Integrate culinary medicine into compulsory German medical curricula with prevention and interprofessional learning contexts¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 3 claims (3 for) · 1 study (1 review), q2 · 1 of 1 report an effect size · 3 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The review recommends that German universities move CM beyond electives into the curriculum, following models implemented at some American universities. It argues that "future curricula at German universities should also incorporate CM within the contexts of prevention and interprofessional learning", and that future research should identify competencies, skills and appropriate assessment mechanisms, with longitudinal studies measuring long-term effects and endpoints based on counselling skills actually acquired in working life.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Future research should identify competencies, knowledge and skills and appropriate assessment mechanisms to improve transparency regarding needs and limitations

Constraints¶

• Current evidence rests on elective, mostly self-assessed studies; the review calls for objective endpoints rather than self-assessed skills

Target Learners¶

• undergraduate medical students in Germany

Target Learning Goals¶

• diet-related knowledge, skills and attitudes
• nutrition counselling competencies

Claims¶

• All identified CM/TK courses were elective, so structured culinary medicine teaching reaches only a limited number of German medical students [+W]
• Culinary medicine and teaching-kitchen courses improve German undergraduate medical students' diet-related knowledge, skills and attitudes [+W]
• Göttingen CM elective improved counselling skills, knowledge, attitudes, well-being and eating habits in both virtual and in-person formats, while cooking frequency did not change [+W]

Related Strategies¶

• Integrate structured, evidence-based wound care education—including hands-on and interprofessional components—into undergraduate medical curricula
• Integrate nutrition throughout medical training using a vertical spiral curriculum with practical teaching methods such as cooking lessons

Examples¶

-

Key Sources¶

• Stock-Schröer B, Edelhäuser F, Scheffer C, Schweigmann L, Homberg A. (2026). How does culinary medicine training impact the diet-related knowledge, skills and attitudes of undergraduate medical students in Germany?—A systematic review. BMC Medical Education. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-026-09580-2