Culinary Medicine Basics and Applications in Medical Education in the USA

Michelle Hauser defines culinary medicine as the combination of nutritional and culinary knowledge/skills to assist patients in achieving and maintaining health.  She explains some recently developed programmes in the US which teach culinary medicine at each level of medical training, and notes the knowledge is useful for physicians themselves as self-care is so important in a high-stress profession.  She explains that medical students say their nutrition training is too focused on biochemistry and micronutrients and not enough on clinical practice and counselling.   She shows what culinary medicine training looks like in practice with student physicians gaining practical skills in the kitchen, not just theory.  The goal is to increase an understanding of “food as medicine.”