The integration of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) principles into healthcare education is essential to ensure culturally sensitive and equitable healthcare delivery. In the domain of nutrition, food, and health, these principles are particularly vital, as diet and food choices are strongly linked to cultural identities and socioeconomic conditions. Despite a growth of DEIB initiatives in undergraduate and graduate medical education, there is a significant gap regarding guidelines for implementing DEIB principles in education around nutrition and food, including that for dietitians, allied health and medical professionals. A literature review was conducted, analyzing peer-reviewed articles and current practices in academic medical education to understand DEIB in nutrition, food, and health. The outcome was the creation of a three-tiered checklist titled “Checklist for Culturally Competent Education in Nutrition”. It serves as a roadmap to cultivate culturally competent, equitable, and inclusive healthcare professionals that emphasizes avoiding bias, enhancing awareness, and building practical skills for DEIB implementation around nutrition.

Culinary medicine (CM) addresses diseases through nutrition and culinary education. To promote access to educational material for people with diabetes and engagement in virtual classes, we created a virtual culinary medicine toolkit (VCMT) sensitive to literacy levels and language preferences. The VCMT was developed to accompany existing virtual CM programs and help improve participant interaction and retention, offering educational materials for providers and participants. The provider VCMT offers level-setting education to reduce mixed nutrition messaging, including educational resources discussing inclusive nutrition and mindful eating topics. Each handout has a QR code and link to engaging, animated videos that provide further explanation. The participant VCMT offers a range of fundamental cooking skill videos and infographics, including knife skills and preparing whole grains and healthy beverages. Participant handouts and animated videos, which are played during the virtual CM class, allow participants to learn more about diabetes management and food literacy topics, including interpreting nutrition labels, and are employed during a CM to facilitate discussion and reflection. The animated videos replace a traditional slide-based lecture, allowing space for patient-centered facilitated discussions during virtual cooking sessions. The VCMT could guide the development of virtual CM interventions to shift learning from lecture-based to patient-centered discussions via a visual and inclusive medium.