Medical School to Offer Plant-Based Program

Beginning in July, the Maine Medical Center in Portland, ME will offer a two-year residency program focused on plant-based dietary medicine to aspiring doctors. Founded on the principle of preventing disease with diet as opposed to attempting to treat it with prescription medicine, the program will offer a curriculum structured around studies that link plant-based diets and health. “I think we are starting to see a fairly significant grassroots movement where people are realizing there is another path than taking all these medicines,” Barnard Medical Center’s James Loomis told the Portalnd Press Herald. This program is a step toward educating medical professionals about incorporating plant-based nutrition into their practice, a movement spearheaded by the Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine that advocates shifting to a vegan diet as a form of preventive medicine.