Community Interventions to Improve Cooking Skills and Their Effects on Confidence and Eating Behaviour

Abstract

Purpose of ReviewCommunity-based interventions aiming to improve cooking skills are a popular strategy to promote healthy eating. We reviewed current evidence on the effectiveness of these interventions on different confidence aspects and fruit and vegetable intake.Recent FindingsEvaluation of cooking programmes consistently report increased confidence in cooking skills in adults across different age groups and settings. The effectiveness of these programmes on modifying eating behaviour is less consistent, but small increases in self-reported consumption of fruit and vegetables are also described. Lack of large samples, randomization and control groups and long-term evaluation are methodological limitations of the evidence reviewed.SummaryCooking skill interventions can have a positive effect on food literacy, particularly in improving confidence on cooking and fruit and vegetable consumption, with vulnerable, low-socieconomic groups gaining more benefits. Consistency across study designs, delivery and evaluation of outcomes both at short and long terms are warranted to draw clearer conclusions on how cooking programmes are contributing to improve diet and health.

Towards the Implementation of a Conceptual Framework of Food and Nutrition Literacy: Providing Healthy Eating for the Population

“…Regarding the antecedents of FL identified in the literature, the authors of eight papers referred to public health nutrition policies and health promotion interventions [24,37,[56][57][58][59][60][61]. They described programs or projects that generally addressed adolescents [24,56,60,61] or children [57,59].…”

“…Regarding the antecedents of FL identified in the literature, the authors of eight papers referred to public health nutrition policies and health promotion interventions [24,37,[56][57][58][59][60][61]. They described programs or projects that generally addressed adolescents [24,56,60,61] or children [57,59]. Other specific characteristics of these initiatives were that they were generally carried out in school settings [59,60] and involved the improvement of cooking skills [37,56,60,61].…”

“…They described programs or projects that generally addressed adolescents [24,56,60,61] or children [57,59]. Other specific characteristics of these initiatives were that they were generally carried out in school settings [59,60] and involved the improvement of cooking skills [37,56,60,61]. Moreover, they also addressed disadvantaged young individuals [37,56,61].…”

Psychosocial Benefits of Cooking Interventions: A Systematic Review

“…While cooking-related behaviors and psychosocial determinants related to barriers to cooking have been well described (Adams et al, 2015; Crookes et al, 2016; Garcia, Reardon, McDonald, & Vargas-Garcia, 2016; Mills et al, 2017), psychosocial outcomes from cooking interventions have not. We hypothesize that there may be psychosocial benefits to participating in cooking interventions that potentially have clinical and public health implications.…”

A influência das habilidades culinárias dos pais na alimentação de crianças em idade escolar

“…Contudo, a repercussão dessa melhora na alimentação não é consenso (MCGOWAN et al, 2017;GARCIA et al, 2016). Reicks e colaboradores (2014), em revisão que analisou o impacto das intervenções que abordavam o cozinhar e o preparo das refeições em casa entre a população adulta, constataram que apenas 16 dos 28 estudos identificados apresentavam resultados de melhoria da alimentação; destes, apenas seis faziam uso de grupo controle.…”