Culinary Medicine is an innovative combination of medicine and nutritional science with practical culinary skills.
Aspiring doctors learn the basics of clinical nutrition on the one hand, but at the same time they learn how to motivate their patients to lead a healthier life based on natural foods, practical cooking skills and attractive recipes.
Doctors will be seen by patients as the most trusted source of health information. Studies from the USA show that they advise their patients much more often and better on nutrition topics if they have previously completed a special cooking course in Culinary Medicine.
In the USA, more than 50 universities already offer an elective in Culinary Medicine as part of the medical degree programme.
This is a pilot course in Culinary Medicine at the University Medical Centre Göttingen. The course has been offered since SS20 and WS20/21 and is evaluated in parallel. There are two to four courses per semester: one course takes place every Wednesday afternoon in the first 7 weeks of the semester from 15.4.20 - 27.5.20 (5-8 pm each), and every Wednesday afternoon in the last 7 weeks of the semester from 3.6.20 - 15.7.20 (5-8 pm each).
The elective at the UMG consists of 7 cooking courses of 4 LVS each. The basis is the consensus paper Leitfaden Ernährungstherapie in Klinik und Praxis (LEKuP) presented in February 2020.