Culinary medicine and culinary nutrition education for individuals with the capacity to influence health related behaviour change: A scoping review

Background Culinary medicine (CM) or culinary nutrition (CN) education provided to professionals with the capacity to influence behaviour change is an emerging strategy to promote diet quality and reduce the burden of diet related chronic disease in adults. The purpose of this scoping review was to synthesise current research describing CM/CN education provided to or by health, education and culinary professionals, or students of these disciplines. Methods Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analysis extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) was used. Eleven electronic databases were searched in March 2019. Included studies were: (i) nutrition, health or lifestyle programs with a CM/CN component; (ii) study participants or programs facilitated by people working or training in health, community and/or adult education, or culinary roles where facilitator training was described; (iii) reported in the English language; and (iv) published from 2003. Results In total, 33 studies were included. Nineteen studies delivered programs to general population groups and were facilitated by health professionals and/or health university students. Fourteen studies delivered CM/CN training to health professionals or students. Studies reported changes in participants' culinary skill and nutrition knowledge (n = 18), changes in dietary intake (n = 13), attitudes and behaviour change in healthy eating and cooking (n = 4), and competency in nutrition counselling and knowledge (n = 7). Conclusions Further research examining the effectiveness of CM/CN programs, and that describes optimal content, format and timing of the programs, is needed. Research evaluating the impact of training in CM/CN to education and culinary professionals on healthy cooking behaviours of their patients/clients is warranted.