Teaching health practitioners the foundations of clinical nutrition and how to cook

What is Culinary Medicine?

What is Culinary Medicine?

Culinary Medicine UK is a community interest company made up of a multi-professional team working across healthcare, culinary medicine and research with the aim of promoting “sustainable, affordable, equitable and healthy food for all”.

Our unique multiprofessional courses are available in person within our custom built teaching kitchen in central London or via our online course.

CMUK’s fun and interactive modules are designed for health and social care professionals. We provide evidence based, practical and appropriate guidance on how to adapt nutrition advice for individuals with varying medical conditions, cultures, skills, resources and personal preferences.

Interested in Culinary Medicine?

Sign up to our newsletter here and we’ll email you when our next course dates are announced and how you can get involved

Empowering health professionals to talk confidently about food in medicine

How does Culinary Medicine work?

Each module is structured into 4 parts

View What is CM

Online

The participant has access to presentations online before the class

View What is CM

Reading

The participant is also expected to read the relevant clinical papers online

View What is CM

Cooking

A cooking class relevant to the module is held at a culinary school and led by a dietitian, chef and doctor

View What is CM

Discussion

The class discuss a clinical case and the recipes they’ve made

Culinary Medicine combines nutrition science with hands on cooking and culinary skills. This concept originates from the USA, and originally was developed to support medical student nutrition education.

Since 2017 CMUK has taught nutrition to UK health and culinary professionals and students in our teaching kitchen, hosted within Westminster Kingsway College Culinary school. Our courses are integrated into Bristol and UCL medical schools.

CMUK modules are specifically targeted to a UK based audience. Our courses are designed to be inclusive and to encourage debate & discussion across sectors. Cooking while learning helps support innovation and collaboration. Participants consider the nuance and challenge of nutrition and behaviour change for different medical conditions, a diverse population and in the context of the complex barriers and challenges people face within their real lives.

Where did Culinary Medicine Come from?

Our aim is to create a learning environment that is more in tune with the social, environmental, cultural and medical challenges that influence food choice. We want to improve conversations around food and health, supporting a culture of non-judgement and collaboration, promoting diversity and healthy debate with a shared goal of achieving sustainable, affordable, equitable and healthy food for all.

Interested in Culinary Medicine?

Sign up to our newsletter here and we’ll email you when our next course dates are announced and how you can get involved

Connecting all health professionals and bringing an evidence based perspective to diet, lifestyle and medicine

Culinary Medicine in the Press

View What is CM

January 2018

 View What is CM

January 2018

 View What is CM

January 2018

 View What is CM

March 2018

 View What is CM

June 2018

 View What is CM

June 2018

 View What is CM

October 18

 View What is CM

2018

Why Culinary Medicine?

This new knowledge empowers the profession to elevate the conversation they are able to have with as their patients. Teaching practitioners how to cook will have knock on effects on consultations.  This new skillset enables people to cook healthy food from scratch.

As practitioners you will become more confident in the science behind nutrition and better able to motivate your patients to change behaviours. Have a read of some of the clinical papers describing what culinary medicine is below.

What Is Culinary Medicine and What Does It Do?

Culinary Medicine is an innovative programme designed to teach healthcare practitioners the foundations of clinical nutrition using hands on cooking to help apply nutrition science to clinical cases.

What is the evidence for Culinary Medicine?

Below are a selection of papers published in clinical journals and papers discussing what culinary medicine is and what the potential benefits could be to both physicians in training as well as patients:

What is Culinary Medicine (paper)

Hands on vs traditional nutrition in Medical Schools

Nutrition Counselling in Clinical Practice

Medical schools should be prioritising nutrition and lifestyle education (BMJ)

Teaching Kitchens and Culinary Medicine

Hands on cooking can significantly improve students’ readiness to enhance patients’ health outcomes and provide both short-term and long-term benefits for patients and health systems.

 

Culinary Medicine is an innovative programme designed to teach healthcare practitioners the foundations of clinical nutrition using hands on cooking to help apply nutrition science to clinical cases.

 

Hands on vs Traditional Nutrition

What Dissection is to Anatomy,  Culinary Medicine is to Nutrition. Rather than learning purely about macronutrients, energy balance and how this relates to medicine from textbooks alone, culinary medicine is designed to teach practitioners the practical aspects of why food is so beneficial to health as well as behavioural change and motivational interviewing techniques.

Healthcare courses and medical schools should be prioritising nutrition and lifestyle education

It has been recognised by the GMC and other governing bodies that nutrition in medical undergraduate training is not sufficient to meet the needs of prospective doctors.

Culinary medicine UK recognises the importance of multiprofessional solutions including but not exclusively for medical professionals.

Teaching Kitchens Culinary Medicine

We have partnered with Westminster Kingsway Culinary School, one of the best culinary centres in Europe, to launch our first cooking classes. We aim to create a ‘Culinary Medicine Centre of Excellence’ where future classes can be delivered and new content can be created here.

Who can participate in culinary medicine education?

We welcome any health or social care professional to join our online courses. We encourage a multiprofessional model of education.

 

Is Culinary Medicine suitable for medical or healthcare students?

We have developed specific modules for healthcare students which are delivered at Bristol and UCL medical school. Our online course is more targeted at qualified professionals.

How do I register for culinary medicine courses?

To register for our online course we ask you to include your professional registration number or your ac.uk or nhs.net email.

This error message is only visible to WordPress admins

Interested in Culinary Medicine?

Sign up to our newsletter and we’ll email you when our next course dates are announced and how you can get involved