Welcome to Culinary Medicine

Thank you for deciding to take the first step of the Culinary Medicine journey with us.  We are excited about offering a new elective beginning in Fall 2019. Through the class, we hope to educate you on the science of Health Meets Food. The course information is part of the Tulane’s Goldring Institute Culinary Medicine program. UAMS is working collaboratively with Tulane and other academic centers around the country to improve nutritional education in medical school curriculums. Our hope is to better prepare students to translate knowledge of nutrition into skills that allow them to educate patients about foods using it to prevent diseases and manage chronic diseases. We ultimately hope to integrate the curriculum components throughout the entire medical school curriculum, where it aligns with topic instructions.

As this is a new elective your feedback is critical to iron out difficulties with the online system and to learn what we can do to improve the course.  Your expected time commitment is approximately 30 min – 1 hour outside of class (quiz must be completed prior to Thursday 5:00 pm) each week and the Thursday evening (5:00-8:00 pm) “hands-on” portion where we tackle the practical aspects of healthy cooking and discuss patient cases associated with the modules will be held at UA Pulaski Tech Culinary Institute. The exception is this first week where you have two videos to view and two quizzes to take which could double your outside class time commitment to one hour.  The cooking portion of the class remains the same.  Additional optional reading is available within the module.

The modules we have chosen for this course are below and cover the most common nutritional information needed to counsel patients on common diseases, such as diabetes, hypertension, obesity, food allergies. We have also included a module for pediatrics:

Module 1ks and 1 Safety and Sanitation and Introduction to Culinary Medicine

Module 2 Weight Management and Portion Control

Module 3 Fats

Module 4 Food Allergy and Intolerance

Module 5 Protein, Amino Acids, Vegetarian Diets and Eating Disorders

Module 6 Sodium, Potassium and Hypertension

Module 7 Carbohydrates

Module 8 The Pediatric Diet

Please complete the important baseline survey at the top of the modules page before starting the course. Email or text me if you have any questions. Please wear CLOSED-TOE shoes to the cooking modules. Hair should be worn pulled back. We will supply the required hair nets and gloves. Please notify me of any food allergies/intolerances and if you are vegeterian/vegan or have other restrictions.

Feel free to contact, for questions:

Gina Drobena, M.D.   501-952-9296   gadrobena@uams.edu

Gloria Richard-Davis, M.D.  gricharddavis@uams.edu