Food, Cooking and Nutrition: A "Food As Medicine" Approach

Not all food is created equal. How do plants and animals become nutrient-dense foods that contribute to human health? How do basic cooking techniques influence nutrition? What does “Food as Medicine” mean? What is the role of social organizations (food hubs, co-ops and intentional communities) and policy in supporting food quality for all people?

This program primarily takes a scientific approach to food, as balanced by historical, anthropological, sustainability and food policy perspectives. The topics we’ll address span a broad range of scales, from the science of food to nutrition to sustainability and food systems. In particular, we’ll discuss and engage hands-on with food quality, nutrition and flavor, as they are created by a healthy soil. Recent publications have synthesized these seemingly disparate topics that are fundamental to the evolving "food as medicine" approach. Harold McGee's On Food and Cooking and America's Test Kitchen's The Science of Cooking will be our guides for the science of food in both theoretical and applied senses. In addition to lectures, seminars and workshops, in order to support an experiential understanding, students will participate in regular cooking labs, field trips and investigate their interests through a 2-cr independent component.

We will explore basic nutrition using the text, Understanding Nutrition. We will become familiar with the current US diet that appears to be causing inflammation and subsequently chronic diseases, as well as potential solutions. To understand the food system and its impact on quality and accessibility, we will examine the impact of US farm and food policy on nutrition of food, as well as the lives of farmers, farmworkers, and those who cook for others.

Program activities include lectures, cooking labs, workshops, seminars, and field trips to farms, food processors and the WSU-Bread Lab, as well as a possible local conference. In labs, as we focus on the science of cooking, we will examine both the phenomenon of taste and basic techniques of food preparation in Evergreen’s food-grade Sustainable Agriculture Lab. Seminar readings will present the co-evolution of humans with their food crops and livestock, as well as historical and current issues in food and agriculture. Seminar books may include Silvertown (Dinner with Darwin), Tulleken (Ultra-Processed People) and Montgomery and Bilké (What Your Food Ate) along with excerpts from Freeman (Ruin Their Crops on the Ground: The Politics of Food in the United States, from the Trail of Tears to School Lunch).

This program will help those who cook - or aspire to - be more conscious of both the science of cooking and food quality in its broadest sense. It will develop a “systems” understanding for those who are interested in a career in food, gardening and/or societal change. Those who are relatively new to the field will become acquainted with the broad array of topics involved in the food system from soil to plate and gain new cooking skills! Individual projects with upper-division science credit options will be supported when appropriate.

Anticipated Credit Equivalencies:

5 - Food Science with Laboratory

5 - Introduction to Human Nutrition

4 - Seminar: Issues in Food and Human Nutrition

2 - Student-directed Independent Research or Internship