Abstract

Background: Diet plays a central role in the development of chronic diseases, making nutrition-focused interventions a powerful tool for improving population health. However, substantial gaps in nutrition education persist in the U.S. medical education, and medical students frequently report receiving limited nutrition training despite its importance in patient care. Methods: A non-randomized pre-post intervention study with a one-month follow-up was conducted among osteopathic medical students. Participants attended a culinary medicine food-demonstration featuring five case-based topics and three chef-prepared recipes. Nutrition knowledge, satisfaction with nutrition education, confidence in nutrition counseling, and personal nutrition-related behaviors were assessed at baseline, immediately post-intervention, and one month later. Paired-samples t-tests with effect sizes (Cohen’s d) were used to compare scores over time. Results: Forty-six participants were assessed for nutrition knowledge and satisfaction, of whom forty-three completed a one-month follow-up in which confidence and behavior modification were evaluated. Nutrition knowledge significantly improved, with quiz scores increasing from 57.8 ± 13.8 to 75.2 ± 13.3 (p < 0.001, d = 1.04). Satisfaction with nutrition education and confidence in nutrition counseling also increased significantly (both p < 0.001), with a large effect size for confidence (d = 2.26). No significant change was observed in personal nutrition-related behaviors (p = 0.65, d = −0.06). Fifteen students who had previously completed a culinary medicine elective demonstrated higher baseline knowledge, satisfaction, and counseling confidence than students without prior training (all p ≤ 0.006), while nutrition-related behaviors remained largely unchanged in both groups. Conclusions: A brief culinary medicine food-demonstration session produced improvements in medical students’ nutrition knowledge, satisfaction with nutrition education, and confidence in nutrition counseling, and did not measurably change short-term personal nutrition behaviors. These findings support this model as an efficient approach to enhancing medical students’ nutrition-related competencies.

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