Zest: The Health meets Food Newsletter
May 2025
Zest. It says a lot about what the folks who are involved with Culinary Medicine are about. People connected with the Culinary Medicine movement have just that: a zest for life, learning, and teaching. Zest evokes the excitement and passion that is happening at the intersection of where health meets food.
Register for the Culinary Medicine Roundtable: Medically Tailored Meals
Join the American College of Culinary Medicine for our Spring 2025 Culinary Medicine Roundtable on Monday, May 19 at 5:00 PM Eastern time.
Building on conversations started at this year’s Health meets Food: The Culinary Medicine Conference, the ACCM is convening experts in the field to offer further insight into the history, implementation, public health implications and innovations in medically tailored meal programs.
Register for the Roundtable Now!
Speakers Include:
Jean L. Lloyd, MS, RD, Nutritionist – Administration on Aging, US Dept. of Health and Human Services
Uche Akobundu, PhD, Senior Director, Nutrition Strategy – Meals on Wheels America
Kofi Essel, MD, MPH, FAAP, Food as Medicine Program Director – Elevance Health
Nicole Farmer, MD, Chief, Dietary Behaviors and Biopsychosocial Health Section – NIH Clinical Center
Featured Speaker: Ucheoma Akobundu, PhD, RD
Uche Akobundu serves as the senior director, nutrition, at Meals on Wheels America where she leads the development and implementation of the association’s strategy for senior nutrition programs and services. This work includes the design and execution of projects that demonstrate the evidence base for senior nutrition programs, as well as leading varied grant, education, and training initiatives that strengthen and contemporize the portfolio of local service offerings in specific regions as well as across the country.
Dr. Akobundu specializes in geriatric nutrition and community-based nutrition and aging service delivery. She holds an M.S. in nutrition with a concentration in public health from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and a Ph.D. in nutrition from the University of Maryland, College Park.
Register for the Roundtable Now!
Culinary Medicine Roundtable Agenda
5:00 pm: Opening Remarks – Moderator
5:10 pm: Jean L. Lloyd, MS, RD, Nutritionist – Administration on Aging, US Dept. of Health and Human Services
5:30 pm: Uche Akobundu, PhD, Senior Director, Nutrition Strategy – Meals on Wheels America
5:50 pm: Kofi Essel, MD, MPH, FAAP, Food as Medicine Program Director – Elevance Health
6:10 pm to 7 pm: Panel Discussion
Health meets Food: The Culinary Medicine Conference is on YouTube!
Want to learn about the impact of gut serotonin on irritable bowel syndrome, the MIND diet, advanced glycation end products, or understanding obesity bias? How about hours of culinary skills building sessions?
Find the newly refreshed programming here: https://www.youtube.com/@ACCM-HmF
Currently viewers have access to recordings from past years’ Health meets Food: The Culinary Medicine Conference, spanning from 2017 through 2022. (Sorry, CME is no longer available for these recordings.)
Be sure to click on the Subscribe button to be updated as new videos and programming are added to the channel.
Register Now for Health meets Food: The Culinary Medicine Conference!
The 2024 Culinary Medicine conference was amazingly successful and we are looking forward to a great conference in 2025. The Health meets Food team is delighted to announce that we will be returning to our roots in New Orleans! There will be an online streaming option using a virtual conference platform.
The conference will be held at Delgado Community College: 615 City Park Avenue, New Orleans, LA.
FRIDAY: REBOOT OF FUNDAMENTAL KNOWLEDGE
Friday programming will focus on the Food Safety and explore the fundamental information around safety of food in the supply chain, diagnosing and treating foodborne illness, and contaminants in our food.
SATURDAY: CHALLENGES IN CULINARY MEDICINE
Saturday programming will explore the intersection of women’s health, food, and nutrition. Topics will include an exploration of the role of women in nutrition research as well as nutrition and PCOS and nutrition and menopause.
During this year’s culinary skills building sessions, we will explore the challenges our vulnerable patients face with cooking great healthy food using a variety of pre-selected ingredients. Teams will create and share recipes with other conference participants in the afternoon sessions.
SUNDAY: LOOKING TO THE HORIZON – FOOD FOR THOUGHT
What are the current issues and impact of nutrition in the food supply chain and how is this affecting our planet?
Register for the Conference Now!
Conference Host Hotel
You can book a great rate at The Old No. 77 hotel. This hotel is about 1 1/2 blocks away and will be easy to access the shuttles to the conference venue, Delgado Community College. Use this link to book:
Culinary Medicine Conference 2025 @ The Old No. 77 Hotel & Chandlery
Guests can also call and reference the “Culinary Medicine Conference 2025” rate with our reservations team at 504-302-0017.
The link provided defaults to an arrival on June 5th and departure on June 9th. Guests can navigate to the link and adjust the stay dates for arrival as early as June 1st and as late as June 10th and book a stay for as many nights as they’d like.
Yoga at Health meets Food: The Culinary Medicine Conference
The yoga sessions offered at this past year’s conference was popular and we will be offering this again at this year’s conference. You can participate in sessions both on Friday and Saturday morning at 6:15 AM. Bring your own yoga mat.
Sessions will be held in the Atrium Space at Entrepeneur’s Row across the street from the International House Hotel at 220 Chartres Street.
Sara Police, PhD, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and Nutritional Sciences at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine. As a faculty member, Sara brings a science-backed yet soulful approach to yoga. Join her for energizing morning sessions designed to awaken the body, calm the mind, and set the tone for a day of learning at the intersection of food and medicine.
Featured Culinary Medicine Conference Speaker
Dr. Karen Lindsay
University of California Irvine
Dr. Karen Lindsay is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and Assistant Professor in the School of Medicine at the University of California Irvine. She has clinical and research expertise in maternal and child health, nutrition-stress interactions, and mindful eating. Her current research focuses on the interplay between nutrition and psychological stress during pregnancy and the effects on gestational metabolism and pregnancy outcomes.
She is also an instructor of culinary medicine at the UCI Susan Samueli Integrative Health Institute where she teaches medical students and trainees. Recently, she initiated the Pre-pregnancy Whole Person Care program at UCI which incorporates culinary medicine into an integrative health model to support health, wellness, and fertility for couples planning a pregnancy.
Register for the Conference Now!
Last Opportunity to Apply for the Nancy Kistler Scholarship
The American Academy of Culinary Medicine is pleased to announce the establishment of the Nancy Kistler Scholarship.
The Scholarship Committee will meet in Mid-May to review selections. If you are interested, please use the link below to finalize your application.
When the ACCM launched the Certified Culinary Medicine Professional Course, Chef Kistler was the first participant to enroll. This scholarship honors the life and legacy of Chef Nancy Kistler, commemorating Chef Kistler’s passion for great food and her understanding of the complex relationship of food and health. As an educator with an intellectual curiosity and desire to learn, she valued evidence-based information and demanded excellence from herself and her students. This scholarship will be awarded to a like-minded female chef educator.
Aims: The primary aim of this scholarship is to offer financial support to a current female culinary educator of future culinarians in obtaining the Certified Culinary Medicine Professional designation.
Learn More and Apply Now! Donate to the Scholarship Fund
ACCM Advisory Board Member Spotlight
Kerry M. Scott, DO, MBA, FACOFP, CCMS
Chair of Department of Family Medicine
Assistant Professor of Clinical Sciences.
William Carey University College of Osteopathic Medicine
Dr. Scott is a Family Medicine physician with over 20 years of experience. He is currently practicing with Memorial Physician Group in Biloxi, MS. He is a Certified Culinary Medicine Specialist for the MS Gulf Coast area. He previously worked with the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians as the Director of Primary Care at the Choctaw Health Center in Choctaw, MS and served as the Interim Chief Medical Officer from 2019-2021.
Dr. Scott received his BS from Dillard University in New Orleans, LA. He received his Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine degree from the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine in Philadelphia, PA. He received his Master’s in Business Administration from the Haub School of Business at Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, PA in 2018. He also received a Diploma with honors in Gourmet Cooking and Catering from Ashworth College.
Dr. Scott is Board Certified in Family Medicine and Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment. He is a National Family Medicine Faculty for the National Board of Osteopathic Medical Examiners. He is on the Board of Directors of the Mississippi Osteopathic Medical Association and was appointed to the Bureau on Federal Health Programs for the American Osteopathic Association by the national President of the American Osteopathic Association where he served for 3 years.
Dr. Scott completed the ACCM Food Lover’s Questionnaire
What is your favorite ingredient?
Whole Nutmeg
What is your least favorite ingredient?
Accent seasoning
What turns you on creatively?
My creativity is ignited when traveling to new places
What turns you off?
Poor access to fresh fruits and vegetables
What is your favorite recipe or meal?
Pan seared Salmon with Couscous
What culinary flavor or aroma do you love?
Savory
What culinary flavor or aroma do you hate?
Licorice
What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
Architect and hotel design and restaurateur.
What profession would you not like to do?
Computer engineering
Julia Child invites you to a potluck dinner with James Beard and Aguste Escoffier. What dish would you take?
My famous 10lb Carrot Cake
Featured Recipe: Salad Nicoise
It is summer and the perfect time for great salads and salads are a great way to get extra veggies.
Salade Nicoise is the classic French salad. It is a composed salad and composed salads like these are a complete meal unto themselves.
There is a bit of controversy about what actually goes into a Salade Nicoise, but this version is drawn from the most popular versions. You can eliminate the potatoes, use anchovies or not and even the egg might be questioned by the most ardent Nice residents.
The ACCM website has thousands of recipes for you to try. Every recipe offers information on health benefits as well as potential allergies and are tagged to indicate whether they might be GERD friendly, gluten free, low sodium, safe for warfarin users, or those who are lactose intolerant. This combined with the ACCM Med Diet Score application gives you amazing tools to eat great food that just happens to be great for you.
Upcoming Virtual Culinary Medicine Classes
The Health meets Food team has been offering virtual online hands-on Culinary Medicine programming for almost 5 years. Participants use Zoom to gather, collaborate, cook together, and discuss case studies. Each module will follow the workflow of in-person programming and will take about 3 1/2 hours to complete.
For registration problems, questions, or for more event information, please contact Cecilia Hatfield at cecilia@culinarymedicine.org.
Module 17 – IBS IBD GERD: Friday July 18, 2025 4:00 pm – 7:30 pm EST via Zoom
Module 13 – Celiac Disease: Saturday August 16, 2025 12:00 pm – 3:30 pm EST via Zoom
Module 8 – The Pediatric Diet: Saturday October 18, 2025 12:00 pm – 3:30 pm EST via Zoom
Module 3 – Fats: Sunday October 19, 2025 3:00 pm – 6:30 pm EST via Zoom
Module 16 – Anti Inflammatory Diet: Friday November 7, 2025 4:00 pm – 7:30 pm EST via Zoom
Module 7 – Carbohydrates & Diabetes: Saturday November 8, 2025 12:00 pm – 3:30 pm EST via Zoom
ACCM Med Diet Score Application
What’s Your Score?
What if there were an app that could tell you what your Mediterranean Diet Score was?
You can do that now with the ACCM Med Diet Score, our flagship desktop and mobile app, designed to help improve the quality of the calories you consume.
The Health meets Food courseware teaches you how to eat great food, and the basis for our style of eating is the nine points of a Mediterranean-style Diet:
1. More vegetables,
2. More legumes,
3. More fruits and nuts,
4. More whole grains,
5. Better quality oils and fats,
6. Less land animal protein,
7. More seafood,
8. Less dairy and more reduced-fat and fermented dairy, and
9. Alcohol only in moderation.
Healthy Recipes
Med Diet Score includes over 2,000 healthy recipes, from Breakfasts to Desserts, created and tested by the Health meets Food team.
Meal Planner
Use Med Diet Score to create 2-week meal plans for one person, families, or groups – including shopping lists. Save time and money by planning ahead!
Food Diary
Track foods consumed using data from one of the most complete nutritional databases available anywhere.
Exercise Diary
Track exercise with calories calculated automatically. Connect common wearable exercise trackers such as Apple Watch and Fitbit.
But it’s much more than a food and exercise diary and calorie tracker!
It’s called Med Diet Score because it tracks your overall Mediterranean Diet Score according to the nine principles of a Mediterranean-style diet.
Health meets Food Culinary Medicine Research Library
The Clinical Practice Committee has continued to work on a Culinary Medicine Research Library and this month is the first of our curated articles. These are selected from a monthly search undertaken by students at the GWU Culinary Medicine Interest Group with leadership of the project recently taken over by Kaylee Fisher and Jeni Zhang from last year’s team of Hanna Harris, AJ Hora, and Trinity Rico.
You can find the library at this link: https://culinarymedicine.org/research-2/culinary-medicine-research-library/
If you are interested in synchronizing the database to your desktop version of Zotero, complete the form on the library page.
The Certified Culinary Medicine Specialist (CCMS) Program
The Certified Culinary Medicine Specialist (CCMS) designation identifies clinicians who have a unique foundation for incorporating healthy eating into patients’ diets: comprehensive knowledge of nutrition and the culinary techniques to prepare food that is consistent with real-world budgets, time constraints, and nutritional ideals. Physicians, Physicians Assistants, Pharmacists, Registered Dietitians and Nurse Practitioners are eligible for certification.
The hybrid 60-credit curriculum includes a distinctive combination of online nutrition education courses, live conferences, and in-person attendance at hands-on teaching kitchen modules.By completing the program, clinicians will enhance their confidence and quality of care by learning how to:
- Integrate nutritional counseling to supplement pharmacological treatment
- Educate patients about weight loss and weight management
- Develop practical examination-room dialogues that inspire behavioral change
- Implement new strategies in even the busiest primary care offices
Apply for the CCMS Program Now!
Culinary Medicine Programming for Chefs and Foodservice Professionals
The Advisory Board and the Health meets Food team is excited to offer pioneering Culinary Medicine programming for chefs and foodservice professionals. The programming is a 20 module series and the courseware will be available for culinary schools as well as a certification program.
Chefs and foodservice professionals are perfectly positioned to play a central role in changing the way Americans eat. However, many chefs and foodservice professionals feel their nutrition education and ability to communicate practical, effective guidance to consumers as well as their skill to produce food that is healthy and delicious is lacking.
The Certified Culinary Medicine Professional (CCMP) program provides foodservice professional at any level with a unique combination of nutritional knowledge and improved healthy culinary skills so that they can effectively incorporate healthy options into menus to help consumers.
Through certification, foodservice professionals will enhance their knowledge, confidence, and skills by learning how to:
- Evaluate and apply the most rigorous current research to menu and recipe development.
- Enhance the quality of meals prepared.
- Improve the diet quality especially targeting diet-related chronic diseases
Featuring a hybrid 45-credit curriculum comprised of online education, live conference learning, and hands-on teaching kitchen modules, the CCMP program is designed for those passionate about integrating science-based nutrition research into their culinary skillset and will equip candidates with the nutritional knowledge and culinary skills to optimize health.
View the program’s hybrid curriculum and steps towards certification.
Culinary Medicine Roundtable – School Lunch Program
Watch the recording of the American College of Culinary Medicine Fall 2024 Culinary Medicine Roundtable.
Building on conversations started at the 2024 Health meets Food: The Culinary Medicine Conference, the ACCM convened experts in the field to offer further insight into the history, implementation, public health implications, and innovations in the school lunch program.
Free Food Security Continuing Medical Education Online
The Health meets Food team offers free continuing medical education programming focused on food security issues:
1. Food Security in Older Adults
2. SNAP and WIC
3. Food Banks and Medically Tailored Meals
This is a significant issue for many in our society and the courseware covers background as well as actionable information for healthcare professionals. All three of these modules are also available for use by partner sites using the Health meets Food courseware for healthcare professional students.
American College of Culinary Medicine Clothing and Swag
We are excited to announce the availability of Health meets Food clothing and swag. Great as a gift for yourself, family, friends and (even better) your Culinary Medicine colleagues.
Choose from baseball caps, t-shirts, polo shirts, embroidered aprons, mugs, and water bottles.
