Culinary Medicine - 2025 Edition

Reviewed by Darryl Andrews, Culinary Arts Adjunct Instructor, Tidewater Community College on 1/10/26

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

The text covers all major areas of culinary medicine appropriately, integrating nutrition science, culinary skills, behavioral health, cultural context, and community application. Foundational topics (nutrients, dietary patterns, food safety, and meal planning) are balanced with applied content such as case studies, recipes for disease prevention, and community-based implementation. The scope effectively supports both academic instruction and practical use. An organized glossary clarifies interdisciplinary terminology, and the indexing/navigation within the open-access format allows readers to efficiently locate topics, enhancing the book’s usability and completeness.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The content is accurate, evidence-based, and consistent with current nutrition and public health science. Information is presented clearly without factual errors, and claims are supported by credible research and professional consensus. The text maintains an unbiased perspective, acknowledging multiple dietary patterns and cultural approaches without promoting unsupported or commercially influenced viewpoints. Overall, the material demonstrates a high level of scholarly rigor and reliability appropriate for academic and professional use.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

The content is current and reflects contemporary research and practice in culinary medicine, while emphasizing foundational principles—such as whole-food dietary patterns, food skills, behavior change, and cultural context—that are unlikely to become outdated quickly. Rather than focusing on short-lived trends, the text prioritizes enduring concepts and evidence-based frameworks. Its modular organization and open educational resource format allow for individual sections, case studies, or examples to be updated independently, making future revisions straightforward and ensuring the text remains relevant over time.

Clarity rating: 5

The text is written in clear, accessible prose that is appropriate for a broad audience, including students, health professionals, and community educators. Concepts are explained logically, with sufficient background provided to support understanding without oversimplification. Technical terms and discipline-specific jargon are introduced with clear definitions and contextual explanations, often reinforced through examples, case studies, and practical applications. This approach enhances readability and ensures that readers from diverse academic and professional backgrounds can engage with the material effectively.

Consistency rating: 5

The text demonstrates strong internal consistency in its use of terminology, conceptual frameworks, and organizational structure. Key concepts in nutrition, culinary practice, and behavioral health are defined clearly and used uniformly throughout the chapters. The overarching culinary medicine framework is applied consistently across foundational content, case studies, and practical applications, reinforcing learning and minimizing confusion. This coherence supports reader comprehension and strengthens the text’s effectiveness as an instructional and reference resource.

Modularity rating: 5

The text is well organized into clearly defined chapters and subsections with consistent headings and subheadings, making it easy to divide into smaller, manageable reading assignments. Content is presented in focused sections rather than large, uninterrupted blocks of text, supporting flexible use across different points in a course. Chapters function largely as self-contained units, with minimal unnecessary self-referencing, allowing instructors to reorder, omit, or supplement sections without disrupting coherence. This modular design makes the text highly adaptable to a variety of course structures and instructional goals.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The topics in the text are presented in a logical and coherent sequence, progressing from foundational concepts in nutrition and food systems to applied culinary skills, behavioral considerations, and community-based implementation. Each section builds on prior material, reinforcing understanding while introducing increasing levels of complexity. Clear headings, consistent structure across chapters, and purposeful transitions help guide the reader through the material, making the overall organization intuitive and easy to follow for both instructional andoutines and independent study.

Interface rating: 5

The text is free of significant interface or display issues. Navigation within the open-access format is clear and intuitive, allowing readers to move easily between chapters and sections. Images, charts, and tables are well formatted, appropriately placed, and display without distortion. Design elements support comprehension rather than distract from the content, resulting in a smooth and user-friendly reading experience across digital platforms.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

The text demonstrates a high standard of grammatical accuracy. Sentences are well constructed, punctuation is used correctly, and spelling errors are absent. The writing maintains a consistent professional tone throughout, supporting clarity and readability and reflecting careful editing and review appropriate for an academic and instructional resource.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

The text is culturally inclusive and free from insensitive or offensive content. It deliberately incorporates examples, case studies, and dietary practices from a variety of races, ethnicities, and cultural backgrounds, reflecting diverse food traditions and health perspectives. Guidance on meal planning, culinary practices, and community interventions is presented with respect for cultural differences, promoting equity and relevance for a broad audience. Overall, the text demonstrates strong cultural awareness and responsiveness.

"Culinary Medicine — 2025 Edition" is a highly valuable resource that effectively bridges the gap between nutrition science and practical culinary application. Its open-access format enhances accessibility for students, educators, and practitioners worldwide, which is a notable strength in promoting health education equity. The integration of case studies, recipes, and community-focused strategies makes the text not only informative but actionable.

One particularly commendable aspect is its balance between evidence-based science and real-world applicability; it empowers readers to translate knowledge into meaningful lifestyle and community interventions. The text also serves as a model for interdisciplinary teaching, combining elements of nutrition, behavioral science, and public health in a cohesive, learner-friendly format.

Overall, it is a forward-thinking, comprehensive, and practical resource that can serve as both a textbook and a reference guide for years to come.

Reviewed by Alisha Miller, Assistant Professor, Anderson University on 7/11/25

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

I found the open textbook to be an valuable and good resource that bridges a gap between nutrition science and practical health application. The book delievers a well laid out explortation between food, nutrition, and health. The book covers essential topics in nutrition and does a nice job supporting the text with evidence-based recomendations and references. For students in Exercise Science, Athletic Training, or allied health programs, this approach supports a deeper understanding of how nutrition directly affects client outcomes, performance, recovery, and chronic disease prevention. The book does a nice job with information and case studies. It is limited in the information regarding special populations such as pediatrics, sports nutrition, and geratirc populations. Also, adding in instructor resouces would be helpful.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The book does a nice job addressing evidence-based research and providing additional resources.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

The textbook does a great job aligning its main purpose food as medicine with the continued movement in healthcare for lifestyle based interventions. I really appreciated the shopping lists and food labeling information. These are important concepts for students to understand and are easy ways for our students or their furture clients to educated themselves. The textbook also follows and aligns with national guidelines. The textbook could expand the discussion on technology and this could be incorporated into make health choices and using food as medicine.

Clarity rating: 5

This text book is well written and would be easy for non-nutriton majors to understand and the information is presented in a manner that it can be practically applied to daily knowledge. The book is well structured and flows well. The visual aids and case studies tie in nicely to reinforce knowledge.

Consistency rating: 5

The chapters are well laid out and laid out in the same manner for each chapter. The table of contents is easy to navigate. Throughout the text the authors contunie to consistently discuss how food choices influcence health outcome and daily behavior. One area of improvement could be; being consistent to how in depth each chapter delves. The chapters on hydration and or supplimentation could be more detailed and expanded on.

Modularity rating: 5

The table of contents provides an easy way for chapters and content to be divided into weekly learning topics. The case studies provide the answers which I appreciate, however since the answers are present it would be hard to assign these for credit. The text could also be easily paired down or paired with other supplimental reading. Each individual chapter could be easily paired with other readings. Adding Instructor Tools would be a bonus as well.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The topics flow well from one area of nutrition to the next. The chapters are clearly defined and there is continous integration of clinical and culinary topics.

Interface rating: 4

The textbook is easily accessed and can be downloaded as needed by students. If may benefit from more interactive media content.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

Medical and nutritional terms are used correctly. Definitions are provided terms that may not be fimiliar to all students.T

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

The textbook does a nice job addressing specific mainstream/current diets. It is consistent with addressing the food choices should be tailored to lifestyle and the the individual. The text also does address food insecurity, affodability, and access which for many students may be eye opening. This helps students understand specific barriers can influence food choices. The text book does lack detailed understanding of food choices and influences on a more global scale. Also the case examples are fairly traditional and generalized and may not represent clients from different backgrounds. Overall, the text does demonstrate cultural awareness.

Overall, this is a quality text book for students in the allied health fields. The text can easily be used for a full semester nutrition course or sections of the text could be adapted and used with other resources duing a semester. It is easy to navigate and provided sturents with evidence base information to help expand their knowledge base of nutrition.