The UK’s first centre for Culinary Medicine has opened at Westminster Kingsway College. This centre will provide a unique platform, bringing together medical students, culinary and hospitality students and filling a gap in the current prospectus for medical students.
This initiative has been driven by multi-disciplinary healthcare teams working together to create a focus on the role of food as medicine that has previously been lacking. Although food choices have overtaken smoking as the leading preventable risk factor for chronic diseases in the UK, within healthcare it is rare that nutrition is discussed by doctors and nurses in initial consultations with a patient. In fact, despite the plethora of evidence on the role of healthy foods in reducing the risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, strokes, mental health and cancer, medical students report receiving as little as two hours of nutrition training.
Dr Rupy Aujla has led the development of the Culinary Medicine concept in the UK, pulling together professionals from other specialties for a truly collaborative project. “It’s a no-brainer,” he said at the launch of the new centre yesterday evening (February 26).
He added that it is his desire to see Culinary Medicine being standard across all medical schools in the UK, so that doctors and nurses are confident about having discussions around nutrition with patients, can provide accurate advice around diet in the management of certain conditions and are able to identify when to refer a patient to a dietitian.
Culinary Medicine combines the training of health professionals, doctors, nurses, dentists and nutritionists, with culinary students and hospitality professionals. Together, these groups learn to understand the basics of nutrition science and how to apply this learning to create healthy meals that can be adapted to different cultures, medical problems and financial circumstances.
TV Chef, Prue Leith, who has been advising on the ‘root and branch’ Hospital Food Review, described the Culinary Medicine centre as a “really good idea.” Also speaking at the centre launch, she said: “Bad diet is part of the problem. Good food is part of the solution.”
The Culinary Medicine Centre is soon to be accredited by the Royal College of GPs. Almost 400 students have so far been trained at the centre.
