12/23/2018 / By Zoey Sky
Learning how to prepare nutritious meals at a young age can help adolescents grow up as adults with healthy habits. The results of a study even suggest that being confident in one’s cooking skills is associated with “fewer fast food meals, more meals as a family, and more frequent preparation of meals with vegetables in adulthood.”
The results of the study, which was published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, imply that learning and developing cooking and food preparation skills is crucial for a person’s health and nutrition. Sadly, not enough people are practicing home cooking and it’s a barely being taught in school.
The researchers noted that helping young adolescents develop food preparation skills can “have long-term benefits for health and nutrition.”
Dr. Jennifer Utter, the lead author of the study and an associate professor at the University of Auckland, said that learning food preparation skills at a young age doesn’t have immediate benefits but show up later, in adulthood, when people have more chances to cook food and become responsible for preparing meals for themselves or others. She added that the study used data from a large, population-based sample size that was followed for over 10 years to fully determine the “impact of perceived cooking skills on later nutritional well-being.” (Related: Familiarity with a variety of healthy foods through the early years leads children to good eating habits later.)
The researchers gathered data as part of the Project Eating and Activity in Teens and Young Adults longitudinal study, which was conducted in Minneapolis-Saint Paul, Minnesota, area schools. The volunteers reported on the adequacy of cooking skills from 2002 to 2003 when they were 18 to 23 years old.
From 2015 to 2016, data was gathered on nutrition-related outcomes when the volunteers were aged 30 to 35. They answered questions that quantified to the following:
According to the data, the majority of volunteers considered their cooking skills to be adequate at the ages of 18 to 23. At least a quarter of adults perceived their cooking skills to be very adequate. There were no differences in perceived cooking skills by factors like age, educational attainment, race or ethnicity, or sex.
The researchers noted that the perceived adequacy of cooking skills predicted various indicators of nutrition outcomes later in adulthood, such as a higher chance of cooking a meal with vegetables on most days and less frequent consumption of fast food.
The people with families who perceived their cooking skills as adequate ate family meals more, consumed fast food meals less frequently, and had fewer obstacles to food preparation.
Dr. Utter advised that as long as young adults have more opportunities to develop their cooking skills, there’s a greater chance that they will reap the long-term benefits for nutritional well-being as adults. She concluded that aside from families, community agencies, educators, funders, and health and nutrition professionals should invest in home economics and cooking education since they offer long-term benefits that won’t be fully realized, at least until young adults have more freedom and start living independently.
It’s important to establish healthy eating habits in young children, but if you’re having trouble getting your young ones to eat more fruits and vegetables, follow the tips below:
Browse Fresh.news for articles with healthy recipes and tips on how to get kids to eat healthily.
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Tagged Under: children's health, cooking skills, diet and nutrition, early childhood, eating habits, food intake, food preparation, healthy eating, healthy foods, home cooking, life skills, longevity, meal preparation, natural health, nutrition, nutritional well-being, proper nutrition