Feasibility of a Community Healthy Eating and Cooking Intervention Featuring Traditional African Caribbean Foods from Participant and Staff Perspectives.

Culturally appropriate healthy eating resources are intended to help people from different ethnic backgrounds consume diets reflecting government dietary recommendations, yet evidence on use in the target groups is lacking. This study evaluated the feasibility of a new brief culturally appropriate community intervention that aimed to introduce food-based healthy eating and recipe resources featuring African Caribbean foods, which were recently co-developed with people from these ethnic backgrounds. Working with a community organization in the UK, a single-arm study was used to collect verbal data from participants and staff on the acceptability of intervention whilst knowledge, skills and behaviours related to healthy eating were evaluated using pre-, post- and follow-up questionnaires. A total of 30 participants were recruited, and 22 completed all three questionnaires; who were mostly female aged 55 years+ (n = 17) and of African Caribbean ethnicity (45%, n = 10), with 32% (n = 7) reporting no educational attainment. At post-intervention and follow-up, most participants reported high satisfaction (n = 21, 95%) with the intervention sessions and high levels of confidence in using the resources at home within budget. The number of participants who were familiar with the healthy eating guidance featuring Caribbean foods increased from pre- (36%, n = 8) to post-intervention/follow-up (n = 22, 100%) (p < 0.05). Findings suggest the intervention is feasible in a community setting and could help increase awareness and use of culturally appropriate healthy eating guidance amongst a diverse group.

Development of the Cook-EdTM Matrix to Guide Food and Cooking Skill Selection in Culinary Education Programs That Target Diet Quality and Health.

Culinary education programs are generally designed to improve participants' food and cooking skills, with or without consideration to influencing diet quality or health. No published methods exist to guide food and cooking skills' content priorities within culinary education programs that target improved diet quality and health. To address this gap, an international team of cooking and nutrition education experts developed the Cooking Education (Cook-EdTM) matrix. International food-based dietary guidelines were reviewed to determine common food groups. A six-section matrix was drafted including skill focus points for: (1) Kitchen safety, (2) Food safety, (3) General food skills, (4) Food group specific food skills, (5) General cooking skills, (6) Food group specific cooking skills. A modified e-Delphi method with three consultation rounds was used to reach consensus on the Cook-EdTM matrix structure, skill focus points included, and their order. The final Cook-EdTM matrix includes 117 skill focus points. The matrix guides program providers in selecting the most suitable skills to consider for their programs to improve dietary and health outcomes, while considering available resources, participant needs, and sustainable nutrition principles. Users can adapt the Cook-EdTM matrix to regional food-based dietary guidelines and food cultures.

Culinary medicine and culinary nutrition education for individuals with the capacity to influence health related behaviour change: A scoping review.

BACKGROUND: Culinary medicine (CM) or culinary nutrition (CN) education provided to professionals with the capacity to influence behaviour change is an emerging strategy to promote diet quality and reduce the burden of diet related chronic disease in adults. The purpose of this scoping review was to synthesise current research describing CM/CN education provided to or by health, education and culinary professionals, or students of these disciplines. METHODS: Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analysis extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) was used. Eleven electronic databases were searched in March 2019. Included studies were: (i) nutrition, health or lifestyle programs with a CM/CN component; (ii) study participants or programs facilitated by people working or training in health, community and/or adult education, or culinary roles where facilitator training was described; (iii) reported in the English language; and (iv) published from 2003. RESULTS: In total, 33 studies were included. Nineteen studies delivered programs to general population groups and were facilitated by health professionals and/or health university students. Fourteen studies delivered CM/CN training to health professionals or students. Studies reported changes in participants' culinary skill and nutrition knowledge (n = 18), changes in dietary intake (n = 13), attitudes and behaviour change in healthy eating and cooking (n = 4), and competency in nutrition counselling and knowledge (n = 7). CONCLUSIONS: Further research examining the effectiveness of CM/CN programs, and that describes optimal content, format and timing of the programs, is needed. Research evaluating the impact of training in CM/CN to education and culinary professionals on healthy cooking behaviours of their patients/clients is warranted.