Journal of Healthcare Leadership (Jul 2023)
Physician-Chef-Dietitian Partnerships for Evidence-Based Dietary Approaches to Tackling Chronic Disease: The Case for Culinary Medicine in Teaching Kitchens
Abstract
Nathan I Wood,1 Theresa A Stone,2 Milette Siler,3 Max Goldstein,4 Jaclyn Lewis Albin5 1Department of Internal Medicine, Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, CT, USA; 2Department of Internal Medicine, MedStar Health, Washington, DC, USA; 3Moncrief Cancer Institute, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Fort Worth, TX, USA; 4Digestive Health Center, Yale New Haven Health, New Haven, CT, USA; 5Departments of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USACorrespondence: Jaclyn Lewis Albin, Department of Pediatrics, University of Texas Southwestern, Medical Center, 5323 Harry Hines Blvd, Dallas, TX, 75390, USA, Tel +1 214 648 9498, Email [email protected]: 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: nutrition, interprofessional, innovation, education
