Teaching kitchen provides hands-on culinary medicine experience for medical students

Fourth-year medical students take part in a hands-on course in culinary medicine at the teaching kitchen in University Commons.

By Michelle Ryan

Being advised to eat healthy and get exercise by physicians is common, but often is too vague to be effective. A recently added health and wellness elective for fourth-year medical students aims to change that; and this semester, it got a significant practical boost.

David Weber, Ph.D., assistant dean for medical education and professor of physiology and cell biology at the Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine, taught the four-week culinary medicine portion of the course for the first time in the three years it has been offered at the teaching kitchen. Located in University Commons, the kitchen is part of USA Health’s Integrative Health and Wellness Program.

“The overall focus of the course for students is to learn ‘walking around’ (practical) knowledge about nutrition, fitness/exercise and wellness/mindfulness so that they are capable of discussing these topics with their future patients,” he said. “This availability of the teaching kitchen in collaboration with USA Health's Integrative Health and Wellness has allowed us to engage our students at a much deeper level with the concept that food is medicine.”

Given that nearly 75 percent of Americans are overweight and eight of 10 deaths are lifestyle-related, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, changing behaviors about food, exercise and wellness is critical. 

David Weber, Ph.D., left, and Robert Israel, M.D., lead a
class discussion on how nutrition impacts patient wellness
and outcomes. 

Many medical schools offer 25 course hours or less in nutrition over four years, according to a study in The Lancet Planetary Health. Classes like Weber’s and the practical knowledge they provide are just as important to prepare future physicians like Magnolia McElyea.

“It really was integral to the class as far as retaining information from our readings and seeing hands-on how to incorporate the nutritional concepts into everyday meal prep,” McElyea said of the teaching kitchen environment. “We were able to see what meals high in protein, veggies or grains would look and taste like.”

In the kitchen classroom, the fourth-year medical students traded textbooks and pens for cutting boards and pans as they learned about the impact of healthy diets on patient wellness and outcomes. Specifically, they focused on making better choices in carbohydrates, proteins and fats, and they were tasked with making a meal applying what they learned each week.

“Our goal is that as our future physicians, they apply this knowledge in residency and practice, so that our impact extends much further than just a single medical school course,” Weber said. 

One of the first impacts the course has is often on the students themselves. According to Weber, they are introduced to important skills like basic meal preparation, how to read labels to identify wholesome options, and learning that healthy food can taste great and be affordable. 

“The teaching kitchen is tremendously valuable in that it takes the discussion and science of ‘healthy eating’ and connects it to what this looks like in the real world to make great, tasty and flavorful meals,” he said. “Anecdotally, it seems that most students become much more aware of their own diets and how they navigate the grocery store while taking this course.”

The course, Applications of Health and Wellness Strategies, doesn’t end with the work in the kitchen. Additionally, students are adopting exercise and stress management habits, tracking their progress and evaluating their experience with the intention of relating better to their future patients.

“In the application phase, students are challenged to design systems to implement and track one or more changes in these areas for themselves during the course to appreciate how challenging lifestyle modifications can be for everyone,” he said. 

Weber said that even a basic understanding of nutrition, exercise and stress management, as well as the students’ application of the concepts, will spark a more meaningful discussion with patients instead of simply offering vague advice. 

“Appreciating the benefits of maintaining a healthy lifestyle, as well as the associated obstacles that challenge many of us, allows the physician to relate to the patient and meet them where they are, help in goal setting, and empower them in the process of improving their overall health,” he said.

For the students, like Kasey Andrews, the teaching kitchen space helped accomplish two important things.

“Overall, the use of the culinary kitchen was not only a fun way to bond with classmates over food,” she said, “but it also allowed me to grow my interest and knowledge in culinary medicine in a way that I truly believe will allow me to provide better and more complete advice to patients and their families in the future.” 

Nearly 50 universities, medical schools, healthcare systems and community organizations utilize a teaching kitchen space like USA Health’s with the goal of encouraging people to make healthier choices by allowing them to put what they learn into action.

David M. Eisenberg, M.D., an American physician, alternative medicine researcher and the Bernard Osher Distinguished Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, proposed the concept of a teaching kitchen in 1998, and the Teaching Kitchen Collaborative was established under his leadership in 2016.

Prior to its establishment, a study tracking participants who had hands-on experience in teaching kitchens found sustained decreases in blood pressure, weight, waist circumference and fat levels, according to Global Advances in Integrative Medicine and Health, a journal that shares evidence-based research and knowledge about multidisciplinary therapeutic approaches and lifestyle practices that promote whole-person health.

Additional clinical trials at the Cleveland Clinic, McGill University and Tulane University suggest that nutrition education coupled with hands-on instruction can make positive changes in medical indicators, like blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose levels and BMI, as well as in health outcomes. 

“Encouraging patients to make healthy lifestyle choices enables patients not only to live longer, but in my opinion, to experience a much higher quality of life by allowing them to continue engaging in the activities they enjoy,” Weber said. “Often, seemingly small lifestyle changes in the areas of diet, exercise or stress management can have a major impact in reducing chronic disease. Thus, applying an integrative approach to healthcare with patients has tremendous potential to slow disease progression, or better yet, prevent disease from occurring.”