Community Culinary Workshops as a Nutrition Curriculum in a Preventive Medicine Residency Program

Source: Association of American Medical Colleges

Culinary workshops are a useful tool to enhance nutrition education in a residency curriculum and may be an effective way to improve resident perceptions regarding the impact of nutrition education in the community.

Our pilot highlights the possibility of resident culinary education to improve resident cooking practices. Clinicians who practice healthy personal behavior are more likely to counsel patients on these preventive behaviors.

Responding more positively to being a competent cook may be a first step in prescribing nutritional interventions to patients in the future. In addition, implementing culinary education workshops through community-academic partnerships with institutions such as a local church or school may provide a unique opportunity for residents to gain knowledge of cooking challenges that patients and community members face, which may further enhance the effectiveness of such interventions.