Nutrition Education

Nutrition Curriculum at The UCF College of Medicine

Building Healthier Futures: UCF’s Commitment to Nutrition in Medical Education 

Since its founding in 2006, the University of Central Florida College of Medicine has advanced an innovative curriculum designed to prepare physicians for the challenges of 21st-century healthcare. Central to this mission is a commitment to nutrition education because improving health through better nutrition represents one of the greatest opportunities in medicine.  

Nutrition Competencies are Embedded Across the UCF Curriculum 

UCF’s curriculum reflects a longitudinal, competency-based approach to nutrition education across all four years of medical school. Nutrition is not taught as an isolated topic, or an add-on in the curriculum. 

It is woven into the basic sciences and then extended through clinical learning, so all 120 students in each class can apply evidence-based nutrition principles at the point of care. This structure ensures that every UCF medical student learns not only what the science says about nutrition, but also how to incorporate that knowledge into real clinical practice. 

Pre-Clerkship Training

During the first two years of medical school, nutrition is woven into coursework in physiology, biochemistry, immunology and 
pathology, so students understand how dietary patterns influence molecular pathways, inflammation, metabolic function, cancer risk and gastrointestinal health. This instruction reinforces nutrition as a core element of medical science and clinical reasoning.  

Clinical Education

Nutrition education continues across the core clinical clerkships in the students’ third and fourth year. Here they apply nutrition competencies in real-world patient care across specialties and develop the ability to provide tailored, meaningful nutrition guidance in prevention and disease management.  

Community Learning

Community‑based learning further reinforces nutrition competencies. For example, at the student‑run free KNIGHTS Clinic, students work alongside a dedicated nutrition educator, practicing how to assess dietary behaviors, support patient decision‑making and offer practical, evidence‑based recommendations that promote long‑term health. 

Integration

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A Multidisciplinary Faculty Team

Nutrition education at UCF is delivered by a collaborative, multidisciplinary team of faculty whose expertise reflects the complexity of nutrition health in modern healthcare.

This team includes basic scientists, physicians, culinary medicine instructors, chefs, public health experts and behavioral health specialists. This multidisciplinary approach ensures students learn nutrition from the classroom to the kitchen, strengthening their scientific understanding and practical clinical competence.

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Evidence-Based, Prevention-Focused, Patient-Centered

The UCF College of Medicine emphasizes evidence-based nutrition education that promotes preventing disease and improving long-term health outcomes. Through formal instruction and practical applications, students learn to:

  • Provide effective nutrition education to patients
  • Address root causes of chronic disease
  • Integrate dietary guidance into routine patient care
  • Promote prevention and wellness at both the individual and community levels   

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Culinary Medicine: Translating Science to Practice

A defining feature of UCF’s commitment to nutrition education is the Culinary Medicine elective, which provides hands‑on training in applying nutrition science to patient care. Guided by physicians, registered dietitians and chefs, fourth‑year students learn practical cooking skills while studying disease‑specific dietary recommendations. The elective is taught through a partnership that includes UCF’s nationally recognized Rosen College of Hospitality Management, the Orange County Department of Health and community organizations working to improve public health through nutrition education.

Our Champion 

Expert Guidance, National Impact 

She guides a vision of sustained excellence in nutrition education across the UME program. 

Magdalena Pasarica MD, PhD 

Nutrition Champion | Assistant Dean for Medical Education
Family Medicine Physician | PhD in Nutrition

Dr. Magdalena Pasarica is a nationally recognized physician-scientist and educator whose work has shaped how nutrition is taught, learned and practiced in medical education. Dually trained as a family medicine physician and nutrition scientist, she brings a rare combination of clinical excellence, translational research expertise and educational leadership, advancing a vision in which nutrition for disease prevention and treatment is not an “add-on,” but a core part of physician identity.

As Assistant Dean for Medical Education, Dr. Pasarica leads the integration of nutrition across all phases of undergraduate medical education by embedding nutrition competencies into foundational science teaching, clinical skills training, clerkship experiences and community-based learning.

Our Plan For Enhancing The Nutrition Curriculum In The Required MD Program

The UCF College of Medicine will further integrate nutrition competencies across the undergraduate medical education program through our rigorous curriculum mapping process. This system aligns active learning pedagogical approaches with high-quality assessments across our learning environments. 

Consistent with our established instructional model, we will emphasize competency-based integration through case-directed learning, flipped classroom and clinical teaching. The curriculum will be optimized through an evidence-based, iterative quality improvement process, and the resulting tools, resources, and outcomes will be disseminated to the national medical education community to support broader adoption and continuous improvement. We will tag nutrition competencies within the curriculum database to enable efficient reporting and ongoing analysis of integration. 

Nutrition competencies will be tracked as part of our standard annual quality improvement cycle using learner performance metrics and course/clerkship feedback to drive improvements. As part of our effort to share best practices across medical education broadly, we will maintain a public implementation plan on a publicly searchable website to demonstrate transparency, document progress and reinforce institutional commitment.

Clinical & Community Impact 

UCF is deeply committed to improving patient and population health. Our nutrition education initiative advances this mission by preparing students to apply nutrition principles in clinical settings and deliver compassionate, evidence based care. 

More Nutrition News

For nutrition program questions please email magdalena.pasarica@ucf.edu and for media inquiries please email wendy.sarubbi@ucf.edu