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Healthy helpers: using culinary lessons to improve children’s culinary literacy and self-efficacy to cook

Summary

Researchers tested whether teaching children to cook could help them eat more vegetables. Fourth and fifth graders participated in a six-week online cooking class and made recipes at home with their families. The children accepted vegetables best when they were hidden inside food like pocket pizzas, but rejected them in other dishes. The program successfully improved children’s cooking confidence and skills.

Background

Children are not consuming recommended amounts of vegetables and school-based nutrition education has not effectively improved vegetable intake. Cooking education has been associated with improved culinary literacy and eating behaviors.

Objective

To investigate the impact of a culinary literacy curriculum on children’s acceptance of vegetable-added recipes, culinary literacy knowledge, self-efficacy to cook, and willingness to try vegetables without direct nutrition education.

Results

Children best accepted vegetables when hidden in pocket pizzas but rejected vegetables added to macaroni and cheese and fajitas. Participation improved children’s culinary literacy knowledge and cooking self-efficacy significantly, but willingness to try vegetables showed no significant change.

Conclusion

Culinary literacy programs focusing on vegetables may drive factors associated with dietary behavior change and self-efficacy. Longer-duration in-person programs using multiple vegetable varieties with qualitative sensory data collection are recommended for future research.
  • Published in:Frontiers in Public Health,
  • Study Type:Quasi-experimental pre-post intervention study,
  • Source: PMID: 38026330
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