Institute for Nutrition and Psychology at the Georg-August University of Göttingen, University Medical Center

1200

people served in 2021

Member since 2022

Kitchen, Cooking, Competence! Translating Nutrition, Health Literacy, and Counseling Skills into People’s Lives

The goals of Culinary Medicine Germany reach multiple sections of society, including a range of health professional students, undergraduates, staff in an academic medical center, young people, and the community at large.  

To strengthen interdisciplinary and inter-professional education in the field of nutrition and medicine, the Institute for Nutrition and Psychology at the Georg-August University Gottingen developed an elective culinary medicine course that is being tested in multiple sites. The teaching kitchen also serves students in agricultural, scientific, and sports majors and is open to all students to coincide with a healthy campus program at the university. At the associated medical center, they offer teaching kitchen interventions for staff.

Culinary Medicine Germany reaches younger people by staging a teaching kitchen and multiple hands-on experiences at the Expo of Ideas, Europe’s largest education fair for Generation Z. They look to increase their education around sustainable development, the connection between food and climate, and a larger transformation of knowledge on the premise that nutrition and cooking and eating together are active contributors to cultural and social fabric. To reach the broader community, CMG offers scientific cooking shows with Germany’s only Michelin 3-star chef, empowering all parts of the society to make healthy and sustainable food choices.

Snapshot

Key Data

In the last three years

  • 2,500 pupils age 12-18 at Expo of Ideas
  • 200 students attending courses in practice
  • 1,000 attendants at scientific cooking show
  • 1,000 participants in online courses
Quick Facts

16

1 MD, 1 Sustainability Professor, 1 Social scientist, 3 Nutrition scientists, 2 Registered dietitians, 3 Chefs, 1 Food Physicist, 4 Medical Students

Built-in kitchen in a university setting

(also pop-up in community)

IMPACT

An every day home-cooked meal made from fresh, natural or organic ingredients, prepared with love, and a shared meal, is sustainability in practice!

Uwe Neumann

Publications

Neumann, U. Cooking Courses in Higher Education: A Method to Foster Education for Sustainable Development and Promoting Sustainable Development Goals. In: Leal Filho W. (eds) Handbook of Sustainability Science and Research. World Sustainability Series. 2018, Cham, Switzerland, pp. 827–848. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63007-6_50 

Neumann, U. Kitchen – Cooking – Competence! Cooking Courses as Method to foster ESD and promote SDG‘s. Conference: 4th World Symposium on Sustainability in Science and Research, April 2017, Manchester (UK). https://culinarymedicine.de/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Manchester_2017_Poster_alsCMD__Cook_UN_QR-Finalc-2.pdf 

Neumann U, Gillen OM, Behrens S (2016): Den Wert der Lebensmittel entdecken. Bildung für Nachhaltige Entwicklung (Projekt CookUOS). (Translated title – Discover the Value of Food: Instructor Overview for Educating about Sustainability). Bibel und Liturgie: … in kulturellen Räumen 89, 288-294

Ellrott, T. Barriers and how to overcome them: The difficult path to healthy eating. Uro-News, 2012:16(12), 26–28. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00092-012-0513-x 

Ellrott, T. “Healthy Diet” and “Enjoyment”: A dilemma in nutrition communication Nutrition & Medicine, 2011:26(03), 110–114. https://doi.org/10.1055/s-0031-1286124

Ellrott, T. The difficult path to healthy eating. MMW – Advances in Medicine, 2011:153(46), 39–42. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03369072

 

Press

The Science Information Service (idw), “Innovation for medical studies: Culinary Medicine piloted as an elective compulsory subject at the University Medical Center Göttingen,” November 2020