill.

 

[themoonman2]

Pediatrics deals with nutrition quite a bit

 

[wholeheartedly]

I would think endocrine might touch on it a bit

 

[mistafab]

Pediatric endocrine does TONS of “nutrition” work. Many of the endo pts that roll in are showing up for “weight management counseling” and prevention of metabolic syndrome. You get your T1DM and some FTT thrown in here and there too.

That could be right up your alley.

 

[charleskay]

I believe Dietics is the best medical speciality for you. A dietitian alters their patient's nutrition based upon their medical condition and individual needs.

 

[glue19]

Thanks so much for the input and info!! I will definitely have to look into those specialties

 

[Redpancreas]

Surprised no one has mentioned GI. While the field doesn’t really delve into the area of what foods to eat/not eat, it has an important role for chronically malnourished patients as they are the ones who manage patient’s exact proportion of IV nutrition if you’re into that reductionist role if primary can’t.

 

[ciestar]

Family Medicine

 

[BigRedBeta]

Pediatric GI
Still have PTSD from the time when I was a fellow (I'm a PICU attending now) and a peds resident interested in GI spent 30 minutes on rounds going back and forth with the GI attending and Fellow on the best formula choice and feeding schedule for a patient we were co-managing...

 

[mvenus929]

I believe Dietics is the best medical speciality for you. A dietitian alters their patient's nutrition based upon their medical condition and individual needs.

A dietician is not a physician. Different paths.

OP, just about anything in pediatrics will have some nutrition thrown in. Specifically, as mentioned above, Peds GI and Endo deal with a lot of under and overweight children. The ICUs also deal with it, but usually rely on the dietician for input. Oh, and Peds GI and adolescent medicine see a lot of patients with eating disorders.

Family medicine or general internal medicine would also deal with nutrition, specifically in overweight adults. I imagine Adult GI also does some with nutrition, given Crohn's and liver failure patients. And nutritional deficiencies in gastric-bypass patients, though I'm not sure if GI or surgery manages those.

 

[NITRAS]

My wife is an RD. . . unless nutrition is all you care about, I'd advise against it. Hospital RD's work in hospital hours, do stupid nutrition counseling (imagine doing a DM or low sodium diet education on chronic noncompliant patients). My wife did enjoy her first job, where she worked a private hospital, had legitimate conversations with the ICU doc regarding tube feeds, TPN management. The pay is marginal, the RD people are starting to want a masters for some unknown reason. She currently works for one of the three letter national organizations, which she liked. . . until her boss quit and a ***** replace her. Her last day on the job is a couple weeks.

She wants to start a side hustle in pediatric nutrition, but you have to compete against all the "nutritionist" out there with their baloney pseudoscience.

There are certainly cushy jobs (working for several NH or SNFs or large school districts), but those are largely filled and only open when someone retires.

 

[The_Sunny_Doc]

I’m doing nutrition (specifically, obesity) research with the internal medicine and pediatrics departments of a medical school. I rotated with a Family Med doc who tailored his practice around weight loss, and enrolled people into a meal replacement program with coaching and a support group. Physicians who specialize in nutrition are more common in academia since they’re usually involved in some sort of research.

There are commercial clinics too that hire physicians to staff their weight loss programs. Google Physicians’ Weight Loss Center. I’d call then up and ask what their training for physicians consists of, and who they employ.

 

[glue19]

Thanks so much for all the responses, it's been really helpful!

 

[Taddy Mason]

As per above FM, general outpatient IM, Peds and a number of Peds subspecialties, Endo...But also bariatric surgery and medical genetics.

 

[thegreengreatdragon]

A sort of up-and-coming (and to be honest, a little trendy, perhaps) field is that of culinary medicine, if you're interested. I believe Tulane is really at the forefront of this, but my school has been holding culinary medicine workshops, so it seems to be catching on.
I don't think it's an actual specialty (yet), but it's an approach that could probably be utilized in primary care or GI.

 

[Redpancreas]

A sort of up-and-coming (and to be honest, a little trendy, perhaps) field is that of culinary medicine, if you're interested. I believe Tulane is really at the forefront of this, but my school has been holding culinary medicine workshops, so it seems to be catching on.
I don't think it's an actual specialty (yet), but it's an approach that could probably be utilized in primary care or GI.

I agree that it’s an approach, definitely not a field (now or in the future), but that’s my prediction. Doesn’t have anything proprietary that I think needs more than a year of training. I could see it being a one year fellowship of IM/FM/etc.

 

[thegreengreatdragon]

I agree that it’s an approach, definitely not a field (now or in the future), but that’s my prediction. Doesn’t have anything proprietary that I think needs more than a year of training. I could see it being a one year fellowship of IM/FM/etc.

I agree with you in that I don't think culinary medicine per se will become a well-established field (the term itself is very nebulous--I'm not sure what it entails except for cooking and some nutrition? Again, it's kind of hip right now), but I do think that generally speaking, across the board, as medicine starts to take lifestyle changes more seriously (when before, it seems, the emphasis was on medication), there will probably more room for OP to pursue his/her interest in nutrition.

 

[panda16]

In our ICU we have a dietician rounding with us because nutrition is so important to critical care medicine, i.e wound healing etc.

 

[Spectre of Ockham]

The only people that don't talk out of their ass when it comes to nutrition are diabetologist , basically a subspecialty of endocrinology.
They literally know stuff you never even mentioned of in any other treaties.

Feel free to throw in the garbage the "nutritionist" and "dieticians" they are less worthy than a well trained nurse and usually are not MDs. While a lot of specialties crave a piece of the "nutrition" market share you can usually see by the asinine studies they publish that they are pulling the pathology and physiology out of their sigmoid.

 

[Taddy Mason]

The only people that don't talk out of their ass when it comes to nutrition are diabetologist , basically a subspecialty of endocrinology.
They literally know stuff you never even mentioned of in any other treaties.

Feel free to throw in the garbage the "nutritionist" and "dieticians" they are less worthy than a well trained nurse and usually are not MDs. While a lot of specialties crave a piece of the "nutrition" market share you can usually see by the asinine studies they publish that they are pulling the pathology and physiology out of their sigmoid.

 

[PhillyMed777]

their ass when it comes to nutrition are diabetologist

That is just plain wrong. Having worked with some of the "best diabetes" docs and done research with endocrine/diabetes for an entire year at high volume i can assert looking back how basic, opiniated, and incorrect their thoughts were. Some of the stupid gems i heard included the following:
1) its only calories in and calores out (okay lets neglect hormones, and micronutrients?). So a 2000 kcal diet of potate chips is equal to a 2000 kcal diet that is balanced? Okayy...
2) sugar is fine. Peoples obsession with reducing sugar from beverages in overrated (i am not kidding. A renouned diabetes doctor once told me this)
3) the amount of salt you eat doesnt matter at all. In fact high salt is good! (Yup not kidding either)

Honestly the bro-science youtube videos showing diet options is a better bet for diet advice than any doctor. As a profession we are fat and unhealthy.

We know so little about metabolism. Even taking into consideration lack of complying with a given diet, its no wonder all these patients stay fat forever.

In my years as a med student/resident i rarely come accross a person who has lost weight and kept it off on their own.

Just a few thoughts with scary details