Gauge your Knowledge

Half failed this nutrition quiz. Can you pass it?

Try your hand at a basic nutrition quiz that stumped half of the med students who took it for a recent study.

Ashley Altus
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When researchers recently gave a basic nutrition quiz to 257 medical students, only half of them passed it, according to a recent study in The Journal of the American Osteopathic Association.

Think you could do better? Try your hand by taking the quiz below, which contains 10 of the same questions given to the students in the study.

How well do you understand nutrition?

Answer 10 questions from the same nutrition quiz medical students took for a recent JAOA study.

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Further reading

Let’s talk about nutrition: 4 ways to advise your patients on what to eat: Prevention is at the heart of osteopathic medicine, and nutrition education can be a critical tool DOs use when advising patients.

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8 comments

  1. Nicolet Finger

    The answer to #7 is 860 kcal, not 820 kcal. Protein and carbohydrates contain 4 kcal/g, while fat contains 9 kcal/g.

    2. Rose Raymond, AOA Communications

      You are correct that the combination provided exactly 860 kcals. The question asked for an approximate number. This quiz incorporated the exact questions and answers used in the study.

  2. Jerome R. Stewart, DO

    This test is ridiculous. I have been practicing for over 50 years, and although I have a background in wellness/health/diabetes prevention, I could not figure out the questions (or answers) in this article. Please think about re-doing this entire series of questions and answers. Thank you.

  3. Chris Girardo

    There are many issues with this “nutrition” quiz.
    1. It is not evidence-based.
    2. It uses outdated understanding of several concepts (the calorie-in calorie-out model)
    3. It asks irrelevant questions (why does it matter how many carbohydrates are in an arbitrary term?)

    For an example of how bad the questions are, let’s take the example of #5. If Sara is a 50-year-old, 300 pound woman who is eating 5000 calories per day, reducing her caloric intake to 4500 will not result in her losing a pound every week. How does this question even make sense?

  4. Jef

    So for question #2 we should wait until the pt crosses the border to start talking about dietary intervention? How about being proactive and starting the discussion before she gets there?

  5. Ladislav Dory, Ph.D.

    The “correct” answer for question #8 should be increased ketone formation (to fuel gluconeogenesis) and thus adipose tissue loss (breakdown). NOT calorie deficit (whatever that means).

    1. Rose Raymond, AOA Communications

      Thank you for the feedback, Dr. Dory. This quiz incorporated the exact questions and answers used in the study.

Comments are closed.