What's cooking for dietetics? A review of the literature

Abstract

Aim: There has been no systematic research on the role of cooking skills for improving dietary intakes in Australia. Cooking skills are proposed to be declining and/or being devalued. If cooking skills have been devalued and declining, then what evidence is there for this decline and what impact might this have on dietary intakes? The aim of the present paper is to explore these assumptions with particular reference to Australia. The objectives of the present paper are to define the terms cooking and cooking skills, discuss evidence on levels of cooking skills in Australia and describe the evidence linking cooking skills to dietary intakes. Methods: A review of the peer‐reviewed literature using multiple databases from 1990 to September 2009. Results: Cooking skills are complex and require a range of processes for people to develop efficiency or confidence in food preparation. There is little evidence on the level of cooking skills in the Australian population and how this relates to dietary intakes. The Australian Bureau of Statistic's latest Time Use Survey and Household Expenditure Survey suggest that cooking is still a gendered activity and that the time devoted to cooking has changed little in the past 15 years, but there is an increasing use of foods prepared outside the home. Conclusion: Further research is required to examine the prevalence of different types and levels of cooking skills in Australia as well as their potential effects on dietary intakes. Dietitians need evidence about the level of cooking skills people require for healthy dietary intakes.

The concept of cooking skills: A review with contributions to the scientific debate

“…Removal of cooking classes from formal school curricula -United Kingdom/Canada/New Zealand/Brazil [1,6,9,10,14,15,42,46].…”

“…Under one of the approaches, the definition of cooking would be restricted to the application of heat to raw foods. Nevertheless, the term can present more complex meanings, when perspectives from different fields of knowledge are considered [1,4,[6][7][8][9][10].…”

“…Cooking skills have been referred to as the ability to perform tasks related to the preparation of food, which requires preliminary procedures to its cooking, such as washing, peeling, and chopping [1,4,[8][9][10]. Researchers mention that cooking confidence and knowledge are fundamental requirements to the development of individual cooking skills [1,2,6,7,[11][12][13].…”

“…Although some processed or ultra-processed foods may only require heating for final consumption, studies show that this activity may require some cooking skills [1,6,7,9,15]. The predominant and frequent use in this latter category of foods has been related to the possible reduction of cooking skills, and it is considered as one of the factors that may hinder healthy dietary practises [1,2,4,[6][7][8]10,13,15,16].…”

“…Thus, a significant gap in the studies that evaluates cooking skills and their relationship with healthy eating deserve to be highlighted [1,4,5,[8][9][10]12]. …”