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Introducing The first Open-source Culinary Medicine Curriculum  

Culinary Medicine Curriculum Cover

What is Culinary Medicine (and Why is It Important)?

Culinary medicine (CM) is an evidence-based field that brings together nutrition and culinary knowledge and skills to assist patients in maintaining health and preventing and treating food-related disease by choosing high-quality, healthy food in conjunction with appropriate medical care. Diet has been identified as the single most important risk factor for morbidity and mortality in the United States, yet most health care providers spend relatively few hours learning about nutrition during their training. 

The nutrition education that is offered is often primarily didactic and focused on the biochemistry of nutrients and health consequences of deficiency states—content that is of limited use in a clinical setting where the majority of the population faces overnutrition due to high intake of ultra-processed, calorie-dense foods. CM fills this educational gap by focusing on practical dietary behavior changes, food knowledge, and cooking skills needed to move toward a healthier diet.

Who is this curriculum designed for?

The curriculum is designed to be used in 4-year medical schools and other health care professional training programs. However, it is easily adaptable for use in residency programs, continuing (medical) education, health and wellness coaching, or master's level programs. For patient, public health, or undergraduate education, simply omit portions of the curriculum aiming to teach health care providers to assist patients in making dietary changes. The curriculum is provided for free with the goal of expanding the reach of Culinary Medicine to everyone. Please adapt to meet your needs; all that is required for use is attribution.

Background on the Culinary Medicine Curriculum

This curriculum based on the foundational work of Michelle Hauser, MD, MS, MPA, FACLM, Chef who created a culinary medicine elective course for medical students at Stanford University School of Medicine in 2017 with assistance from Julia Nordgren, MD, Chef and Stanford colleagues, Maya Adam, MD, Tracy Rydel, MD, Christopher Gardner, PhD, and David Iott, Chef. The course has been extremely well-received. All course students reported improvements in their own diets and their ability to successfully counsel patients on healthy eating, while taking into account culture, time, and resources. At the end of the course, all students understood that a healthy diet can take many forms and should be centered around whole, plant foods. Students who took the course had significant overall improvement in attitudes, knowledge, and behavior around healthy cooking, eating, and confidence in patient counseling (P value <0.0001) compared with wait-listed controls.

The success of the course and many requests for dissemination of the curriculum, prompted Dr. Hauser to partner with the American College of Lifestyle Medicine (ACLM) to expand the reach of this curriculum beyond Stanford’s campus. While Culinary Medicine does not endorse a single dietary philosophy, this version of the curriculum has been designed to focus on whole food, plant-based (WFPB) nutrition. (Expansion packs covering other evidence-based dietary strategies for prevention of chronic diseases will be available via Chef in Medicine in the future.) The curriculum also includes concrete strategies for health care providers wishing to partner with their patients on improving dietary choices, thereby assisting them in transitioning along a spectrum to a more plant-centric diet focused on whole foods.

The original course was taught by dually trained chef-MDs with nutrition expertise. ​Understanding that this combination of training is rare among health professionals, the curriculum has been adapted to enable a wide variety of health professionals to teach Culinary Medicine in their training programs. The goal is to provide students with lessons about healthy diet, tasty food preparation, and dietary behavior change while teaching them to effectively counsel patients via motivational interviewing to do the same. Because patients come from a variety of backgrounds and food traditions, the curriculum introduces the WFPB diet through the lenses of different world flavors and culinary traditions while keeping in mind resource constraints.


Get access to your complimentary copy of the culinary medicine curriculum while Improving your Health, Nutrition, and Cooking Skills by staying ​up-to-date on Chef in medicine's latest blog posts, Courses & More

​Visit ACLM's website to learn more about the Culinary medicine Curriculum

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Chef Michelle Hauser, MD

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chefinmedicine

Michelle Hauser
Setting up for dinner at our SURG244 (Teaching kit Setting up for dinner at our SURG244 (Teaching kitchen elective for MD & PA students) final-beautiful cello accompaniment by one of our multitalented students. @stanford.med #culinarymedicine
Another fantastic end to a fantastic class! SURG24 Another fantastic end to a fantastic class! SURG244: Teaching Kitchen Elective for MD and PA Students is so inspiring. I am proud of all of my students. They’ve made so much progress over the quarter the food and insights into food and health tonight did not disappoint! Thank you all! #stanfordmedicine #culinarymedicine #foodasmedicine #foodismedicine #stanfordgensurg
Delicious dessert that are healthy, too! Banana Delicious dessert that are healthy, too! 

Banana bread (made egg- and nut-free), and the 3 pleasures—chocolate, fruit & nuts

#CulinaryMedicine #foodismedicine #bananabread #healthycooking #chocolate #fruit #nuts #eggfree #nutfree
Another amazing quarter! The students in the Stanf Another amazing quarter! The students in the Stanford Teaching Kitchen Elective for MD/PA Students never fail to impress. Here is the spread they put on tonight for their final. So humbled and grateful to be part of this journey. #CulinaryMedicine #foodismedicine #stanfordmedicine @stanford.med #teachingkitchen #deliciousandnutritious
It’s been a whirlwind here and I have not been g It’s been a whirlwind here and I have not been good about keeping up with pictures. BUT, Here are some mouthwatering examples of the delicious and healthy breakfast options we created in class this week. Buddha bowl with tofu scramble and lemon tahini dressing, a yogurt parfait, and steel-cut oats piled with toppings. #ChefInMedicine #DoctorIsInTheKitchen #TeachingKitchen #stanfordmedicine #breakfast #eatmoreplants #healthy #nutrition #culinarymedicinecurriculum @aclifemed @stanford.med
Cheesy plant 🌱 based fondue is a total hit with Cheesy plant 🌱 based fondue is a total hit with infants and big kids alike-Served with roasted potatoes, blanched broccoli and green beans, vegan meatballs, artisan bread and mango (which did not get dipped in fondue)

#chefinmedicine #Kidseathealthy #funandhealthy #kidfood #everyonefood #Culinarymedicine #foodismedicine @aclifemed #lifestylemedicine
Figs from the neighborhood-urban foraging #figseas Figs from the neighborhood-urban foraging #figseason #yum #figs #chefinmedicine #urbanforaging #fruit #summerfruit
Veggies and kids: fruit rainbow, polenta sun, bro Veggies and kids: fruit rainbow, polenta sun,  broccoli and cauliflower trees, new colors and textures, kiddo eating the first cherry tomato she grew with me in the garden. Gotta make veggies fun! #cookingwithkids #chefinmedicine #fruitandveg #healthykidsfood #healthykids #playwithyourfood
Stanford Scope covering the culinary med course #c Stanford Scope covering the culinary med course #culinarymedicine #stanford #nutrition https://scopeblog.stanford.edu/2022/05/27/nutrition-meets-health-through-culinary-medicine/
Made in a cooking class with my patients today: Ch Made in a cooking class with my patients today: Chana masala and roasted cauliflower with cumin & coriander; fruit chaat #IndianFood #culinarymedicine #chefinmedicine #chanamasala #fruit chaat #foodismedicine
Mise en place for chana masala with my patients to Mise en place for chana masala with my patients today— Clockwise from the top: garam masala, turmeric, asafoetida, ground cumin, salt, cloves, cinnamon stick, green cardamom, bay leaf, whole cumin seeds, red chili powder (rashampatti) is in the center. #foodismedicine #culinarymedicine #chefinmedicine #indianfood #chanamasala
Gorgeous Buddha Bowls and Steel Cut Oats from toda Gorgeous Buddha Bowls and Steel Cut Oats from today’s Teaching Kitchen course for MD & PA students-photo by the talented @soulfoodsalon (who frequently joins the course as volunteer faculty-thank you!) @stanford.med @chefinmedicine #culinarymedicine
Stanford MD & PA students graduate from the teachi Stanford MD & PA students graduate from the teaching kitchen with honors-so much delicious food shared at the final potluck tonight. Everything had a story, showcased a lesson from the course and students reflected on what they learned that would most help them counsel patients on dietary changes. #culinarymedicine #stanfordmedicine @stanford.med #meded #teachingkitchen @soulfoodsalon #worldflavors #unapologeticallydelicious #healthycooking
Fruit forward desserts prepared by Stanford MD & P Fruit forward desserts prepared by Stanford MD & PA students-SURG 244 The Doctor is In (the Kitchen)—teaching kitchen elective. So delicious 😋-thanks to Drs. Elizabeth Shepard, Sue Kim, and Christopher Gardner along with Lindsay Kennedy, PA and for volunteering to share the overlap of their work and culinary medicine with the students! #CulinaryMedicine #FoodIsMedicine #Dessert #TeachingKitchen #FruitForward #DessertFlip #Nutrition #MedicalEducation #MedEd #stanfordmedicine
The Dietary Spectrum: When Food Becomes Medicine-- The Dietary Spectrum: When Food Becomes Medicine--Keynote presentation filled with tips on guiding patients to make dietary behavior changes. #LM2021 #nutrition #foodasmedicine #behaviorchange #obesitymedicine #culinarymedicine lmconference.org/2021/LM21/index.asp
Just finished a fantastic session with @spiceboxtr Just finished a fantastic session with @spiceboxtravels on implementing culinary medicine in clinical practice! Check out the rest of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine 2021 Annual Conference for a recording and other lifestyle medicine CME opportunities. #LM2021 @aclifemed #CulinaryMedicine #LifestyleMedicine #ObesityMedicine
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