Where nutrition science meets the kitchen.
Empowering learners through evidence-based nutrition and kitchen confidence.
Our programming blends up-to-date evidence-based nutrition science with hands on cooking classes. As part of the GWU School of Medicine and Health Sciences Clinical Public Health programming we are uniquely positioned to help learners navigate the complex intersection of diet and health.
The curriculum is centered around the principle that food can actively support both the prevention and treatment of disease. Culinary medicine is interdisciplinary and accounts for the real-world, practical aspects of how meals are budgeted, purchased, and prepared. By teaching essential culinary techniques, the program equips clinicians, students, and community members with the tools to seamlessly integrate healthy eating into their daily routines.
Ultimately, the program empowers healthcare providers to navigate a complex health landscape for themselves and their patients, proving that it is entirely possible to prepare a delicious meal that also happens to be good for your health.
What is Culinary Medicine?
How Is Culinary Medicine Different?
Culinary Medicine combines nutrition science with culinary skills to promote health in a practical, engaging, and accessible way. It gives people the knowledge and confidence to translate nutrition recommendations into meals they can actually prepare, enjoy, and sustain.
Food Is Medicine emphasizes the therapeutic and disease-preventing properties of food. It focuses on what we eat and how food can support health and healing. While the two fields may overlap, they have different areas of emphasis.
Culinary Medicine takes the next step by focusing on how people can put nutrition into practice alongside medical care. Through hands-on cooking, nutrition education, and behavior change strategies, it bridges the gap between knowing what to eat and knowing how to make it happen.
Why Culinary Medicine?
We believe healthy eating is about more than knowing which foods are good for you. It also requires skills, confidence, access, and practical strategies for turning that knowledge into everyday meals.
That's where culinary medicine comes in.
Testimonials
“This course was one of my favorites of medical school. The didactics brought in basic science and clinical concepts and connected them to what we were focusing on that day. I learned how to improve cooking for myself and my family but also how to better counsel patients. It was an insanely helpful and fun rotation!”
— 4th year medical student, IDIS 307“Getting to develop our own recipes was really exciting and taught us a lot. Manipulating them to change flavors, calculating nutrition facts, practicing new techniques, it was all really helpful to developing our own future recipes”
— undergraduate student, CULI 1810“Quote”
— Community Class
Contact
Feel free to contact us with any questions.
Medical Student?
Explore electives and advanced opportunities.
Undergraduate Student?
Explore courses, research, and volunteering.
Health Professional?
Explore CME and professional education.
Community Member?
Join an upcoming cooking class.
Faculty/Researcher?
Explore collaboration opportunities.
Potential Partner?
Work with us on education, research, or community programming.
Donor/Supporter?
Support the Seva Teaching Kitchen and Culinary Medicine Program.
Email
mfiellin@email.gwu.edu