Cooking with KidsPositively Affects Fourth Graders' Vegetable Preferences and Attitudes and Self-Efficacy for Food and Cooking

Abstract

Background: Cooking with Kids (CWK), an experiential school-based food education program, has demonstrated modest influence on fruit and vegetable preference, food and cooking attitudes (AT), and self-efficacy (SE) among fourth-grade, mostly lowincome Hispanic students in a quasiexperimental study with an inconsistent baseline. Effect was notably strong for boys and those without previous cooking experience. The aim of this project was to assess the effect of CWK with a mostly non-Hispanic white sample that assured no previous CWK exposure.Methods: The randomized, controlled assessment of CWK effect on fourth graders was conducted with 257 students in 12 classes in four public schools. CWK included a 1-hour introductory lesson, three 2-hour cooking classes, and three 1-hour fruit and vegetable tasting sessions led by trained food educators during the school day for one semester. Fruit preference, vegetable preference, and cooking AT and SE were assessed with a tested 35-item measure, shown to have test-retest reliability. Univariate analyses considered gender and previous cooking experience.Results: Intervention efficacy was confirmed in this mostly white sample (75%; 79% with previous cooking experience; 54% girls). Increases in vegetable preference, AT, and SE were all significantly greater in CWK students with g p 2 of 0.03, 0.02, and 0.06, respectively. CWK most strongly improved AT and SE for boys without previous cooking experience.Conclusions: CWK significantly improved fourth-grade students' vegetable preferences, AT, and SE toward food and cooking, which are factors important to healthful eating and obesity prevention. Noncookers, especially boys, benefitted from this intervention.

Child assessments of vegetable preferences and cooking self-efficacy show predictive validity with targeted diet quality measures

“…Participants (n = 101) were predominately white, non-Hispanic and at a healthy weight (mean BMI percentile 49.4 + 30.84, range 1.0 to 99.0). Demographic results, as well as student VP, FP, cooking AT and cooking SE are similar to youth in previous samples [15,22]. Total HEI scores (possible range 0-100) ranged from 33.8-91.1 (Table 1).…”

Theory‐informed nutrition education curriculum Tools For Feeling Good promotes healthy eating patterns among fifth grade pupils: cross‐sectional study

“…School is an excellent arena for health promotion and nutrition education because it reaches practically all children and adolescents. Several school‐based health promotion interventions have been conducted with varying results . Many earlier interventions relied on providing information (i.e.…”

“…lectures) to increase knowledge of health‐promoting eating patterns . In addition, functional curricula, book‐ or web‐based practices, farm visits, cooking, taste lessons and sensory education have been used . Several previously conducted interventions have succeeded in increasing the consumption of vegetables or reducing being overweight , whereas others have been unsuccessful in promoting changes in eating patterns .…”

Characteristics of Youth Food Preparation in Low-Income, African American Homes: Associations with Healthy Eating Index Scores

“…Previous studies in Baltimore City found that low income children ages 10–16 are purchasing and preparing their own food, and that it potentially negatively contributes to their diet quality with common food purchases of sugar sweetened beverages, chips, and candy and greater food preparation being associated with higher BMI(Christiansen et al 2013 and Kramer et al 2012). In a recent analysis of the question “do you cook” in a school-based food education program, 79% of children reported cooking, 42% reported making food with friends, and 87% reported making food with family (Cunningham-Sabo and Lohse 2013). However, less is known about the contribution of food that youth prepare for themselves in relationship to their food intake or the potential they have to improve their personal food preparation methods as a means of improving their overall diet quality.…”