Physician-Chef-Dietitian Partnerships for Evidence-Based Dietary Approaches to Tackling Chronic Disease: The Case for Culinary Medicine in Teaching Kitchens

Abstract

Since the middle of the 20th century, the American food environment has become increasingly ultra-processed. As a result, the prevalence of chronic, diet-related disease in the United States has skyrocketed. Meanwhile, physicians are still poorly trained in nutrition. A recent innovation that aims to address this is "culinary medicine" programming taught by teams of physicians, chefs, and registered dietitian nutritionists. Culinary medicine is an evidence-based, interprofessional field of medicine that combines culinary arts, nutrition science, and medical education to prevent and treat diet-related disease. It employs hands-on learning through healthy cooking and is typically taught in a teaching kitchen, either in-person or virtually. It can be dosed either as a patient care intervention or as experiential nutrition education for students, medical trainees, and healthcare professionals. Culinary medicine programs are effective, financially feasible, and well-received. As a result, healthcare systems and medical education programs are increasingly incorporating culinary medicine, teaching kitchens, and interprofessional nutrition education into their patient care and training models.

Keywords: education; innovation; interprofessional; nutrition.

Figure 1

The role of culinary medicine in a multifaceted approach to addressing diet-related disease. Effectively preventing and treating diet-related chronic disease will necessitate systemic changes that address food insecurity and time poverty, provide nutrition and culinary education, and ensure access to interprofessional healthcare. As part of this interprofessional healthcare, culinary medicine serves as the vital link in empowering patients to transform healthy ingredients into healthy dietary patterns.

Figure 2

Culinary medicine in teaching kitchens as the “hub”. Culinary medicine in teaching kitchens, by its interprofessional and multidisciplinary nature, seamlessly integrates healthcare, academia, and public service. Patients, providers, community members, researchers, universities, insurance companies, and healthcare systems all benefit from this collaboration.