Why Sustainability Belongs in Every Nutrition Classroom
The conversation around nutrition is changing—but not fast enough. As Sherene Chou, RD, shared, sustainability is only slowly being woven into dietetics programs. That’s why her nonprofit, Food + Planet, is partnering with Meatless Monday and the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future to build an open-access sustainability curriculum for nutrition programs nationwide. Their stance is clear: create rigorous education that is free, inclusive, and independent of industry funding—so health professionals can trust the guidance they pass on to patients and communities.
Building Credible, Industry-Independent Education
Food + Planet launched in 2020 with seed dollars to prove the concept, then instituted a no-industry-funding policy to protect educational integrity. Today, their toolkits, slide decks, and guides are built for dietitians, interns, faculty, and internship directors—and they’re free to use and share. The aim is simple: equip every practitioner to talk about sustainable diets with confidence, nuance, and cultural sensitivity.
Listening to the Field: What Dietitians Say They Need
Three years ago, Food + Planet and Today’s Dietitian launched the first national survey on dietitians’ attitudes toward sustainability. The consistent signal: clinicians are hungry for training and tools, and they want a seat at the policy table. The next survey releases on Earth Day—a timely window into what’s shifting and where support is still missing.
Cultural Inclusivity Isn’t “Nice to Have”—It’s Nutrition Science
Sherene and I both trained in programs where “world foods” got one token class. That’s not education—it’s erasure. In a city like Los Angeles, clinicians serve dozens of cultural communities whose traditions already reflect health-protective patterns (think legumes, whole grains, greens, herbs, spices, and fermented foods). The task isn’t to “healthify” these cuisines by swapping in pita for congee or tortillas for steamed buns. It’s to affirm cultural foodways, translate guidance accurately, and correct resources that merely translate American diet sheets instead of honoring traditional patterns.
Practical starting points
- Ask patients: What comfort foods from your tradition feel most nourishing?
- Build plans around those dishes (not against them).
- Use visuals and shopping lists in the languages people speak at home.
- When recommending substitutions, keep texture, aroma, and cooking method intact.
Culinary Medicine: From Buzzword to Bedside
“Food as medicine” gets tossed around, but practitioners need a working definition. Sherene recently joined a national group—including physicians, RDs, and chefs—to help define culinary medicine and align training. One promising bridge is the Teaching Kitchen Collaborative, which embeds hands-on kitchens in hospitals, universities, and communities. Patients learn how to cook for their diagnoses (e.g., low-sodium or cardiometabolic patterns) in 5–10-week workshops—shifting care from abstract advice to repeatable skills.
Why it matters
- Replaces generic handouts with applied learning
- Builds self-efficacy (confidence to shop, cook, and troubleshoot)
- Reduces “sick-care” drift by centering prevention and pleasure
Upgrading Medical Education (and Why Doctors Want It)
Most physicians still receive minimal nutrition training. Yet interest is high. Sherene helped the USC School of Medicine pilot its first culinary medicine course, and more clinicians are pursuing the American College of Lifestyle Medicine to deepen skills in nutrition, stress, sleep, movement, and social connection. The next leap is structural: make culinary and lifestyle medicine a requirement in medical curricula so every graduating physician can counsel with confidence—and refer to RDs early.
Talking Plant Protein Without the Panic
Patients still ask, “Where will I get my protein?” Sherene points to emerging work (e.g., a protein index framework) and decades of evidence showing that all plant foods contain all essential amino acids—in varying amounts. You don’t need precision “protein combining” at each meal. Instead:
- Eat a variety of legumes, whole grains, nuts, seeds, tofu/tempeh, and vegetables.
- Match portions to your energy and training needs.
- Focus on fiber-rich sources to support gut and metabolic health.
What’s Next from Sherene: Open Curricula and “Blue Foods”
Beyond the classroom, Food + Planet is collaborating with FoodEDU/American Heart Association on a global, open-access nutrition curriculum centered on sustainable food systems. They’re also highlighting “blue foods”—ocean-sourced options such as mussels, clams, scallops, and seaweeds—with a free cookbook, Blue Foods as Medicine, at eataquaticfoods.org. Whether you choose bivalves or stay fully plant-based with seaweeds and algae, the project introduces lower-impact proteins and minerals many diets lack.
Key Takeaways
- Sustainability is core care: It belongs in every nutrition and medical program—and patients are asking for it.
- Protect credibility: Open, industry-independent resources build public trust and sharpen clinical guidance.
- Honor culture: Traditional cuisines already hold health-protective patterns. Start there, not against them.
- Teach the how: Culinary medicine and teaching kitchens turn advice into skills patients can repeat at home.
- Reframe protein, elevate fiber: Variety covers amino acids; fiber drives gut, metabolic, and mental health.
Put This Into Practice
- Clinicians: Download open-access materials from Food + Planet; advocate for teaching kitchens and required culinary medicine credits.
- Educators: Integrate sustainability modules; invite local cultural food leaders to co-teach.
- Everyone: Try one plant-forward day per week (or one meal per day) and notice changes in energy, mood, and digestion.
🎧 Listen to the full conversation with Sherene Chou on the ANEW Insight Podcast.
🌿 Begin your own journey with the Deprogram Diet Culture course.
📘 Get inspired with the Deprogram Diet Culture book.
View here full podcast Transcript here:
Dr. Supatra Tovar: [00:00:00] Welcome back to the ANEW Insight podcast. We are back for the second half of our interview with award-winning dietitian and chef Sherene Chou. She gave us some really amazing insight into her history and background with vegetarianism and how she transitioned to a vegan diet and how that diet for her benefits
Dr. Supatra Tovar: the body and the planet and how she promotes sustainable and equitable access to food. I’m so excited to pick her brain some more.. So how do you think the field of nutrition is evolving to incorporate sustainability? And what does the future hold for nutrition education?
Sherene Chou, RD: I think have been a lot of changes, but not enough changes, and so I think sustainability is slowly being incorporated into some [00:01:00] nutrition programs. there are even programs that are solely focused on sustainability. But overall, I think as for practitioners, it’s not a requirement. And I think that’s something that we’re working to change. So right now we’re actively working on creating programs with. So Meatless Monday was co-founded with Johns Hopkins Center for Liveable Future. So we’re actually working with them to build out nutrition curriculum for all nutrition programs across the country. So this is just a introduction program for dietitians, dietetic students internship directors, and everything that we do with Food + Planet
Sherene Chou, RD: everything we create is free and open access, and we really wanted to separate ourselves from Academy as well as other organizations where we don’t take any industry funding whatsoever [00:02:00] because there’s just so much that can be, I guess, challenged in terms of building out education or building out information. And so, that’s something that we took a really hard stance on as an organization. And we started our organization in 2020. Our first year we did take some funding just to show our concept, but after the first year we took some funding from Barilla. Cliff as well as Danon. And that helped shape. They had no influence on our education, but it did help shape and get our organization started. But after our first initial year, we made it a point and kind of a policy not to take any industry funding, and we’re really proud to continue to create education for health professionals and, make everything free and open access.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: Wow, that’s amazing. What do you hope to accomplish with this organization?
Sherene Chou, RD: Well, I really, we really do want dietitians and health professionals to feel like [00:03:00] they do have the power to help people shift towards more sustainable diets and be engaged in the sustainable food systems conversation. Even though it isn’t part of our education, so many people are interested in this topic. Dietitians, newer students are interested, but they really don’t know where to go to for information. And I think in these larger conversations, in terms of policy and even convenings, dietitians are left out of those conversations where we really should be right there with everyone else having these conversations and making these changes.
Sherene Chou, RD: We are, we have so much information, so much knowledge, and most of us are seeing patients and clients one-on-one. Three years ago, we launched this, the first ever survey assessing dietitian’s attitudes towards sustainability. This was co launched with today’s dietitian, which is our industry [00:04:00] magazine. And year after year, we’ve just been seeing dietitians their hunger for this information and also their need to be educated on this piece. And so this was something that was really missing. And we are launching our next annual survey on Earth Day, so be on the lookout for that one.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: And what’s this? The content of the survey?
Sherene Chou, RD: Yeah.
Sherene Chou, RD: The content of the survey is directed towards dietitians and it’s really assessing their attitudes towards sustainability. So it’s not really assess it’s, yeah, their attitudes towards sustainability and how that might change over time. So this will be our third year, launching year, third or
Dr. Supatra Tovar: That would be so wonderful and it’s so necessary. Not just for sustainability, just but, but for also information and education that is not funded, funded
Sherene Chou, RD: Yeah.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: by industry. I think that that’s really important is [00:05:00] that we really focus on trying to get pure science out there and really to understand the impact of these food systems on the planet.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: And you know how that affects sustainability. So now I wanna pivot a little, and I wanna talk about something very important to you, which is cultural inclusivity. So tell me about the role of cultural inclusivity in promoting plant-based nutrition across diverse communities.
Sherene Chou, RD: I think, I mean, thanks so much for asking that. Just. I think you know this too, that, you know, in our curriculum, in our education, we had one worlds or cultural foods class. I mean, and I always joke about that when I am giving presentations because how can one class cover the whole world? And of course we didn’t.
Sherene Chou, RD: And that’s also ridiculous because there are so many different peoples, you know, especially, you know, living in [00:06:00] Los Angeles, we serve so many different people, talk to so many different people, and food impacts everyone. So not to be seen in you know, the things that we’re learning, it’s just, it feels like you’re overlooking so many populations and communities and essentially telling them that hey, they, they don’t really matter, or that the foods that they’re eating are just not appropriate, which is not the case at all. And
Dr. Supatra Tovar: Oh, absolutely.
Sherene Chou, RD: being able to, I think, see, like help people see that what they’re eating is healthy. It can be a part of a healthy diet, that their traditional foods are welcomed. I think a lot of those concepts are not, I wouldn’t say newer concepts, but these types of conversations have evolved since our education. so I think initially, you know, just during our education, I, I don’t feel like it was [00:07:00] talked about really at all to celebrate people’s cultural foods. And I think over the years, more and more conversations around that have happened, and even like in popular media, and that’s something that I continue to advocate for in everything we do, including Food + Planet.
Sherene Chou, RD: One of those pieces is sociocultural and making sure that we are creating a supportive environment, welcoming all cultures, welcoming all people, welcoming all types of foods. is a place for all of that. Recently I spoke at a conference called Healthy Kitchens Healthy Lives. I always, this was my third year speaking at that conference.
Sherene Chou, RD: This is a conference directed towards health professionals put on by Harvard as well as the Culinary Institute of America and in Napa every year. And I joke that in my session I’m covering Asia like quote unquote Asia, which is just how, that’s just impossible. How can, how could I possibly cover all of Asia in 20 minutes basically including a cooking [00:08:00] demo. And so, you know, I try my best. I try, you know, one of my first few talking points is, you know, I’m not gonna cover all of Asia. Like, that’s just not possible for me. But I do think that, you know, there’s a really helpful map. I share share, which is that, you know, in different every different state there’s, you know, whatever the large majority population is.
Sherene Chou, RD: I think that’s helpful to know. But even, you know, knowing that, you know, Chinese population is a big majority in California, we don’t really have resources that are directed towards this community or, or even any community that’s diff, you know, non-white. Um, one of the resources that I found on our academy’s website you know, was something where it was translated into Chinese, but everything on there was not appropriate for someone who is, Chinese. Like my parents would not follow that advice on that piece of paper. So what they essentially did was. Just kind of the typical American diet, but translated it [00:09:00] to Chinese, so you’re recommending people eating, tortilla or a pita, which is not something that my parents typically eat. Just really basic things like that where it’s still missing in our education and our resources, is why I continue to advocate, why this continues to be a big part of I do in, in all the education that I create.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: So important. And I think historically, especially at the time when we were in school, there was a push to healthify
Sherene Chou, RD: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: a lot of cultural foods, which I think a lot of people found really offensive. You know, substituting the brown rice, take out the white flour, tortilla things that were like really
Dr. Supatra Tovar: fundamental to certain cultural cuisines, and there certainly has been a backlash against that. There’s a lot of people out there [00:10:00] on social media that you know, kind of wanna decolonize essentially dietetics and nutrition. I think that that is so valuable and so important. And when you really look at
Dr. Supatra Tovar: cultural foods historically when you really get into the rural cultural foods of so many places, you can just look at the Blue zones for an example, Nacoya Peninsula, Sardinia in Italy Icaria Greece in Okinawa in particular. Those rural foods have shown to be some of the most health protective foods.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: And that really do promote longevity and prevent against disease. So I think we have so much to learn rather than impart upon these cultures. And so it’s really wonderful that you are such a strong advocate for that. And I think we need a lot more voices out there really to [00:11:00] promote and investigate these foods as medicines.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: So to transition to that you talk about culinary medicine a lot, and I really want you to expand upon that because I don’t, you know, people throw around, you know, food as medicine all the time, but they really don’t necessarily believe that. They don’t necessarily believe you are what you eat or that, you know, the people can still say a calorie is a calorie, which is totally not true.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: So how can culinary medicine be integrated into medical education to improve patient outcomes? Because right now I think we’re, we’re looking at a sick care system as opposed to a healthcare system.
Sherene Chou, RD: I mean, that’s also. So in January I was invited to be a part of this group to define culinary medicine and no definition [00:12:00] yet, because I was just a two day. Event. There were 15 of us doctors, dietitians, chefs came together to talk about how do we really define culinary medicine? Because this term, like you said, is used all the time.
Sherene Chou, RD: It is used all the time in so many different ways. Just, is used in so many different ways that it can get very confusing. There has been a shift to build in nutrition education into medical schools, last 10 years. There’s an organization called the Teaching Kitchen Collaborative, which I’m an advisor on as well. And that’s something that started about 10 years ago, and it’s really looking at all the different spaces that have teaching kitchens. So whether you’re in a hospital, a university community, a school, these all different places have teaching kitchens and people are these to build out classes [00:13:00] that might that are educational classes.
Sherene Chou, RD: Maybe they recently got a diagnosis or got something from their doctor or dietitian that said, Hey, you know, you need to be on a low sodium diet or any, something specific like that, and people are generally confused as to what to do. And it’s amazing to have these spaces where there are built in education programs that are maybe five weeks, 10 weeks long that people can attend to really learn how to cook, you know, cook that way or eat that way or just be exposed to different ways, to really not feel kind of burdened by their diagnosis, but rather to still continue to enjoy and celebrate foods in a fun way.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: I love that. I think that’s wonderful for the public. And I’m wondering too, I, and I think there’s many doctors that will admit they only [00:14:00] get maybe 25 hours at most
Sherene Chou, RD: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: of nutrition education, yet a lot of people really go to doctors for dietary advice. And they, they are kind of woefully less educated.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: How can we help doctors? Do we work with the schools? What, what do you have as suggestions to help doctors just be more on board with nutrition as a part of their interventions?
Sherene Chou, RD: I think doctors are very interested. Not, I wouldn’t say all doctors, you know, of course not everyone is interested, but a lot of people, because we all eat so doctors really do they are really, you know, hungry for this type of education. I helped USC School of Medicine build out their first culinary medicine course, and it’s like, because it’s not a requirement. I think that’s where the things need to change, is that it needs to be a [00:15:00] requirement within these medical schools to make this program consistent or to have ongoing curriculum for doctors because.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: Hmm.
Sherene Chou, RD: med students wanna learn doctors wanna learn, wanna be educated. I think a lot of people are finding different ways to be educated. There’s a whole organization called the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, ACLM, they are focused on. Food and overall lifestyle medicine, including stress management, all these different things. So doctors are going there to get certified in lifestyle medicine to learn more about this whole body and whole person approach. And so I think being able, if we’re able to change medical curriculum, medical education, kind of starting from there, advocating for that. People wanna learn. Doctors wanna learn med students wanna learn. It’s just a matter of building it into that piece. And [00:16:00] I would say that with the Teaching Kitchen Collaborative, there’s many different organizations that are doctor, there’s medical institutions universities, hospitals that have teaching kitchens that are dietitian led. Doctors advocate for it, and dietitians are able to lead those classes and share out those classes because those, that’s our expertise.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: So important. And you know, this podcast will probably air after this happens, but the American Psychiatric Association is having their conference here in Los Angeles in May.
Sherene Chou, RD: wow.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: And their focus is lifestyle medicine. I was like, what? This is amazing. Dr. Dean Ornish, come and speak, who you know, who, if you don’t know who he is, he is a big plant-based medicine proponent.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: He has he was the one who treated, President Clinton When he had major heart problems, [00:17:00] put him on his program and reversed President Clinton’s health to where he’s now just, you know, really thriving and and free from cardiac disease. So I was so excited to hear about that. And I got invited to go with a, with a psychiatrist associated with
Dr. Supatra Tovar: my psychological association. So I’m hoping after this conference I’ll be able to find more guests there that can really help to promote the message. You know, that we really do need to incorporate nutrition as a lifestyle intervention first. If we were to do that. There would be so many benefits including healthcare cost savings if we were to approach medicine from more of a preventative rather than reactive stance as we’re seeing today.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: So, fingers crossed, I’ll report back to you, Sherene, maybe I.
Sherene Chou, RD: that’ll be [00:18:00] great. I’m excited to hear about that.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: Oh, absolutely, definitely. So what advice do you have for dietitians and nutrition nutritionists out there in terms of the, the people that are really aiming to promote plant-based diets within their practice? What are some helpful tips that you have for them to be able to incorporate this kind of education?
Sherene Chou, RD: I would say, well, just being the past chair of the Vegetarian Nutrition Practice Group, there’s a lot of amazing resources there. If you haven’t heard of it, but I mean, joining that is there are so many benefits. There’s a whole library where there are one pagers that are focused for, you know, dietitians.
Sherene Chou, RD: So there’s a one pager on almost any type of condition or specific nutrient that you can educate yourself on. And then also a consumer patient focused one. So there’s already resources there to help you educate yourself on and [00:19:00] easily download and share out with your patients. I mean, that’s one piece. A second piece is just, I think en engaging more.
Sherene Chou, RD: I mean, we’re, we all get the same education and I think that the dietary guidelines and MyPlate inherently is a plant forward model right. You know, half your plate, fruits, veggies, whole grains, quarter of your plates, protein or whatnot. And not everyone eats obviously off of a plate, which is another topic.
Sherene Chou, RD: But being able to encourage just more fruits and vegetables and, you know, celebrating what people are already eating and finding things that people really enjoy. Just shifting away from being too prescriptive and talk more about enjoyment.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: I love that and I think probably what is the number one most common question that they might get from the public is, how do I get my protein? I won’t [00:20:00] get enough protein. This will, this pivots back a little bit to what we were talking about in the first half, but a lot of people have misconceptions about plant protein.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: What do you have to say to not just dietitians, but.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: Where do I get my protein? I hear it’s not complete. What do I do about that?
Sherene Chou, RD: I wish I had that paper readily available, but there was a paper published it’s the protein index paper. I don’t know if you’ve seen it. For one of my co-founders, she was one of the authors on there, this protein index paper and just talking about viewing protein in a different lens. And also there’s been also a lot of papers published talking about, all foods have, all the amino acids is just varying levels. And so I think that is just something that is missing in our education or the misconception is out there. But you know, you do. I think, [00:21:00] you know, I wouldn’t say if you’re switching to a hundred percent plant-based diet, I mean, definitely work with a dietitian to plan out, you know, what your needs are. And it’s not, don’t make it too complicated. Most plant foods have protein, just varying amounts. And being able to plan out and figure out what those foods are and choosing from those buckets, just like you would with fruits and vegetables, don’t overcomplicate things. just try, be open to trying different things.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: Yes, I agree. And I think a lot of people think you have to, you know, meticulously combine foods.
Sherene Chou, RD: Yeah,
Dr. Supatra Tovar: certainly was, yeah, that was the messaging from before. We certainly got that in our education and, and have subsequently learned, well, that’s not really quite true. You do have different amino acid combinations within different
Dr. Supatra Tovar: foods, but if you’re eating a variety of foods and concentrating on those plant foods [00:22:00] that do contain more protein,
Sherene Chou, RD: Mm-hmm.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: the combination itself gives you all that you need in a day. And it doesn’t have to be something that you weigh or you measure you, really, you know, stress about as long as you were really incorporating beans, legumes, whole grains, all sorts of plant foods and fruits
Dr. Supatra Tovar: you’re gonna get plenty more than you need, and I think that that will help dispel this, you know protein centric, you know, sexy media topic on protein. I think if we can incorporate plant protein in there and make that sexy certainly that will be more helpful for our health because we’re getting all of the benefits
Dr. Supatra Tovar: of plant protein, which people are seeing are, you know, vitamins and minerals, the fiber that you get you don’t get any fiber from animal-based protein. You do get a [00:23:00] lot of benefits from plant-based protein and when you talk about sustainability and affordability. It’s much less expensive to eat in that way.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: If it’s not all the time, some of the time or even just a little bit of the time, we don’t have to worry so much about protein. You guys. We don’t have to worry so much. We’re doing fine. We are doing fine. So, Sherene we’re running out of time, but I want. Kind of us know what’s coming down the pike for you and how people can get in contact with you.
Sherene Chou, RD: Yeah. So we’re working on this is to all the health professionals out there. We’re working on, you know, this Johns Hopkins curriculum for nutrition programs. We’re also working with food EDU which is a part of American Heart Association to build out a global nutrition curriculum that’s also open access on sustainable food systems. And that should be launching [00:24:00] the next year, or year, or year and a half on the American Heart Association’s website, open access as well. So we’re currently in the process of building that out. It’s really exciting. And then very immediately in the future we’re doing a promotion at a supermarket chain in the East Coast focused on showcasing all different types of aquatic foods, which are blue foods, ocean foods. So talking more about. ocean sustainability, which we didn’t, I couldn’t, we didn’t get into today. But we have a whole cookbook called Blue Foods as Medicine that’s open access, free and downloadable for everyone to utilize. There’s a whole website called eataquaticfoods.org, and you can go to the cookbook page and see recipes focus on different scallops, mussels, and clams. Those are sustainable ocean foods as well as seaweed, all different types of seaweed, which are plant-based ocean foods.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: [00:25:00] Yay. Oh my goodness. You have so much going on and you know we are 10 years out of our program and out of our internship, and look at all the amazing things that you have done. I’m really proud of you, Sherene. You’re doing amazing work out there.
Sherene Chou, RD: too.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: I love it.
Sherene Chou, RD: you.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: And tell people your website so they can go to
Sherene Chou, RD: you.
Sherene Chou, RD: Yeah. And you can go to https://foodandplanet.org/ and you, or find us on social media, @foodplanetorg
Dr. Supatra Tovar: I love it.
Sherene Chou, RD: Or my personal one, @eatsustainablefoods.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: I love it. And those will be in the show notes, everybody, so you can go and check out Sherene’s amazing work. Sherene, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. We definitely have to do a dietitian reunion very soon,
Sherene Chou, RD: Yeah,
Dr. Supatra Tovar: I’m gonna plan that because I keep talking about it. It needs to happen. But thank you so much for all the work that [00:26:00] you’re doing out there, and it’s so great to reconnect with.
Dr. Supatra Tovar: Yes, and thank you all for tuning into the ANEW Insight podcast. We’re looking forward to our next interview and really hope you join us next time.
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