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

Area of Science:

• Medical Education
• Preventive Medicine
• Nutrition Science

Background:

• Obesity and diabetes are prevalent in urban primary care.
• Physicians can address these issues through culinary and nutrition education.
• Current medical residency programs lack sufficient culinary and nutrition training.

Purpose of the Study:

• To pilot a novel, interactive culinary and nutrition education program for preventive medicine residents.
• To train residents to deliver culinary and nutrition skills to community members.
• To evaluate the impact of the workshops on resident proficiency and attitudes.

Main Methods:

• Three interactive culinary workshops were conducted with preventive medicine residents.
• A physician-chef facilitated the workshops in a community setting.
• Self-reported data on cooking competency, confidence, and attitudes were collected.

Main Results:

• A statistically significant increase in self-reported cooking competency was observed post-workshops (p = .038).
• Trends towards increased home-cooking frequency and belief in lifestyle medicine's impact were noted.
• Resident proficiency and perceptions of nutrition education's community impact were evaluated.

Conclusions:

• Culinary workshops effectively enhance nutrition education within residency curricula.
• This approach may improve residents' perceptions of nutrition education's community influence.
• Interactive culinary training is a valuable tool for preventive medicine education.