What Is Culinary Medicine? What the Evidence Supports, Where the Evidence Is Still Emerging, and Why It Matters in Viet Nam
FOUNDATIONS & EVIDENCE
Category: Foundations & Evidence
Last reviewed: 27 September 2026
Culinary medicine sits at the point where nutrition science meets everyday food practice. It asks a practical question: how can evidence about healthy eating be translated into choices people can actually make when shopping, preparing, cooking and sharing food? Interest in the field has grown across health-professions education, healthcare, teaching kitchens and community programs, but the evidence is not equally strong for every outcome sometimes associated with culinary medicine. Definitions and competencies are also still evolving. [1–3]
For Viet Nam, this distinction matters. The country is strengthening its focus on nutrition and disease prevention while facing a changing food environment, rising overweight, obesity and nutrition-related noncommunicable diseases, alongside continuing undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies in some populations. Culinary medicine may offer one practical way to help translate nutrition evidence into everyday food skills, but its development should be evidence-informed, culturally relevant, interprofessional and appropriately bounded. [13–16]
Key Points
Culinary medicine connects nutrition evidence with practical food and cooking skills. It can help bridge the gap between knowing what constitutes a healthier dietary pattern and being able to shop, prepare and cook accordingly in everyday life. The field is still evolving. Recent international work has helped clarify terminology and proposed an interprofessional competency framework, but there is not yet one universally accepted definition or finalized international competency standard. The clearest and most consistent evidence is currently in education, particularly nutrition knowledge, practical skills, confidence and some aspects of nutrition counseling. Effects on dietary behavior and selected health measures are promising but less consistent. Long-term clinical outcomes, cost-effectiveness, sustainability and effectiveness across different cultures and health systems remain less certain, and evidence directly evaluating culinary medicine in Viet Nam is still very limited. Culinary medicine should therefore complement, rather than replace, clinical nutrition and appropriate medical care. [1–10]
Evidence at a Glance
Most consistently supported: Published studies, particularly in health-professions education, generally report improvements in nutrition-related knowledge, practical skills, attitudes or confidence after interactive culinary and nutrition education. More recent systematic and randomized evidence supports this educational role, although study designs, curricula and outcome measures remain heterogeneous. [4–8]
Promising but less certain: Some studies report changes in dietary behaviors, food-related skills, counseling practices and selected anthropometric or metabolic outcomes. However, results vary by intervention, population, duration and study quality, making broad conclusions difficult. [5,9,10]
Still uncertain: Current evidence does not establish culinary medicine as a stand-alone intervention that reliably reduces major long-term clinical events or independently prevents or treats chronic disease. Cost-effectiveness, sustainability, long-term behavior change and effectiveness across diverse health systems also require further study. [3,4,8–10]
Why Talk About Culinary Medicine Now?
Knowing that diet matters is not the same as knowing how to put nutrition guidance into practice. Recommendations may encourage people to eat more vegetables, choose appropriate sources of protein, improve fat quality or reduce sodium and free sugars. But those recommendations eventually have to become decisions at the market, supermarket, kitchen and dining table.
What should someone compare when choosing between two packaged foods? How can vegetables become a normal part of a familiar family meal rather than something added only because they are considered healthy? How can sodium be reduced without making food less enjoyable? How do time, cost, cooking skills, family preferences and cultural traditions affect what is realistically possible? Culinary medicine has developed partly from an effort to address this gap between nutrition knowledge and everyday food practice.
The field has expanded considerably over the past decade. Programs have been described in medical schools, residency training, healthcare organizations, teaching kitchens and community settings. At the same time, researchers continue to examine what should actually be called culinary medicine, who should deliver it, what competencies are needed and which outcomes are meaningful. It is therefore more accurate to describe culinary medicine as an evolving field than as either an entirely new idea or a fully standardized discipline. [1–3,6]
What Is Culinary Medicine?
There is currently no single definition that should be treated as universally authoritative. A 2024 international terminology study sought consensus on several related concepts. It described culinary nutrition as the integration of culinary arts and nutrition through practical knowledge and skills to improve food- and nutrition-related health, while culinary medicine was defined more specifically as a health practitioner-led culinary nutrition intervention or activity. The study also emphasized interprofessional practice as an important characteristic of the field. [1]
The discussion continued in 2025. A multidisciplinary working group involving physicians, dietitians, chefs, nutrition researchers, educators, foodservice professionals and community representatives concluded that the expanding field was being used across sufficiently different settings that a single perspective did not capture it well. The group developed stakeholder-specific definitions for healthcare professionals, foodservice professionals, culinary nutrition educators and community members. [2]
In June 2026, an international expert consultation published a preliminary interprofessional framework for Culinary Nutrition and Culinary Medicine competencies. The proposed domains extend beyond nutrition science and cooking to include food science, health promotion and behavior change, food systems, cultural diversity, communication and interprofessional practice. Importantly, the authors describe the framework as an early step toward consensus. Further refinement, external validation and development of profession- and context-specific competency standards are still needed. [3]
For Culinary Medicine Vietnam, a useful working description is:
Culinary medicine is an evolving, evidence-informed and interprofessional approach that helps translate nutrition science into practical food and cooking knowledge, skills and experiences to support health, while respecting professional scope, cultural context and the needs of individuals and communities.
This is a working description for the purposes of education and discussion. It should not be interpreted as a formally established international definition or professional standard.
What Does Culinary Medicine Bring Together?
Nutrition science provides the scientific foundation. It helps us understand relationships among dietary patterns, foods, nutrients and health, as well as the quality and limitations of that evidence. Culinary practice addresses another part of the problem: how food is selected, stored, prepared, combined, cooked, served and made enjoyable enough to become part of everyday life.
Food literacy helps connect the two. Reading nutrition labels, understanding ingredient lists, comparing products, planning meals, shopping within a budget and knowing how to use available ingredients can influence whether nutrition recommendations are actually practical. Education and behavior matter as well. Providing information alone does not guarantee that people will be able or willing to act on it. Cooking, tasting, comparison, problem-solving and other experiential approaches give learners opportunities to apply nutrition concepts rather than simply hear about them.
Culture is equally important. Food is more than a collection of nutrients. What people eat is shaped by family, geography, tradition, affordability, availability, preference and social life. The emerging international competency framework explicitly recognizes cultural diversity as relevant to Culinary Nutrition and Culinary Medicine practice. [3]
This also helps explain why culinary medicine is naturally interdisciplinary. Depending on a program's purpose and setting, appropriate contributors may include physicians, nutrition and dietetics professionals, nurses, public-health professionals, chefs and culinary educators, food scientists, educators, behavioral specialists and researchers. The goal should not be for one professional to perform every role, but to bring together the expertise that a particular population and program actually require.
What Culinary Medicine Is Not
Culinary medicine is not the same as nutrition science. Nutrition science provides much of its evidence base, while culinary medicine is concerned in part with translating that evidence into practical food-related knowledge and skills. Nor is it synonymous with clinical nutrition or individualized nutrition care. People living with medical conditions, malnutrition, metabolic disorders, food allergies or other specific needs may require individualized assessment and management by appropriately qualified professionals. Culinary education may support that care, but it does not replace it.
Culinary medicine is also not the same as lifestyle medicine. Nutrition is an important component of lifestyle medicine, but lifestyle medicine addresses a broader range of health behaviors and factors. Culinary medicine has a more focused interest in food, nutrition and practical culinary application, although there is considerable overlap between the two fields.
Likewise, not every healthy cooking class is culinary medicine. Cooking instruction can be valuable in its own right. In a health-related culinary program, however, the culinary component should be deliberately connected to appropriate nutrition evidence, clearly defined educational or health objectives, suitable professional expertise and, ideally, meaningful evaluation.
Most importantly, culinary medicine should not be understood to mean that food replaces medicine. Healthy dietary patterns have important roles in health promotion and in the prevention and management of many conditions, but medicines, medical procedures, medical nutrition therapy and other evidence-based treatments remain necessary when clinically indicated. The evidence supporting healthy dietary patterns is much broader and more mature than the evidence evaluating interventions specifically labelled culinary medicine. These two bodies of evidence should not be treated as interchangeable.
What Does the Evidence Currently Support?
Education of Healthcare Professionals
Education is currently one of the better studied applications of culinary medicine. A 2022 scoping review of 24 studies in medical training found generally favorable changes in nutrition knowledge and confidence, together with high acceptability. However, it also found substantial differences in course content, delivery methods and outcome measures, limited reporting of program costs and relatively little long-term follow-up. [4]
Another scoping review covering Culinary Medicine and Culinary Nutrition education reported changes across outcomes including culinary skills, nutrition knowledge, dietary intake and nutrition-counseling competency. The authors nevertheless concluded that further research was needed to identify the most effective content, format and timing of these programs. [5] A later scoping review of medical students and residents in the United States and Canada identified 100 publications describing 116 experiences across 70 institutions, demonstrating substantial growth in the field while also documenting considerable variation in curriculum design and implementation. [6]
More rigorous experimental evidence emerged in 2025. A randomized non-inferiority trial at Yale compared a hands-on virtual culinary medicine curriculum with didactic-only nutrition education among primary-care residents. Nutrition knowledge improved substantially in both groups. Culinary medicine was non-inferior for knowledge, while participants in the culinary medicine group showed greater confidence in counseling about a plant-forward dietary pattern. They also reported providing nutrition resources to patients more frequently eight weeks after the intervention compared with their own baseline. [7]
The evidence continued to develop in 2026. A systematic review of interactive Culinary Medicine and related nutrition training in German undergraduate medical education included nine studies from six sites. All reported improvements in diet-related knowledge and/or more positive attitudes toward nutrition counseling, and students generally evaluated the courses favorably. However, overall study quality was moderate, designs were heterogeneous and much of the evidence relied on self-reported outcomes. [8]
Taken together, these findings suggest that experiential culinary education can be a useful way to teach nutrition and may add practical or counseling-related benefits. They do not establish that cooking-based education should replace conventional nutrition teaching or that Culinary Medicine is superior for every learning objective.
Patients and Communities
Evidence in patients and community populations is broader but also more heterogeneous. Programs have been delivered in clinics, teaching kitchens, community organizations and virtual environments. Many combine cooking with nutrition education, behavior-change techniques, food-access support or other components, making it difficult to isolate the effect of the culinary component itself.
A systematic review published online in 2025 and appearing in the 2026 volume of the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine examined Culinary Medicine interventions among racial and ethnic minority and other underrepresented populations. Twenty-five studies involving more than 4,000 participants were included. Some studies reported improvements in behavioral, anthropometric or laboratory outcomes, but effects varied and the review identified a high risk of bias across the evidence base. The authors concluded that Culinary Medicine showed promise in these populations while emphasizing the need for more rigorous controlled research. [9]
This is especially relevant for Viet Nam. Evidence that a particular intervention is feasible or effective in one population does not mean that the same curriculum, recipes, teaching approach or delivery model will produce the same results in another cultural and healthcare context.
Clinical Outcomes
Individual Culinary Medicine and teaching-kitchen studies have reported favorable changes in diet quality, body weight, blood pressure, dietary intake or measures of glucose metabolism. New studies continue to appear, but many remain small or exploratory. For example, a randomized feasibility study published in 2026 evaluated a six-week electronic Culinary Medicine program focused on herbs, spices and vegetable consumption in just 17 adults with hypertension. The intervention group showed some favorable dietary changes compared with controls, but the very small sample and feasibility design mean that these findings should be viewed as preliminary rather than evidence of clinical effectiveness. [10]
At present, culinary medicine itself should not be presented as an established stand-alone treatment for diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, hypertension or other chronic diseases. Many interventions are multidimensional, samples are often small, follow-up periods are relatively short and outcome measures vary considerably.
This distinction is essential. There is extensive evidence that diet and dietary patterns influence health. The narrower question, whether a particular program labelled Culinary Medicine provides additional and durable clinical benefits, has a much smaller and less mature evidence base.
Where Is the Evidence Still Emerging?
Several questions remain unresolved. Definitions continue to evolve, competency frameworks are still being developed, interventions differ substantially from one another and outcome measurement is not yet standardized. The 2026 interprofessional competency framework is an important step, but it is a draft, expert-informed framework intended to support further consensus and validation rather than a finished international standard. [3]
Long-term follow-up remains another major gap. Many programs evaluate knowledge, confidence, cooking skills, dietary behavior or participant satisfaction soon after an intervention. These are meaningful outcomes, but more research is needed to determine whether improvements persist and whether they ultimately influence clinical outcomes, professional practice or healthcare utilization.
Questions of cost, scalability and sustainability also deserve greater attention. Teaching kitchens and hands-on programs may require physical or virtual infrastructure, equipment, ingredients, trained faculty, coordination and institutional support. What works in a well-resourced academic medical center may not be feasible in a district hospital, university classroom, workplace or community setting without adaptation.
Geography matters too. Much of the published literature still comes from North America and Europe. Research directly evaluating culturally adapted Culinary Medicine interventions in Viet Nam remains very limited. International evidence can guide local development, but it cannot substitute for local evaluation.
Why Could Culinary Medicine Matter in Viet Nam?
Viet Nam provides a particularly relevant setting in which to explore these questions. Vietnamese food culture is diverse, strongly regional and shaped by longstanding culinary traditions. At the same time, the country's nutrition landscape is changing.
In its 2026 update on Nhu cầu dinh dưỡng khuyến nghị cho người Việt Nam (Recommended Nutrient Intakes for Vietnamese People), the National Institute of Nutrition describes a continuing double burden of malnutrition. Overweight, obesity and nutrition-related noncommunicable diseases are increasing, while undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies remain prevalent in some disadvantaged areas. The updated document also reflects changes in dietary habits, lifestyle, working conditions and the physical characteristics of the Vietnamese population since the previous 2016 edition. [13]
This sits within a broader policy direction. Decision No. 02/QĐ-TTg of 5 January 2022 approved the National Nutrition Strategy for 2021–2030, with a vision to 2045, with objectives that include promoting appropriate nutrition across the life course, improving nutritional status and addressing undernutrition, overweight, obesity and nutrition-related noncommunicable diseases. [11]
In 2024, the Ministry of Health issued the Ten Recommendations for Proper Nutrition toward 2030 under Decision No. 3594/QĐ-BYT. The recommendations address dietary diversity, vegetables and fruits, protein sources, hydration, foods high in salt, sugar and fat, food safety, family meals, appropriate body weight and physical activity. They also explicitly encourage people to read nutrition information on food labels before purchasing and using foods. [12]
The policy context became stronger in 2026. The Law on Disease Prevention No. 114/2025/QH15, effective from 1 July 2026, specifically includes nutrition in disease prevention within its scope and dedicates Chapter IV to the subject. Article 34 provides that nutrition in disease prevention should be addressed throughout the life course and should be appropriate to the physical characteristics, culture and economic conditions of Vietnamese people. Measures identified by the law include nutrition screening and assessment, guidance and counseling, education and communication, and nutrition interventions appropriate to different groups and nutritional status. [14]
This legal development should not be overstated. The Law on Disease Prevention does not establish Culinary Medicine as a medical specialty, professional title or officially endorsed intervention. What it does provide is a stronger national framework for nutrition in disease prevention, health education and approaches that take Vietnamese culture and circumstances into account.
In September 2026, WHO Viet Nam also drew attention to rising consumption of ultra-processed foods, fast foods and sugary beverages and described a broader government shift from treating disease toward preventing it. This is an important public-health context, although such statements should not be confused with evidence establishing the effectiveness of Culinary Medicine itself. [16]
Together, these developments point to a practical question. Viet Nam increasingly has nutrition science, national recommendations and a stronger prevention framework. How can that knowledge become food choices and cooking practices that are realistic, affordable, culturally familiar and sustainable in everyday life? Culinary medicine may be able to contribute to that translation.
What Could Responsible Culinary Medicine Look Like in Viet Nam?
Responsible development should start with evidence, not with branding. International research should be critically appraised and adapted rather than imported wholesale. Vietnamese nutrition guidance, local food patterns, regional cuisines, affordability, household practices and the applicable professional and legal context should all influence program design.
Cultural relevance is particularly important. Healthier eating in Viet Nam does not require replacing Vietnamese food with a foreign dietary model. A more useful question is how evidence-based nutrition principles can be applied through familiar ingredients, cooking techniques and meal patterns while preserving enjoyment and respecting the diversity of Vietnamese cuisine.
Programs should also be interprofessional. Physicians can contribute medical context. Appropriately qualified nutrition and dietetics professionals can contribute nutrition assessment and specialized expertise. Chefs and culinary educators bring practical knowledge of preparation, taste and technique. Public-health and behavioral specialists can strengthen education and implementation, while researchers can help determine whether programs actually achieve their intended outcomes.
Practical applications might include food-label literacy, shopping and meal planning, cooking techniques, increasing the use and acceptability of vegetables and legumes, choosing appropriate protein and fat sources, reducing sodium while preserving flavor, adapting familiar meals and developing teaching-kitchen programs. The objective is not to medicalize every meal. It is to make sound nutrition guidance more understandable and usable.
Programs should also be evaluated rather than assumed to work. If Culinary Medicine is introduced into Vietnamese universities, healthcare organizations, workplaces or communities, relevant outcomes may include knowledge, practical food skills, confidence, dietary behavior, feasibility, acceptability, equity, cost and, where justified by the program and study design, health outcomes. Local evidence will ultimately determine which approaches are useful and which deserve to be expanded.
Staying Within Appropriate Professional Boundaries
The practical nature of culinary medicine should not blur professional responsibilities. General education about food, cooking and healthy eating is different from diagnosing disease, determining individualized treatment or providing specialized clinical nutrition management.
In Viet Nam, medical examination and treatment are governed by the Law on Medical Examination and Treatment No. 15/2023/QH15, effective from 1 January 2024, together with applicable implementing regulations and professional requirements. [15] Calling an activity Culinary Medicine does not by itself create a new professional scope of practice or authorize an individual or organization to undertake activities that otherwise require appropriate professional qualifications, authorization or healthcare settings.
Where a person has a medical condition, malnutrition, metabolic disorder, food allergy or another clinical need that requires individualized assessment or treatment, care should involve appropriately qualified and authorized healthcare and nutrition professionals. Clear professional boundaries are part of responsible field development, not a limitation of Culinary Medicine.
Where Do We Go From Here?
The central idea behind culinary medicine is simple but important: nutrition recommendations become more useful when people can translate them into foods and meals they can realistically choose, prepare and enjoy.
Current evidence most consistently supports culinary medicine as an experiential educational approach. Research increasingly suggests value for nutrition knowledge, practical skills and some counseling-related outcomes, while evidence on dietary behavior and selected health measures continues to develop. Recent international work is also bringing greater clarity to terminology and interprofessional competencies. At the same time, the field does not yet have standardized interventions, finalized international competency standards or sufficiently consistent evidence of long-term clinical effectiveness across diverse populations and health systems.
For Viet Nam, that uncertainty is not a reason to dismiss Culinary Medicine. It is a reason to develop and evaluate it carefully. The opportunity is not to import a foreign model of healthy eating, but to explore how sound nutrition evidence can be translated responsibly through Vietnamese foods, cooking traditions and everyday realities, while respecting professional roles and generating local evidence about what actually works. This is the space Culinary Medicine Vietnam seeks to help develop.
References
Croxford S, Stirling E, MacLaren J, McWhorter JW, Frederick L, Thomas OW. Culinary Medicine or Culinary Nutrition? Defining Terms for Use in Education and Practice. Nutrients. 2024;16(5):603. doi:10.3390/nu16050603.
Hildebrand CA, Artz KE, Dollinger B, et al. Defining the evolving field of culinary medicine across multiple domains. Frontiers in Nutrition. 2025;12:1588449. doi:10.3389/fnut.2025.1588449.
Stirling E, Thomas OW, Croxford S. Developing an Interprofessional Framework for Culinary Nutrition and Culinary Medicine Competencies: A Consultation with International Experts. Nutrients. 2026;18(12):1897. doi:10.3390/nu18121897.
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Asher RC, Shrewsbury VA, Bucher T, Collins CE. Culinary medicine and culinary nutrition education for individuals with the capacity to influence health-related behaviour change: a scoping review. Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics. 2022;35(2):388–395. doi:10.1111/jhn.12944.
Hildebrand CA, Patel MB, Tenney AB, et al. Culinary Medicine Experiences for Medical Students and Residents in the U.S. and Canada: A Scoping Review. Teaching and Learning in Medicine. 2025;37(3):336–362. doi:10.1080/10401334.2024.2340977.
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Stock-Schröer B, Edelhäuser F, Scheffer C, et al. How does culinary medicine training impact the diet-related knowledge, skills and attitudes of undergraduate medical students in Germany? A systematic review. BMC Medical Education. 2026;26:895. doi:10.1186/s12909-026-09580-2.
Brown B, Adediran E, Taylor E, Ose D, Okuyemi K. Culinary Medicine Interventions Among Racial and Ethnic Minority and Underrepresented Populations: A Systematic Review. American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine. 2026;20(2):188–203. First published online 4 September 2025. doi:10.1177/15598276251370976.
Alcorn M, Childress A, Najam W, Galyean S. Culinary Medicine Program Using Herbs and Spices to Increase Vegetable Consumption Among Adults with Hypertension: A Randomized Controlled Feasibility Study. American Journal of Health Promotion. 2026;40(4):500–505. doi:10.1177/08901171251380839.
Prime Minister of Viet Nam. Decision No. 02/QĐ-TTg dated 5 January 2022 approving the National Nutrition Strategy for 2021–2030, with a vision to 2045.
Ministry of Health of Viet Nam. Decision No. 3594/QĐ-BYT dated 29 November 2024 issuing the Ten Recommendations for Proper Nutrition toward 2030.
National Institute of Nutrition, Viet Nam. Những điểm cập nhật về nhu cầu dinh dưỡng khuyến nghị cho người Việt Nam [Updates to the Recommended Nutrient Intakes for Vietnamese People]. 3 August 2026.
National Assembly of Viet Nam. Law on Disease Prevention No. 114/2025/QH15, dated 10 December 2025, effective 1 July 2026. See particularly Chapter IV, Nutrition in Disease Prevention.
National Assembly of Viet Nam. Law on Medical Examination and Treatment No. 15/2023/QH15, dated 9 January 2023, effective 1 January 2024.
World Health Organization Viet Nam. Speech of Dr Angela Pratt at KOL Workshop on Nutrition and NCDs. 15 September 2026.
Disclaimer
This article is provided for general educational and informational purposes only. It summarizes scientific literature and relevant Vietnamese policy and legal context available as of the date of its last review. It is not intended to provide individualized medical, nutrition, legal or other professional advice and does not replace appropriate assessment, diagnosis, treatment, medical nutrition therapy or individualized nutrition care by suitably qualified and, where required, appropriately authorized professionals.
Culinary Medicine should not be interpreted as a substitute for medicines, medical procedures, clinical nutrition care or other evidence-based treatments when these are indicated. Use of the term Culinary Medicine does not itself create, authorize or expand any professional scope of practice in Viet Nam. Organizations and professionals developing Culinary Medicine-related activities should ensure that their programs, communications and services comply with applicable Vietnamese laws, regulations and professional requirements.
Scientific evidence, recommendations and legal requirements may change over time. Culinary Medicine Vietnam aims to review and update this resource as relevant evidence, guidance and regulatory requirements evolve.