The Impact of a Culinary Coaching Telemedicine Program on Home Cooking and Emotional Well-Being during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The coronavirus pandemic enforced social restrictions with abrupt impacts on mental health and changes to health behaviors. From a randomized clinical trial, we assessed the impact of culinary education on home cooking practices, coping strategies and resiliency during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (March/April 2020). Participants (n = 28) were aged 25–70 years with a BMI of 27.5–35 kg/m2. The intervention consisted of 12 weekly 30-min one-on-one telemedicine culinary coaching sessions. Coping strategies were assessed through the Brief Coping with Problems Experienced Inventory, and resiliency using the Brief Resilient Coping Scale. Home cooking practices were assessed through qualitative analysis. The average use of self-care as a coping strategy by the intervention group was 6.14 (1.66), compared to the control with 4.64 (1.69); p = 0.03. While more intervention participants had high (n = 5) and medium (n = 8) resiliency compared to controls (n = 4, n = 6, respectively), this difference was not significant (p = 0.33). Intervention participants reported using home cooking skills such as meal planning and time saving techniques during the pandemic. The key findings were that culinary coaching via telemedicine may be an effective intervention for teaching home cooking skills and promoting the use of self-care as a coping strategy during times of stress, including the COVID-19 pandemic.

How a 7-Week Food Literacy Cooking Program Affects Cooking Confidence and Mental Health: Findings of a Quasi-Experimental Controlled Intervention Trial

“…To overcome current issues raised by the global pandemic, this could be achieved via digital translation. This was demonstrated by a recent bi-centre randomized controlled trial where delivery of a culinary coaching telemedicine program was found to be an effective intervention for teaching home cooking skills that improved participant wellbeing ( 122 ).…”

Telehealth-based interventions on lifestyle, body mass index, and glucose concentration in university staff during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic: A pre-experimental study

“…27 Studies demonstrate the effectiveness of intervention programs in improving eating habits, one of the main components of lifestyle. [25][26][27] Other dimensions of lifestyle, such as physical activity and adequate sleep were improved after telehealth-based interventions in the general population. 28 In fact, studies in other population groups have shown positive changes in physical activity and sleep quality in adults following telehealth interventions.…”

“…There have always been calls for studies involving behavioral interventions to modify and improve eating habits. 25 In fact, a study using web-based and telehealth tools that included a dietary application for smartphones reported positive changes in eating habits. 26 Similarly, another study has reported that telehealth interventions can positively impact diet quality by encouraging adequate consumption of fruits, vegetables, and adequate intake of essential macronutrients and micronutrients.…”

“…27 Studies demonstrate the effectiveness of intervention programs in improving eating habits, one of the main components of lifestyle. 25–27…”

Best Practices for Culinary Medicine Programming

“…CM/CN programs may be implemented in in-person or virtual settings, with evidence suggesting both can be effective. Virtual culinary coaching telemedicine classes have shown improvements in cooking skills, diet quality, and blood glucose control (Polak et al 2017(Polak et al , 2018Silver et al 2021). Across clinical and community settings, CM/CN programming may take place in an on-site teaching kitchen facility, mobile education kitchen, pop-up carts, or community kitchen space partnerships.…”