Evaluation of a College-Level Nutrition Course With a Teaching Kitchen Lab

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the impact of a college nutrition course with a teaching kitchen lab on students' attitudes, self-efficacy, and behaviors about healthful eating and cooking. Methods: Preintervention and postintervention design, and anonymous online survey of sociodemographic information and students' attitudes and self-efficacy about consuming fruits, vegetables, and whole grains and about cooking, self-reported intake, and cooking behaviors. Results: Two-hundred and fourteen participants enrolled in the study during 5 semesters. Of these, 171 (80%) had complete pretest and posttest data. Attitudes and self-efficacy scores about consuming fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and cooking were significantly higher in the posttest (vs pretest; all P < 0.0001). Self-reported intake of fruits (P < 0.0001) and vegetables (P = 0.0006) also increased. Cooking frequency increased (P < 0.0001), skipping meals frequency decreased (P < 0.0001), whereas no significant changes were observed for eating out, take-out, or premade meals frequency. Conclusions and Implications: A college nutrition course with a teaching kitchen lab could improve healthful eating and promote cooking in young adults.

Integrated Nutrition and Culinary Education in Response to Food Insecurity in a Public University

“…On the other hand, people with high or moderate levels of cooking, food preparation, and financial skills are less likely to experience food insecurity than people with lower skill levels [ 35 ]. Therefore, another potential mechanism by which this nutrition and culinary education may have alleviated food insecurity might be through previously reported increased cooking self-efficacy and more frequent meal preparation [ 20 ]. This is supported by the observed significant association between cooking more often and skipping meals less frequently with improved food security.…”

“…The purpose of this project was to create a personal meal plan while implementing the acquired knowledge of purchasing and preparing nutrient-dense foods at a cost comparable to the Thrifty Food plan [ 23 ], which is used as basis for the SNAP allowance. Further details about the nutrition course have been published [ 20 ].…”

“…Additionally, we included a previously validated questionnaire [ 30 ] to measure attitudes and self-efficacy for increasing consumption of fruits and vegetables, and for cooking, as well as related behaviors. Details on these assessments and findings focused on dietary and food preparation variables have been published elsewhere [ 20 ].…”

“…For normally distributed continuous data (i.e., PSS scores), means and standard deviations were calculated for each time point (i.e., pre and post), a paired t-test (Δ = post-pre) was conducted for hypothesis testing, and the corresponding Cohen’s d effect size ((Mean post − Mean pre )/SD pool ) was computed [ 32 ]. The following post hoc exploratory analyses were also conducted: (1) Spearman correlations ( r S ) between the four previously reported behavior changes [ 20 ] of increased intake of fruits, increased intake of vegetables, increased frequency of cooking, and reduced frequency of skipping meals in the post-test (vs. the pre-test), and changes in food security scores, (2) Spearman correlations between changes in food security scores and changes in PSS scores, and (3) Spearman correlations between the four previously reported behavior changes and changes in PSS scores. All hypotheses testing were two-sided and the significance level was set to 5%.…”

“…As part of an action plan to address food insecurity in a large public university campus, a nutrition course with an integrated teaching kitchen was created and offered to increase nutrition knowledge and provide opportunities for students to develop nutrition and culinary skills. Previously, we reported increased consumption of fruits and vegetables, increased frequency of cooking, and reduced frequency of skipping meals among students after taking the nutrition course [ 20 ]. In this analysis, we aimed to determine whether food insecurity rates changed after students took the nutrition course with an integrated teaching kitchen lab.…”