Spring Course Spotlight – Special Topics: Food & Mental Health
METML 610 E1 – Special Topics in Gastronomy: Food & Mental Health will be taught by Chad Bradford (MET Gastronomy alum) in Spring 2026. This online course will have a weekly live classroom session via Zoom (that will be recorded) and can be taken synchronously or asynchronously. 
What are the unconscious motivations for the foods we choose? Is alcohol really linked to creativity? And what does the infamous “Twinkie Defense” really tell us about food, law, and psychology?
This spring, the BU Gastronomy Program is offering a new course, Food and Mental Health, taught by Chad Bradford, MD, MA. A forensic psychiatrist, retired Navy Captain, and BU Gastronomy alum, Dr. Bradford combines mental health expertise with a gastronomer’s perspective to guide students through the dynamic, bidirectional relationship between food and the mind.
This interdisciplinary course challenges students to examine food using psychology, neuroscience, sociology, art, media, and more. They will tackle topics such as the gut-brain axis, food as a performance of identity, cooking as therapy, the psychology of consumer marketing, and mental health in the food industry.
The semester culminates in a collaborative Food & Mental Health Cookbook, where students blend scholarly analysis with creative recipe design. Not just a collection of recipes, it is an exploration of how our cravings, identities, and cultural symbols come together on the plate. Students will leave equipped to apply these psychological insights in culinary, entrepreneurial, and cultural settings.
Food and Mental Health (MET ML 610 E1) is open to BU graduate students from all disciplines. Whatever your background, you will discover new ways to think about food, yourself, and the world.
Keep an eye on the Spring 2025 course listings and join us for a unique exploration of what links mind and meal.
Registration is open now!