Spice MyPlate: Nutrition Education Focusing Upon Spices and Herbs Improved Diet Quality and Attitudes Among Urban High School Students

Abstract

Purpose. To determine whether an experiential nutrition education intervention focusing on spices and herbs (''Spice MyPlate'') is feasible and improves diet quality and healthy eating attitudes among an urban and predominantly African-American sample of adolescents more than standard nutrition education alone.Design. A nonrandomized controlled trial compared standard nutrition education in U.S. Department of Agriculture MyPlate guidelines (control group) with standard nutrition education plus adjuvant Spice MyPlate curriculum (intervention group). Data were collected at baseline and after 3, 6, and 10 weeks.Setting. Study setting was two public high schools in Baltimore, Maryland. Subjects. A total of 110 students in grades 9 to 12 participated.Intervention. The 6-week school-based intervention conducted during health class focused on cooking using spices and herbs to eat healthier diets according to MyPlate.Measures. Dietary intake reported on 3-day food records and healthy eating attitudes questionnaires was analyzed.Analysis. Differences in diet quality and healthy eating attitudes between study groups were estimated by t-tests, Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney tests, and covariate-adjusted regression models.Results. Spice MyPlate was feasible and there were modest but significant improvements (p .05) in the Spice MyPlate group compared with control in whole grains (31.2 g/wk) and protein foods (13.2 ounces per week) intake, and attitudes toward eating vegetables, whole grains, lean protein, and low-fat dairy.Conclusions. Although randomized trials are needed, experiential nutrition education focusing on spices and herbs may help urban and predominantly African-American adolescent populations eat healthier diets. (Am J Health Promot 0000;00[0]:000-000.)

The Role of Adolescents From a Low Socioeconomic Background in Household Food Preparation: A Qualitative Study

“…Adolescents did not typically report preparing vegetable dishes to accompany noodles, sandwiches, or boxed, convenience meals; therefore, cooking education, which also includes an emphasis on nutrition and diet quality, may be desirable for adolescents who have responsibility for household food preparation. In other studies, cooking education lessons were associated with improved intake among older children (Cullen, Watson, Zakeri, Baranowski, & Baranowski, 2007) and improved diet quality among urban, high school students (D'Adamo et al, 2016). Current cooking education classes for children and adolescents tend to focus on preparing meals and snacks for themselves rather as a primary food preparer with responsibility for preparing healthy, affordable meals for a family.…”

Associations Between Nutrition Knowledge and Overall Diet Quality: The Moderating Role of Sociodemographic Characteristics—Results From the PREDISE Study

“…Increasing the nutrition content of the curriculum at early stages of the schooling, for example, in elementary school and high school, may be an effective strategy to help reduce the nutrition knowledge gap between adults who achieved high versus low levels of education, which could contribute to supporting healthier dietary patterns. 30,31 In the Province of Quebec, before 2009, all public high school students had mandatory “home economics” classes, where they learned basics about cooking and healthy eating, but these classes were removed from the curriculum. We suggest that future studies should investigate if the reimplementation of such “home economics” classes could help reduce the nutrition knowledge gap between individuals with lower and higher education.…”

Utility of eButton images for identifying food preparation behaviors and meal-related tasks in adolescents

“…This behavior could occur at home or outside the home (at restaurants or school). The addition of certain seasonings and condiments can impact the final nutrient content of foods and the use of herbs and spices has become a target for healthy cooking interventions [39].…”