Objective: To understand if a culinary medicine training program increases food literacy, culinary skills, and knowledge among practicing registered dietitian nutritionists (RDN).
Methods: Prepost study design evaluating pilot test of RDN train-the-trainer curriculum from September, 2019 to January, 2020.
Results: On average, results indicate an increase in culinary nutrition skills (mean difference, 6.7 ± 4.4; P < 0.001; range, 10-30) and a significant increase in 5 of the 8 food literacy factors. Through process evaluation, RDNs rated the training as extremely useful to their practice (mean, 4.4 ± 0.3).
Conclusions and implications: Registered dietitian nutritionist participants increased culinary nutrition skills with statistically significant scores across all individual measures. This study describes an RDN training curriculum in culinary medicine across a diverse group of practicing RDNs from a large county health care system. Culinary medicine shows a promising impact on promoting nutrition skills and confidence; however, it warrants further assessment.
Keywords: culinary medicine; cultural humility; food insecurity; food prescription; teaching kitchen.
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