How we talk about food

Two stories from the last week have highlighted the complexities regarding communication about food. The Corn Refiners Association is looking a new word for high-fructose corn syrup, preferring the name corn sugar. But there are a lot of skeptics about the reason for the rebranding, as seen in the comments in the New York Times Health blog. While the Corn Refiners Association says they are looking for a more accurate name, some health advocates think the move is an effort to confuse consumers into thinking corn syrup is healthy.

The other story is about carrots. The baby carrot association is spending $25 million on a new advertising campaign to market the bite-sized carrots as a fun snack, even as fun as junk food. But it seems no matter how much health advocates push vegetables, it seems we are not eating them.

So why is communication about food so difficult? What strategies would you suggest to communicate about healthy food?

Communication through touch

The New York Times Well blog has an interesting discussion today about a recent JAMA essay. In the JAMA essay, a medical student contemplates even and when it is appropriate to hold a patient's hand. Some of the Well commenters were mystified that a medical student would even need to ask if it is appropriate to hold a patient's hand and show compassion. But in the current medical culture, students are taught to be very aware of how actions, even as simple an action as holding a hand, may be viewed.

It is the reality of physician-patient communication, that the physician may always have some level of concern about communication being misconstrued. And this fear has the real potential to limit high-quality communication between physician and patient. All communication involves some risk, the risk of being misunderstood. But a physician taking a risk and offering a hand to a patient at a difficult moment can mean the world to a patient.

Learning to talk the talk

Theresa Brown, a registered nurse and regular contributor to the New York Times wrote an article this week about nurses learning how to talk quickly in emergent patient settings. The style of speech values speed, with elements of persuasion, especially when trying to get a patient a needed bed in the ICU.

But the article does not explore the potential pitfalls of such rapid fire conversation. The possibility of mistakes was acknowledged, but more than mistakes, the rapid conversation can have long term implications for the health of communication between colleagues. Short, clipped conversation does not allow for collaboration or learning and working together to support and care for patients. Certainly there are time when this style may be very necessary, and it does fall on health care workers to learn how to communicate that way. But there is a time for longer, thought out conversations as well, even on a busy hospital floor. We are all better off if health care providers are able to develop multiple communication tools and styles and not just depend on one quick style to get all things done.

Teaching with patients, from the beginning

The New York Times had an article today about a medical school program that is turning the traditional medical student schedule on its head. New York University is now exposing students to patients from their very first day as medical students, rather than waiting until they are third year students as many traditional programs do.

NYU is not the first program to introduce a patient element in the first year of medical school. But such efforts point to medical schools' awareness that the process of medical education can be emotionally draining. Students who lose sight of why they are training to be doctors may find themselves experiencing "empathy erosion." Patient contact from the beginning helps these physicians in training remember they are learning not to treat diseases, but to treat patients.