Cooking with the curriculum: expanding nutrition knowledge in medical education through a longitudinal, peer teaching, culinary medicine model

BACKGROUND: Medical students often receive limited practical nutrition education, despite the important role of dietary modification in chronic disease management and prevention. Cooking with the Curriculum is an extracurricular program developed at the Larner College of Medicine to teach nutrition tenets through a culinary medicine lens while fostering leadership and teaching skills. METHODS: The program uses a longitudinal learning and leadership development model. First-year medical student participants attend 5 sessions focused on dietary counseling for chronic disease. Participating second-year medical students serve as teaching assistants and facilitate sessions. Third and fourth-year medical students can continue to participate as leaders, training teaching assistants, taking responsibility for the administrative responsibilities of the program and facilitating case-based discussions in the session. RESULTS: Program evaluation included post-program surveys for first- and second-year students, pre- and post-program knowledge assessments for first-year students and a follow-up survey distributed to students from the 2023 pilot cohort during their third year of medical school. Seventy first-year medical students participated across 2024-2025, with a total of 33 students completing the post survey. Of those respondents, 97% agreed or strongly agreed that others in medical school would benefit from taking the program during their medical education training. All respondents who served as TAs reported that their participation enhanced their knowledge of culinary medicine. Among pilot cohort respondents now in their third year of medical school, 80% reported continued application of concepts during clinical rotations, with 90% reporting use of skills covered in the curriculum to guide patient counseling. CONCLUSIONS: Cooking with the Curriculum supports that a peer-teaching model can serve as a sustainable approach to enhancing nutrition education in medical training. Participants demonstrated increased confidence in nutrition-related knowledge and leadership skills, supporting the value of incorporating targeted educational initiatives into medical training. Limitations include a small sample size, and low post-program response rates, which may have introduced response bias, as well as reliance on internal funding which limits generalizability and scalability. Despite these limitations, the program provides encouraging preliminary evidence that nutrition-focused leadership training can help prepare future physicians to address nutrition-related health challenges.