AHS16 - Ancestral Health Symposium 2016

Evolutionary medicine is defined as applying modern evolutionary theory to understand health and disease. This emerging field has only begun to be sprinkled into the medical establishment, and more recently, medical school’s curriculum. It has yet to be determined if the field of nutrition & dietetics appreciates this interdisciplinary approach. To resolve this, a survey of Registered Dietitians (RDs) was conducted to determine (A) if RDs understand the theory of evolution, (B) if RDs believe that an understanding of evolution is useful in defining optimal health and (C) if RDs think that an evolutionary perspective should be included in dietetic education. This survey was conducted in hopes to address that gap in evolutionary knowledge within the field of nutrition and dietetics.