August/September 2025 Issue
Career Development: A Growing Need
By Melanya Kushla, MS, RD, LDN, CHES, and Christina Badaracco, MPH, RD, LDN
Today’s Dietitian
Vol. 27 No. 7 P. 46
Training Dietitian Leaders in Culinary Medicine
It is well known that diet-related chronic diseases are the leading causes of illness and death in the United States.1 While recent data show a trend of more Americans cooking at home, more than one-third of US adults still have poor diet quality, and even foods eaten at home are increasingly highly processed—with major disparities across subgroups—and this trend coincides with the growing health and economic burden of disease.2–4 Addressing this problem by improving diet quality requires more than imparting nutrition knowledge. Food choices, eating habits, and other health-related behaviors are multidimensional and driven by factors that go beyond individual knowledge, including geographic location, cultural norms, social determinants of health, food access, food literacy, and functional capacity.5
Food Is Medicine and Current Health Initiatives
Motivation among various groups of stakeholders to address multifactorial, complex problems has led to the growth of the food is medicine (FIM) spectrum of interventions, using food as one component of treatment for diet-related diseases. These interventions range from medically tailored meals designed to aid patients with minimal capacity to prepare foods at home to culinary medicine and teaching kitchen programs for the development of skills and self-efficacy.6 All FIM interventions function within broader structures of public and institutional policies and programs, helping to impart and sustain healthy behavior changes.
To address insufficient standardization and documentation of these interventions, the Coding4Food initiative has developed and submitted a set of HCPCS Level II codes reflecting FIM interventions for consideration by the CMS. Codes reflecting culinary education and supplies were submitted in May 2025 with the goal of future incorporation into the health care system, leading to better standardization and documentation of delivery, as well as facilitating more insurance reimbursement and evaluation.7
The national momentum of FIM in many ways aligns with the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) priorities of the current administration. The MAHA movement within and adjacent to the Department of Health and Human Services aims to better understand and take action to reduce the negative influence of ultraprocessed foods on mental and physical health (among other related goals).8 An unprecedented announcement made by the CMS Innovation Center in May 2025 affirmed the need to focus future models on disease prevention through lifestyle factors.9 However, its impetus is not news to much of the practitioner workforce. Shortly thereafter, the MAHA Commission released its “Make Our Children Healthy Again Assessment,” indicating a great need for addressing poor diet (among other factors) to improve children’s health.10 This assessment will be followed by policy action due by the Commission in November 2025, which will further impact clinical and public health practice.
These changes in practice and policy, continued momentum in FIM, and the growing burden of chronic disease collectively necessitate availability of experts who are competent in both hard and soft skills to design and deliver effective nutrition interventions in a patient-centered, culturally competent manner to both prevent and treat disease. Yet, a gap in knowledge, as well as skills and confidence, exists among health care professionals.
A Need for More Training
Culinary medicine represents one component of FIM and offers engaging and patient-centered interventions designed to facilitate realistic and sustainable health-related behavior change.11,12 Such programs may be delivered in a variety of community and clinical settings and through a variety of formats, whether through virtual delivery, built-in teaching kitchens, pop-up arrangements, and others.13 Audiences of diverse ages, professions, and levels of education can also benefit from these interventions. A growing body of literature supports the efficacy of such interventions in yielding positive outcomes, spanning from increased knowledge of nutrition and culinary skills to improved short- and long-term health outcomes, across various populations of patients and provider audiences.14–17
As food and nutrition experts, RDs are uniquely qualified to deliver culinary medicine interventions. This approach supports the establishment of new skills, patterns, and food-related behaviors. It takes into consideration the unique challenges faced by people (whether patients, providers, or students) in their day-to-day interactions with food, including meal planning and food selection, preparation, cooking, and eating. RDs are educated and equipped with many of the necessary competencies to lead in innovative teaching kitchen programs.18,19 Despite being well-positioned in food service, research, and other sectors, many RDs have not received sufficient or specific education and training to confidently implement and take the lead in culinary medicine initiatives. Furthermore, FIM interventions too rarely incorporate the expertise of RDs for delivering accompanying education20 and these nutrition experts are shockingly absent in MAHA conversations.
Exploring Barriers
Among other barriers to the engagement of RDs in culinary medicine interventions are the lack of education, training, support, and practical resources available to them (both specific to their profession and through interdisciplinary programs). Some forms of training—such as institutional pilot programs for RDs and interdisciplinary, conference-based workshops that offer engaging and effective opportunities for learning.21,22 However, these don’t yet exist as an integral aspect of RD education or at scale. Further training—beginning in the university setting and through continuing education—is needed to build and/or reinforce the necessary skills to feel confident and competent in facilitating culinary medicine interventions in conjunction with interdisciplinary teams.
Facilitating a culinary medicine program also requires aptitude and confidence in program planning, design, implementation, and evaluation. These skills aren’t always included in dietetic education, and deficiencies may impede the confidence of those with a desire to work in this field. Training to position RDs as experts and give them confidence in hands-on culinary education is needed to fill these gaps and ensure that interventions are comprehensive, evidence-based, acceptable to patients, and facilitate sustainable behavior change. At the time of publication, the two largest teaching kitchen programs in existence (through Compass Group USA and the Veterans Health Administration), each with more than 100 individual sites, are led by RDs. However, this isn’t commonplace across settings and organizations.
Current Educational Opportunities
Research has revealed a need for confidence-building as well as skill development related to culinary medicine within the profession. The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics’ Food & Culinary Professionals (FCP) Dietetic Practice Group (DPG) established a list of Core Food & Culinary Competencies for RDs, additionally highlighting the need for such education and training. Just as teaching kitchens harness experiential learning to build knowledge, skills, and self-efficacy in patients or clients, interactive and experiential training for RDs can maximize impact across the profession.
Collaborations within professional networks and organizations help address these training needs as they facilitate impactful relationships, fueling innovation and practice advancements. Building a network also inspires confidence within RDs to champion culinary medicine programs. In this field, entities such as the Teaching Kitchen Collaborative (TKC), Health meets Food, the FCP DPG, and the American College of Lifestyle Medicine provide structured education and networking. However, many of the resources publicly available are limited to specific practice applications or created without the perspective of the RD. Of the existing resources, the TKC, a nonprofit organization that has been at the forefront of the culinary medicine movement for nearly a decade, is best positioned at the intersection of interdisciplinary practice to support the RD role.
The TKC is a nonprofit organization that connects physicians, dietitians, and chefs to advance the development and integration of teaching kitchens across diverse settings. Among its many initiatives, the TKC includes a Nutrition Subcommittee, founded and led by RDs, focused on advancing nutrition principles and supporting RDs in the field. In response to the need for more education, webinars, training courses, and other consulting services are offered by current and past TKC members. The TKC sponsored the development of The Ultimate Teaching Kitchen Toolkit,23 written and edited by the coauthors and shaped by RD leads from six of the largest TK programs in the world. It offers templates, diagrams, checklists, and practical guidance to facilitate culinary-medicine practice for RDs and other health professionals. Whether the user is launching a new TK or enhancing an existing program, the toolkit offers a clear starting point and practical next steps. For RDs, it supports the integration of culinary medicine into dietetic practice across settings and reinforces the role of teaching kitchens as a cornerstone for value-based care delivery, food literacy, and sustainable health—both personal and planetary.
Call to Action
RDs are encouraged to take advantage of any opportunities to engage with existing culinary medicine programs, attend relevant conferences, and/or join an existing community in culinary medicine. Despite the historical gap in education, training, and mentorship, there are resources available now to empower RDs to take leadership positions within culinary medicine and integrate culinary medicine into their practice.
Awareness of current policy changes and proposals can also prepare RDs to engage in advocacy to support optimal care access as well as to position RDs as leading practitioners in the field. Example tactics may include the following:
• submitting public comments to your state health department to ensure culinary medicine interventions are reflected in demonstration waivers for Medicaid programs;
• submitting comments in support of the newly proposed food-based HCPCS codes as CMS considers integrating them into US coding standards in the future;
• participating in advocacy days with groups of RDs (and/or other health professionals) on Capitol Hill or in your state capitol on issues related to health care and the food system, helping ensure policymakers understand the expertise and pivotal roles of RDs in improving health in the United States; and
• coordinating workshops for your state affiliates (perhaps in collaboration with local medical society and/or other health professional organizations) and for RDs within your organization/company.
The emergence of culinary medicine as a standard of care to address long-standing, nationwide health challenges creates a golden opportunity for RDs to champion nutrition-related behavior change across all sectors of nutrition care. High-quality resources exist, and RDs will benefit from taking full advantage of them to further the practice of dietetics and step into leadership positions within culinary medicine practice.
— Melanya Kushla, MS, RD (US and Canada), LDN, CHES, serves as a global leader in culinary medicine with unique expertise scaling the US VHA’s Teaching Kitchen to 130+ medical centers. In 2023, she launched Taste & Thrive, a virtual teaching-kitchen and mentorship platform helping dietitians cultivate confidence and skills to integrate culinary medicine into practice. Kushla authored The Ultimate Teaching Kitchen Toolkit and consults on program design, scaling, and professional development.
— Christina Badaracco, MPH, RDN, LDN, works as a health care consultant, focusing on evidence generation and health care transformation. She also regularly writes, teaches, and develops curriculum about nutrition, culinary medicine, and sustainable agriculture, including recently coauthoring Mix It Up: The Culinary Medicine Cookbook for Mixing Things up in the Kitchen. She serves as immediate past-president of the DC Metro Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics and Slow Food DC board member.
Upcoming Educational Opportunities
Culinary medicine webinars, conferences, and workshops eligible for CEUs coming up in 2025–2026 include the following:
• Infuse: Dietitians in Culinary Medicine monthly webinar series;
• Teaching Kitchen Collaborative webinar series and recordings;
• Culinary Medicine Workshop at 1440 Multiversity in Scotts Valley, California, in September 2025;
• New England Chapter of the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) Annual Conference workshop in Springfield, Massachusetts, in October 2025;
• ACSM Mid-Atlantic Annual Conference presentation in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, in November 2025;
• Teaching Kitchen Symposium in Scotts Valley, California, in December 2025;
• Healthy Kitchens, Healthy Lives conference in Napa, California, in February 2026;
• Health meets Food annual conference in 2026 (anticipated);
• Obesity Medicine Association Annual Conference preconference workshop in San Diego in April 2026 (anticipated); and
• Biennial Teaching Kitchen Research Conference in Fall 2026 (anticipated).
Additional Resources
In addition to the competence in knowledge and confidence, delivering culinary medicine in practice involves a whole-person health approach, consideration for the clients’ unique needs and home life, adaptation to varying levels of competency, and the creation of a safe and supportive learning environment. Resources in existence that address most of these nuances include the following:
Organizations and Conferences
• Teaching Kitchen Collaborative: https://teachingkitchens.org
• Health meets Food: http://culinarymedicine.org
Curriculum
• Nutrition in Medicine: www.nutritioninmedicine.org
• American College of Lifestyle Medicine: https://lifestylemedicine.org/project/culinary-medicine-curriculum
• Cooking Matters: https://cookingmatters.org/core
Tailored Services
• Professional development, consulting, and mentorship for RDs in culinary medicine by Melanya Kushla at Taste & Thrive: https://tasteandthrive.com/for-clinicians
• Culinary medicine program development, provider training, and cookbook
development by Christina Badaracco: www.christinabadaracco.com/consulting
Webinars and Other Training Programs
• Infuse by Taste & Thrive—a no-cost monthly webinar series to empower RDs around the world with the confidence, skills, and strategy needed to integrate culinary medicine into their practice: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/3IwFQHkDTH2-UDsei9f1Lw
• CHEF Coaching program by the Institute of Lifestyle Medicine: www.instituteoflifestylemedicine.org/?page_id=511
Books and Toolkits
• Mix It Up: The Culinary Medicine Cookbook for Mixing Things up in the Kitchen by Oliva Thomas and Christina Badaracco
• The Comprehensive Recipe Writing Guide by Raeanne Sarazen
• Hands-On Nutrition Education: Teaching Healthy Eating Skills Through Experiential Learning by Renee Hoffinger
• The Ultimate Teaching Kitchen Toolkit by Melanya Kushla and the Teaching Kitchen Collaborative
• Nourish by UTHealth Houston
References
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2. Shifting consumer eating and grocery shopping habits. National Frozen and Refrigerated Foods Association website. https://interactive.4media-group.com/nfra-eat-at-home-report-2023. Published December 4, 2023.
3. Liu J, Mozaffarian D. Trends in diet quality among U.S. adults from 1999 to 2020 by race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic disadvantage. Ann Intern Med. 2024;177(7):841-850.
4. Wolfson JA, Tucker AC, Leung CW, et al. Trends in adults' intake of un-processed/minimally processed, and ultra-processed foods at home and away from home in the United States from 2003-2018. J Nutr. 2025;155(1):280-292.
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7. Coding4Food. Medically Supportive Food & Nutrition California website. https://www.msfnca.org/coding4food. Accessed May 29, 2025.
8. Establishing the President’s Make America Healthy Again Commission. White House website. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/02/establishing-the-presidents-make-america-healthy-again-commission/. Published February 13, 2025.
9. Sutton A. CMS Innovation Center Strategy to Make America Healthy Again. CMS website. https://www.cms.gov/priorities/innovation/about/cms-innovation-center-strategy-make-america-healthy-again. Published May 13, 2025.
10. MAHA Commission. Make Our Children Healthy Again Assessment. https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/WH-The-MAHA-Report-Assessment.pdf. Published May 2025.
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16. Bergquist SH, Wang D, Fall R, et al. Effect of the Emory Healthy Kitchen Collaborative on employee health habits and body weight: a 12-month workplace wellness trial. Nutrients. 2024;16(4):517.
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18. Thomas OW, McManus CR, Badaracco C, et al. Registered dietitian nutritionists taking the lead in teaching kitchens. J Acad Nutr Diet. 2023;123(10):1393-1405.
19. Wilson K, McCleery A. Registered dietitian nutritionists as leaders in lifestyle and culinary medicine [Published online February 7, 2025]. Am J Lifestyle Med. doi: 10.1177/15598276251316845.
20. Short E, Akers LH, Callahan EA, et al. The role of registered dietitian nutritionists within food is medicine: current and future opportunities. J Acad Nutr Diet. 2025;125(8):1075-1084.
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22. Thomas O. Cooking up behavior change: OMA's preconference culinary medicine workshop. Rewire Health website. https://www.rewire-health.com/blog/cooking-up-behavior-change-omas-pre-conference-culinary-medicine-workshop. Published April 28, 2024.
23. Kushla M. The Ultimate Teaching Kitchen Toolkit. The Teaching Kitchen Collaborative. Published March 2025.