Fecal Microbiome and Metabolome Testing: An Emerging Tool for Evaluating Culinary Medicine Interventions

Chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease, stroke, diabetes, and cancer, are among the leading causes of death in the US. An unhealthy diet is one of the most significant risk factors underlying these chronic, noncommunicable diseases. Eating out has become increasingly common, while home-cooking has declined. Culinary Medicine is an evidenced-based strategy that incorporates culinary arts in nutrition education. Multiple studies indicate that Culinary Medicine can improve eating behaviors, expand culinary knowledge, and improve confidence in one's cooking ability. However, Culinary Medicine studies often rely on subjective data such as Food Frequency Questionnaires and 24-hour dietary recall. These instruments are subject to bias. Dietary biomarkers enhance Culinary Medicine evaluations. Since diet is a well-known modulator of the gut microbiome and its metabolites, we argue that fecal microbiome and metabolome assessments are valuable in investigating the outcomes of Culinary Medicine studies.