To explore how fathers with young children contributed to healthy home food provisioning and the factors enabling or inhibiting their involvement in family food tasks.

Cross-sectional study using purpose-designed online survey. The survey assessed the level of responsibilities and practices in family food tasks, food agency (Cooking and Food Provisioning Action Scale), and use of resources to support involvement in family food tasks. Data collection took place over 3 weeks in November–December 2020 when various COVID-19-related restrictions were in place. Descriptive and regression analyses were used to assess psychosocial factors influencing responsibilities in family food tasks and food agency.

Online survey.

Included in the analysis were 435 Australian fathers with children aged under 5 years.

Between 75 and 77 % of fathers in this study reported having at least half of the responsibilities in meal planning, shopping, and cooking. Health was frequently considered when deciding what to eat, but few used nutrition or food labels when shopping, tried new recipes or modified recipes to make them healthier. Involvement in family food tasks was promoted by a higher food agency, but time spent in employment was a significant barrier to reported food agency and greater involvement in food tasks. There was a high interest in resources to support healthy home food provisioning.

The findings suggest the need to consider father-specific strategies to overcome time barriers and opportunities to enhance their capabilities for healthy home food provisioning.

To evaluate the culinary content of key messages contained in food-based dietary guidelines (FBDG) available at the global online repository of the FAO of the UN.

Document analysis was conducted in August 2021 with data extraction of key messages explicitly related to cooking present in FBDG. Data were analysed inductively using thematic analysis.

The FAO’s global repository of FBDG.

Not applicable.

Just over half (n 39; 53·4 %) of the seventy-three FBDG analysed included at least one key message about cooking. The Latin American and Caribbean FBDG presented the greatest amount and variety of content about cooking in the key messages, whereas the Near East and North America placed less emphasis on cooking. We identified three themes: (i) healthy food preparation (n 35; 61·4 % of the fifty-seven culinary key messages identified); (ii) food hygiene (n 14; 24·6 %) and (iii) the promotion of culinary practices (n 7; 12·3 %). Albania’s key message covered two themes (food hygiene and healthy food preparation) (n 1; 1·8 %).

FBDG are official documents that express recommendations for a healthy diet. As most of these recommendations throughout the world include foods that must be cooked prior to consumption, culinary content should gain more visibility and be presented more broadly in these official documents.

This study aimed to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on time spent cooking and parental inclusion of children in cooking. The secondary aim was to investigate differences between those who frequently included their children in cooking activities during the COVID-19 pandemic and those who included their children less, on a number of factors such as working from home, parents’ diet quality and cooking skills confidence.

Cross-continental survey with Wilcoxon-signed ranks, Independent t tests, Mann–Whitney U, χ2 and a binomial logistic regression used for assessment.

Online.

A convenience sample of parents over 18 years from the island of Ireland (n 180), Great Britain (n 312), the USA (n 120) and New Zealand (n 166).

In three regions, parents’ time spent cooking and inclusion of children in everyday cooking activities increased (P < 0·001). Country (OR = 3·6, 95 % CI 1·7, 7·6), education (OR = 1·6, 95 % CI 1·1, 2·4), cooking skills confidence (OR = 1·02, 95 % CI 1·009, 1·032) and a parental higher intake of vegetables (OR = 1·3, 95 % CI 1·1, 1·5) were significant predictors of a more frequent inclusion of children in cooking activities.

While there a number of key benefits to including children in cooking for the children such as providing life skills and increases in diet quality, this study highlighted a higher intake of vegetables by parents who included children more frequently in cooking activities. With continued lockdowns due to COVID-19 and perhaps more flexibility in working from home in the future, including children in cooking activities should be a key public health message for both children and parents.

This study pilot-tested combining financial incentives to purchase fruits and vegetables with nutrition education focused on cooking to increase the consumption of fruits and vegetables and improve attitudes around healthy eating on a budget among low-income adults. The goal of the pilot study was to examine implementation feasibility and fidelity, acceptability of the intervention components by participants and effectiveness.

The study design was a pre-post individual-level comparison without a control group. The pilot intervention included two components, a scan card providing free produce up to a weekly maximum dollar amount for use over a 2-month period, and two sessions of tailored nutrition and cooking education. Outcomes included self-reported attitudes about healthy eating and daily fruit and vegetable consumption from one 24-h dietary recall collected before and after the intervention.

Greater Minneapolis/St. Paul area in Minnesota.

Adults (n 120) were recruited from five community food pantries.

Findings indicated that the financial incentive component of the intervention was highly feasible and acceptable to participants, but attendance at the nutrition education sessions was moderate. Participants had a statistically significant increase in the consumption of fruit, from an average of 1·00 cup/d to 1·78 cups/d (P < 0·001), but no significant change in vegetable consumption or attitudes with respect to their ability to put together a healthy meal.

While combining financial incentives with nutrition education appears to be acceptable to low-income adult participants, barriers to attend nutrition education sessions need to be addressed in future research.

Diet-related diseases are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the USA. While the critical aspects of a healthy diet are well known, the relationship between community-based, teaching kitchen education and dietary behaviours is unclear. We examined the effect of a novel culinary medicine education programme on Mediterranean diet adherence and food cost savings.

Families were randomised to a hands-on, teaching kitchen culinary education class (n = 18) or non-kitchen-based dietary counselling (n = 23) for 6 weeks. The primary outcome was adherence to the validated nine-point Mediterranean diet score, and the secondary outcome was food cost savings per family.

The Goldring Center for Culinary Medicine, a community teaching kitchen in New Orleans.

Families (n = 41) of at least one child and one parent.

Compared with families receiving traditional dietary counselling, those participating in hands-on, kitchen-based nutrition education were nearly three times as likely to follow a Mediterranean dietary pattern (OR 2·93, 95% CI 1·73, 4·95; P  <  0·001), experiencing a 0·43-point increase in Mediterranean diet adherence after 6 weeks (B  =  0·43; P  <  0·001). Kitchen-based nutrition education projects to save families $US 21·70 per week compared with standard dietary counselling by increasing the likelihood of consuming home-prepared v. commercially-prepared meals (OR 1·56, 95% CI 1·08, 2·25; P  =  0·018).

Community-based culinary medicine education improves Mediterranean diet adherence and associates with food cost savings among a diverse sample of families. Hands-on culinary medicine education may be a novel evidence-based tool to teach healthful dietary habits and prevent chronic disease.

To cope with the pressure of modern life, consumer demand for convenience foods has increased in the last decades. The current study set out to compare the costs of buying industrially processed dishes and of preparing them at home.

Direct purchase costs of industrially processed dishes frequently consumed in France (n 19) and of the ingredients needed for their home-prepared counterparts (n 86) were collected from four major food retailers’ websites in Montpellier, France. Mean prices and energy density were calculated for four portions. Costs related to energy used by cooking appliances and time spent preparing dishes were further estimated.

Montpellier, France.

Not applicable.

Based on the costs of ingredients and energy used for cooking, dishes prepared at home cost less (–0·60 € per four portions, P < 0.001) than industrially processed dishes, but when the cost of time was taken into account, the industrially processed dishes were much cheaper (–5·34 € per four portions, P < 0.001) than their home-prepared counterparts. There was no difference in energy density between industrially processed and home-prepared dishes.

Our findings suggest that industrially processed dishes are more profitable to consumers when the cost of time for preparing dishes at home is valued. Given the ever greater demands of everyday life, more account should be taken of the additional cost to consumers of the time they spend preparing meals at home.

To examine the association between cooking frequency and Healthy Eating Index (HEI)-2015, overall and by income, among US adults.

Cross-sectional analysis using multivariable linear regression models to examine the association between cooking frequency and total HEI-2015 score adjusted for sociodemographic variables, overall and stratified by income.

Nationally representative survey data from the USA.

Adults aged ≥20 years (with 2 d of 24 h dietary recall data) obtained from the 2007 to 2010 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (n 8668).

Compared with cooking dinner 0–2 times/week, greater cooking frequency was associated with higher HEI-2015 score overall (≥7 times/week: +3·57 points, P < 0·001), among lower-income adults (≥7 times/week: +2·55 points, P = 0·001) and among higher-income adults (≥7 times/week: +5·07 points, P < 0·001). Overall, total HEI-2015 score was higher among adults living in households where dinner was cooked ≥7 times/week (54·54 points) compared with adults living in households where dinner was cooked 0–2 times/week (50·57 points). In households in which dinner was cooked ≥7 times/week, total HEI-2015 score differed significantly based on income status (lower-income: 52·51 points; higher-income: 57·35 points; P = 0·003). Cooking frequency was associated with significant differences in HEI-2015 component scores, but associations varied by income.

More frequent cooking at home is associated with better diet quality overall and among lower- and higher-income adults, although the association between cooking and better diet quality is stronger among high-income adults. Strategies are needed to help lower-income Americans consume a healthy diet regardless of how frequently they cook at home.

To describe low-income parents’ and caregivers’ perceptions of the Cooking Matters Mobile Application (CM App) meal planning and preparation features.

Explanatory mixed-methods design where data were gathered via online surveys based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour and the Theory of Reasoned Action, followed by telephone interviews.

CM App, a mobile phone-based resource geared towards low-income parents and caregivers of young children (pregnancy/infant to age 5 years) for meal planning and preparation, with features based on skills taught in the Cooking Matters course: recipes, shopping list and meal planning.

Low-income parents and caregivers (survey participants, n 461; interview participants, n 20) who had downloaded the CM App to their smartphone and agreed to participate in the current evaluation.

Attitudes and self-efficacy related to CM App’s subject matter and functions (meal planning; recipe use; creating and using a shopping list) were measured via surveys and interviews. Mean (sd) responses were positive towards ‘meal planning’ and ‘shopping and cooking’ (4·17 (0·63) and 3·49 (0·86) on a 5-point Likert scale, respectively). Interviewees described meal planning and preparation behaviours as intrinsic, based on habit, and influenced by family preference and food costs. Early adopters of the CM App may already be engaged in and/or are motivated to engage in the targeted health behaviours.

Users may benefit most from incorporating into their routines new ways to prepare easy, cost-efficient, healthy meals at home that their families will enjoy.