Correlation between serum advanced glycation end products and dietary intake of advanced glycation end products estimated from home cooking and food frequency questionnaires.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: To our knowledge the association between dietary advanced glycation end-products (dAGEs) and cardiometabolic disease is limited. Our aim was to examine the association between dAGEs and serum concentration of carboxymethyl-lysine (CML) or soluble receptor advanced glycation end-products (sRAGEs), and to assess the difference on dAGEs and circulating AGEs according to lifestyle and biochemical measures. METHODS AND RESULTS: 52 overweight or obese adults diagnosed with type 2 diabetes were included in this cross-sectional analysis. dAGEs were estimated from a Food Frequency Questionnaire (FFQ) or from a FFQ + Home Cooking Frequency Questionnaire (HCFQ). Serum concentrations of CML and sRAGEs were measured by ELISA. Correlation tests were used to analyze the association between dAGEs derived from the FFQ or FFQ + HCFQ and concentrations of CML or sRAGEs. Demographic characteristics, lifestyle factors and biochemical measures were analyzed according to sRAGEs and dAGEs using student t-test and ANCOVA. A significant inverse association was found between serum sRAGEs and dAGEs estimated using the FFQ + HCFQ (r = -0.36, p = 0.010), whereas no association was found for dAGEs derived from the FFQ alone. No association was observed between CML and dAGEs. dAGEs intake estimated from the FFQ + HCFQ was significantly higher among younger and male participants, and in those with higher BMI, higher Hb1Ac levels, longer time with type 2 diabetes, lower adherence to Mediterranean diet, and higher use of culinary techniques that generate more AGEs (all p values p < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: These results show knowledge on culinary techniques is relevant to derive the association between dAGEs intake and cardiometabolic risk factors.

Culinary medicine and healthy ageing: a comprehensive review.

Culinary medicine (CM) represents a novel strategy to promote healthy ageing, as it improves adherence to healthy dietary patterns by providing nutritional education and training in cooking skills. We conducted a comprehensive review of the current scientific literature (2011-2022) concerning CM programmes implemented among participants over the age of 40. This review includes fourteen culinary-nutritional interventions. Each CM programme was analysed according to seven variables: health goal, study design, theoretical basis of the intervention, intervention duration, main outcomes, culinary intervention and the effectiveness of intervention. Although CM programmes showed low effectiveness in achieving positive results on psychosocial outcomes, they were successful in improving dietary intake and health-related outcomes. The interventions lasting for at least 5 months and employing study designs with two or more groups seemed to be important factors associated with achieving significant results. Significant results were observed regardless of the prevention phase defined as the health objective of the CM programme. The use of theoretical frameworks as an educational resource did not influence the effectiveness of the interventions. Other variables such as the inclusion of culinary outcomes, the optimisation of the culinary curriculum taught to the participants and the participation of a chef in the intervention are factors that should be taken into account. In addition, several educational components (cooking classes, hands-on cooking, free food delivery, individualized counselling) were promising for achieving health outcomes in ageing people. Our review has shown that CM programmes can be a powerful tool to improve the health status of ageing people.

The interaction between the community food environment and cooking skills in association with diet-related outcomes in Dutch adults.

OBJECTIVE: We examined whether associations between the food environment, frequency of home cooking, diet quality and BMI were modified by the level of cooking skills. DESIGN: Cross-sectional study using linear and modified Poisson regression models adjusted for age, sex, energy intake, education, income, household size and urbanisation. The frequency of home cooking was categorised into <6 and 6-7 d. Diet quality was based on a validated Dutch healthy diet index (0-150 points). Count of restaurants and food stores were determined by their count in a 1000m buffer around home and work. Cooking skills (score 1-5) were assessed using a validated questionnaire and added as interaction term. SETTING: The Netherlands. PARTICIPANTS: 1461 adults aged 18-65 years. RESULTS: Count of restaurants and food stores were not associated with the frequency of home cooking. A 10-unit higher count of food stores was associated with a higher diet quality (ß: 0·58 (95 % CI (0·04, 1·12)), and a 10-unit higher count of restaurants was associated with a lower BMI kg/m2 (ß: -0·02 (95 % CI (-0·04, -0·004)). Better cooking skills were associated with a higher likelihood of cooking 6-7 d compared with <6 d (risk ratio: 1·24 (95 % CI (1·16, 1·31)) and a higher diet quality (ß: 4·45 (95 % CI (3·27, 5·63)) but not with BMI. We observed no interaction between the food environment and cooking skills (P-for-interaction > 0·1). CONCLUSIONS: Exposure to food stores was associated with a higher diet quality and exposure to restaurants with a lower BMI. Better cooking skills were associated with a higher frequency of home cooking and better diet quality but did not modify associations with the food environment. Future studies should explore different approaches to understand how individuals interact with their food environment.

Patterns of home cooking practices among participants in a behavioral weight loss program: A latent class analysis.

Cooking education is a popular approach to health promotion; however, the relationship between specific cooking practices, diet and weight loss is not well understood. The goal of this study was to 1) evaluate the relationship between cooking practices, dietary behaviors, and weight loss after a weight loss intervention and 2) identify patterns of cooking practices and their implications on weight loss. Using a quasi-experimental, single-arm cohort study design, we analyzed data from 249 adults with overweight/obesity who were participating in a weight loss program. Participants self-reported demographics, height and weight, and diet and physical activity behaviors. The Health Cooking Questionnaire 2 (HCQ2) was used to collect information on cooking practices post intervention. The HCQ2 responses were used to generate Healthy Cooking Index (HCI) scores, a summative measure of cooking practices with the potential to influence health. Latent Class Analysis (LCA) was utilized to define distinct patterns of cooking behaviors. Cooking patterns and HCI scores were examined relative to participant demographics, dietary behaviors, and weight loss. HCI scores post-intervention were positively associated with age, weight loss, and favorable dietary behaviors in this study. The LCA revealed three distinct patterns of cooking behavior (Red Meat Simple, Vegetarian Simple, Health & Taste Enhancing). The Red Meat Simple cooking pattern was associated with less weight loss compared to other patterns. The findings of this study set the foundation for more research on cooking education as a method for improving weight loss outcomes in the context of behavioral interventions.

Meal kit subscription services and opportunities to improve family vegetable consumption.

Popular commercial meal kit subscription services (MKSSs) may support families to overcome barriers to cooking and eating at home, and facilitate improved vegetable consumption. The global meal kit market has expanded rapidly creating a gap in our understanding of the health-promoting potential of MKSSs. This paper describes the contemporary MKSS market in Australia and provides a vegetable-specific content analysis of a sample of recipes. A 1-week subscription was purchased for all Australian-based MKSSs (n = 9) and websites were systematically reviewed to document key characteristics and recipe features. Vegetable content of all available recipes within a 1-week period were analysed. Our findings highlight the rapid expansion and evolution of MKSS market offerings over the past decade and their potential to support family vegetable consumption. Across all analysed recipes (n = 179), MKSSs provided a median of 2.5 vegetable serves per person (range 0.7-7.5 serves) and a median of 3 different types of vegetables from 2 vegetable subgroups (i.e. dark green, red and orange, starchy, legumes and all other vegetables). This suggests that MKSSs may support family vegetable consumption if families select recipes with a greater number and variety of vegetables. However, an opportunity remains for MKSSs to improve both vegetable quantity and variety to positively influence population health. Further research is required to describe how families use meal kits promoting a greater understanding of their potential to improve family nutrition.

Influence of Cooking Methods on In Vitro Bioaccessibility of Phenolics, Flavonoids, and Antioxidant Activity of Red Cabbage.

Red cabbage is rich in phytochemical compounds, and its consumption, either raw or cooked, has been linked to the prevention of several diseases. This work aimed to investigate the influence of cooking methods on in vitro bioaccessibility of phenolics and antioxidant activity of red cabbage. The vegetable was subjected to boiling, steaming, and microwaving for different times to evaluate color parameters, total phenolic (TPC), total flavonoid (TFC), anthocyanin content (AC), and antioxidant activity (FRAP, DPPH, and ABTS). The phytochemical bioaccessibility before and after cooking was also evaluated by in vitro simulated digestion. Steaming showed the most significant retention of the compounds after 20 and 25 min of cooking (72-86% for TPC, 72-77% for TFC, 75-79% for FRAP, 84-91% for DPPH, 70-83% for ABTS), followed by microwaving, which was more stable in 10 min. Microwaving decreased TFC and AC over time. Boiling did not show significant differences between the cooking times and showed more than 50% of losses of TPC, TFC, and AC and 30 to 60% of antioxidant activity. Steaming was the best cooking method, showing the most significant tendency to black coloration (< L*). In 10 min, it still showed the highest percentages of increase in TPC and the minor losses of TFC and AC in the gastric and intestinal phases. Steaming also increased the antioxidant after digestion when compared to uncooked red cabbage. These results are important to help consumers choose the most effective cooking method for red cabbage to retain its health-promoting components.

Changes in home cooking and culinary practices among the French population during the COVID-19 lockdown.

In March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic led to a strict lockdown in France for 2 months, drastically changing the daily life of the population. We investigated changes in perceived diet quality and cooking practices during the lockdown in comparison with the preceding period. Between June 9 and 30, 2020, 2422 participants were recruited and completed a questionnaire regarding the evolution of their overall diet and cooking habits during the lockdown. Descriptive analyses showed that 41.5% of participants described dietary changes with a similar proportion reporting positive or negative changes (22.0% and 19.5%, respectively). The exceptional circumstances of the lockdown provided a positive opportunity for some people to improve their diet quality by spending more time cooking (54.8% of those reporting a positive change) or eating more fresh products, including fruits and vegetables (47.4%). By contrast, other participants reported a decline in their diet quality, mainly caused by poorer dietary choices due to the consumption of comfort food (50.3% of those reporting a negative change), snacking (40.1%), or food supply issues (35.9%). The lockdown led to a massive rise in home cooking with 42.0% of all participants cooking more frequently (vs 7.0% cooking less), as barriers such as time constraints were reduced. Using multivariate analyses, we found that this change in cooking frequency varied among population subgroups, especially in regard to financial situation, as individuals in financial difficulty tended to cook less. As home cooking has already been linked to better diet quality and thus health status, our results suggest that the lockdown increased social health inequalities. An adequate public health response is therefore needed to support nutritionally vulnerable populations.

Meal kits in the family setting: Impacts on family dynamics, nutrition, social and mental health.

Families face many barriers in providing nutritious home-cooked family meals. Meal kit subscription services are increasingly popular among families and may address obstacles to cooking at home and facilitate shared family meals. This study aimed to understand why families use meal kits and what they perceived to be the main impacts on family dynamics, nutrition, social and mental health. Sixteen primary meal providers with at least one child 18 years and under living at home, were recruited via social media (e.g., Facebook, Twitter) to participate in a semi-structured interview using Zoom videoconferencing. Interviews were conducted with participants who currently purchased and used commercially available meal kits in Australia (e.g., HelloFresh, Marley Spoon). Thematic analysis of interview transcripts revealed that women, as the primary carers responsible for family meals, primarily reported the role that meal kits played in reducing their mental load through reduced food-related decision making, enhanced family participation in meal preparation, and opportunities for food literacy. Additionally, meal kits were reported to reduce food eaten away-from-home with the majority of participants perceiving meal kits to provide nutritionally dense meals and appropriate portion sizes aligned with National dietary guidelines. This study provides important insights into the potential physical, mental and social health benefits of meal kits in supporting families to cook and eat meals together at home. While meal kits have the capacity to positively influence population health and wellbeing, it is necessary that meal kit subscription services address the nutritional quality of their meals and provide evidence-based nutrition messaging to facilitate improvements in food literacy and nutritional intake.

Association of home cooking with caregiver-child interaction and child mental health: results from the Adachi Child Health Impact of Living Difficulty (A-CHILD) study.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the associations of home cooking with caregiver-child interaction and child mental health in Japan. DESIGN: Cross-sectional data collected in 2018. Frequency of home cooking was assessed by a questionnaire among 4126 caregivers and classified as high (almost every day), medium (4-5 d/week) or low (≤3 d/week). Caregiver-child interaction was evaluated by assessing frequency of talking and playing together (per week). Behaviour problems and prosocial behaviour were assessed by the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, and resilience was assessed using the Children's Resilient Coping Scale. SETTING: Japan. PARTICIPANTS: Children aged 9-10 years and their caregivers in Adachi, Tokyo, Japan. RESULTS: Low and middle frequency of home cooking were associated with lower frequencies of talking about school life, talking about news with the child, talking about television shows with the child and helping with the child's homework. Children with low and/or middle frequency of home cooking had more behaviour problems (low frequency: ß = 3·95, 95 % CI 1·30, 6·59 and medium frequency: ß = 3·38, 95 % CI 2·07, 4·70), lower prosocial behaviour (low frequency: ß = -5·85, 95 % CI -10·04, -1·66) and lower resilience (low frequency: ß = -6·56, 95 % CI -9·77, -3·35 and medium frequency: ß = -4·11, 95 % CI -5·71, -2·51), compared with children with high frequency of home cooking after adjusting covariates including socio-economic status. These associations were mediated by child's eating behaviours and/or caregiver-child interaction. CONCLUSIONS: Creating an environment that encourages caregivers to cook at home may be important for children's mental health.

"Healthy", "usual" and "convenience" cooking practices patterns: How do they influence children's food consumption?

This study identified adults' cooking practices patterns and tested their associations with children's consumption of ultra-processed foods. Cross-sectional study conducted with 551 adult-child pairs from São Paulo, Brazil. Children's food consumption was collected through dietary recalls. Adults' cooking practices were identified using a questionnaire developed for the Brazilian's context. Principal Component Analysis has been employed to identify cooking patterns and linear regression models (crude and adjusted for sociodemographic variables) have been used to test associations between pattern's scores and contribution of ultra-processed foods to total energy at dinners. Three cooking patterns were identified: "Healthy", "Usual" and "Convenience". The first two patterns reflected behaviors of people who mostly cook "from scratch". Only the Healthy pattern (confidence to cook several meals using fresh foods and natural seasonings; healthier cooking techniques) was inversely associated with ultra-processed food consumption (ß = -4.1; p = 0.002), whereas the Convenience pattern (less frequency and time to cook, using microwave and ready-to-heat meals) was positively associated with (ß = 3.6; p = 0.008). Our results suggest that cooking at home, as an isolated action, is not enough to protect the consumption of ultra-processed foods. To promote healthy eating among children, the adults' cooking practices should be aligned with the preparation of meals made "from scratch", taking into account the healthiness of what is being cooked.

Are meal kits health promoting? Nutritional analysis of meals from an Australian meal kit service.

SUMMARY: Meal kits are popular for consumers seeking greater convenience in preparing meals at home. The market share for meal kit subscription services (MKSSs) is growing in developed nations including Australia, however, literature about their health promoting qualities, e.g. nutritional composition, is scarce. This study aimed to assess the characteristics and nutritional composition of meals offered from an MKSS over 12 months. Nutritional data were extracted from recipes available to order from HelloFresh in Australia from 1 July 2017 to 30 June 2018. In total, 346 (251 unique) recipes were retrieved. Per serve (median size 580 g), meals contained a median of 2840 kJ (678 kcal) of energy, 58 g carbohydrate (14 g sugar), 44 g protein, 28 g total fat (8 g saturated fat) and 839 mg sodium. Median energy from macronutrients was total fat (38%), carbohydrates (34%), protein (25%) and saturated fat (11%). This paper is the first to describe characteristics of recipes available from an MKSS over a 12-month period of time. With their growing popularity, meal kit delivery services have the capacity to influence consumer food behaviours, diets and subsequently population health. MKSSs may function to promote health though education, training, and enabling home cooking behaviours, and may be a powerful commitment device for home cooking behaviour change. However, it is important for health professionals, including dietitians and nutritionists, to understand the nutritional risks, benefits and suitability of this contemporary mealtime option before recommending them to clients and members of the public as part of health promotion. LAY SUMMARY: Meal kit delivery services are growing in popularity in developed countries, complementing busy lifestyles with pre-measured ingredients and recipe instructions delivered to the home. These meal kits have the ability to influence consumer diets and population health, and may support health promoting diet behaviours, e.g. eating vegetables, and enable home cooking. In this study, we reviewed a years' worth of recipes from a popular meal kit service. We report that a typical recipe contained approximately nine different ingredients, comprising three vegetables and required three ingredients from the home pantry. Meals took ∼35 min to prepare and were found to be relatively high in energy from fat and protein, and relatively low in energy from carbohydrates. The level of sodium varied widely and some meals exceeded the Australian Suggested Dietary Target for sodium (<2000 mg). Meal kit recipes were found to have health promoting qualities, frequently including vegetable ingredients, however, improvements to recipes would make these meal kits more health promoting. Current diet intakes and the nutritional composition of meal kits recipes should be reviewed before being recommended by health professionals.

Cooking skills related to potential benefits for dietary behaviors and weight status among older Japanese men and women: a cross-sectional study from the JAGES.

BACKGROUND: Poor cooking skills have been linked to unhealthy diets. However, limited research has examined associations of cooking skills with older adults' health outcomes. We examined whether cooking skills were associated with dietary behaviors and body weight among older people in Japan. METHODS: We used cross-sectional data from the 2016 Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study, a self-report, population-based questionnaire study of men (n = 9143) and women (n = 10,595) aged ≥65 years. The cooking skills scale, which comprises seven items with good reliability, was modified for use in Japan. We calculated adjusted relative risk ratios of unhealthy dietary behaviors (low frequency of home cooking, vegetable/fruit intake; high frequency of eating outside the home) using logistic or Poisson regression, and relative risk ratios of obesity and underweight using multinomial logistic regression. RESULTS: Women had higher levels of cooking skills, compared with men. Women with a moderate to low level of cooking skills were 3.35 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.87-3.92) times more likely to have a lower frequency of home cooking and 1.61 (95% CI: 1.36-1.91) times more likely to have a lower frequency of vegetable/fruit intake, compared with women with a high level of cooking skills. Men with a low level of cooking skills were 2.56 (95% CI: 2.36-2.77) times more likely to have a lower frequency of home cooking and 1.43 (95% CI: 1.06-1.92) times more likely to be underweight, compared with men with a high level of cooking skills. Among men in charge of meals, those with a low level of cooking skills were 7.85 (95% CI: 6.04-10.21) times more likely to have a lower frequency of home cooking, 2.28 (95% CI: 1.36-3.82) times more likely to have a higher frequency of eating outside the home, and 2.79 (95% CI: 1.45-5.36) times more likely to be underweight, compared with men with a high level of cooking skills. Cooking skills were unassociated with obesity. CONCLUSIONS: A low level of cooking skills was associated with unhealthy dietary behaviors and underweight, especially among men in charge of meals. Research on improving cooking skills among older adults is needed.

Parents' cooking skills confidence reduce children's consumption of ultra-processed foods.

Ultra-processed foods are industrial formulations requiring little if any preparation before consumption. Their consumption is increasing in many countries and one of the possible determinants is the decrease in home cooking. As parents are key for family meals, we analysed the influence of parents' cooking skills confidence on children's consumption of ultra-processed foods at dinner. This is a cross-sectional study with 657 child-parent pairs from nine private schools in São Paulo, Brazil. Food consumption data were collected using two children's dinner dietary recalls while the Cooking Skills Index was used to collect parents' cooking skills, measuring their confidence in their own skills related to cooking 'from scratch', according to the Dietary Guidelines for the Brazilian Population. Food items were classified according to the NOVA classification system, considering the nature, extension and purpose of food processing. We used linear regression models to test associations between parents' cooking skills confidence and the contribution of ultra-processed foods to total energy intake at dinner, adjusting for socio-demographic variables. Parents' mean age was 38.3 and children's mean age was 7.8. These parents were mostly women, white, married, employed, with full secondary education and per capita household incomes up to ~ USD 320.00/month. They reached an average of 78.8 points (SD 14.8) in the Cooking Skills Index. Children's mean energy intake at dinner was 672.2 kcal (31.3% from ultra-processed foods). The increase in parents' cooking skills confidence was directly associated with decrease in consumption of ultra-processed foods (ß = -0.17; p = 0.007), which remained after adjustment (ß = -0.15; p = 0.026). These findings suggest that parents' cooking skills confidence potentially protect their children against ultra-processed foods, indicating the need for revaluing cooking to promote healthy eating.

Effects of microwave heating on the protein structure, digestion properties and Maillard products of gluten.

As a kind of traditional food, gluten is widely studied for its physical and chemical properties after processing, while little attention is paid to the simulation cooking processing, digestion and safety. In this paper, gluten was heated with microwave to study its structural transformations, nutritional efficiency, and food safety under Chinese home cooking (CHC). After microwave treatment, intermolecular and intramolecular cross-linking of gluten were formed to result in more aggregation. The secondary structure of gluten changed significantly as well as the formation of α-helix and ß-turn promoted under the high power input. Treated with 1000 W for 5 min, cross-linking between amino acids increased, leading the reduction of total amino acids, in vitro protein digestibility and the increase of high molecular weight peptides, while the proportion of essential amino acids kept the same. In the simulation of CHC, the highest content of 5-hydroxymethyl furfural was observed after adding all condiments under 1000 W for 5 min. In addition, sugar played a major role in Maillard reaction to promote the formation of melanoidin and fructosamine while salt and oil did not significantly affect these two Maillard products. Vinegar inhibited the reaction due to the acidic condition but provided some melanoidin and fructosamine itself.

Preventing Type 2 Diabetes with Home Cooking: Current Evidence and Future Potential.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Various dietary regimes have proven effective in preventing diabetes, yet its prevalence is growing. This review's goals are to examine the relationship between home cooking and diabetes and to present the literature on home cooking education programs as a novel strategy to improve adherence to healthy nutrition, thus decreasing the risk of diabetes. RECENT FINDINGS: Consumption of home-cooked food is linked to healthier nutrition and decreased risk of diabetes. Further, home cooking interventions have a short-term positive impact on nutritional intake of both children and adults, and on diabetes prevention. Well-designed randomized controlled studies are needed to rigorously evaluate the long-term impact of home cooking interventions on cooking behavior, dietary intake, diabetes, and healthcare costs. Culinary education is an emerging field that aims to change nutrition education paradigms. Clinicians can empower patients to adopt home cooking by role modeling home cooking themselves, including home cooking content in their medical encounters, and through comprehensive lifestyle medicine interventions.

Spatial access to restaurants and grocery stores in relation to frequency of home cooking.

BACKGROUND: Little is known about the relation between the neighbourhood food environment and home cooking. We explored the independent and combined associations between residential neighbourhood spatial access to restaurants and grocery stores with home cooking in European adults. METHODS: Data of 5076 participants of the SPOTLIGHT study were collected across five European countries in 2014. Food retailers were classified into grocery stores (supermarkets and local food shops) and restaurants (full-service restaurants, fast food and take-away restaurants, café/bars). We used multinomial logistic regression models to test the associations between tertiles of spatial access to restaurants and spatial to access grocery stores and the outcome 'frequency of home cooking' categorized into 0-3; 4-5; and 6-7 days/week. Additive interaction analysis was used to test the combined association between access to grocery stores and to restaurants with home cooking. RESULTS: Mean age was 52.3 years; most participants were women (55.5%) and completed higher education (53.8%). Residents with highest access to restaurants had a reduced likelihood of home cooking 6-7 days/week (vs. 0-3 days/week) (relative risk ratio (RRR) 0.42; 95%CI = 0.23-0.76) when compared with lowest access to restaurants. No association was found for spatial access to grocery stores. Additive interaction analysis showed that individuals with medium access to grocery stores and highest access to restaurants had the lowest likelihood (RRR = 0.29, 95%CI = 0.10-0.84) of cooking 6-7 days/week when compared to individuals with lowest access to restaurants and highest access to grocery stores. CONCLUSION: Greater neighbourhood spatial access to restaurants was associated with lower frequency of home cooking, largely independent of access to grocery stores.

Sociodemographic characteristics and frequency of consuming home-cooked meals and meals from out-of-home sources: cross-sectional analysis of a population-based cohort study.

OBJECTIVE: To identify sociodemographic characteristics associated with frequency of consuming home-cooked meals and meals from out-of-home sources. DESIGN: Cross-sectional analysis of a population-based cohort study. Frequency of consuming home-cooked meals, ready meals, takeaways and meals out were derived from a participant questionnaire. Sociodemographic characteristics regarding sex, age, ethnicity, working overtime and socio-economic status (SES; measured by household income, educational attainment, occupational status and employment status) were self-reported. Sociodemographic differences in higher v. lower meal consumption frequency were explored using logistic regression, adjusted for other key sociodemographic variables. SETTING: Cambridgeshire, UK. SUBJECTS: Fenland Study participants (n 11 326), aged 29-64 years at baseline. RESULTS: Eating home-cooked meals more frequently was associated with being female, older, of higher SES (measured by greater educational attainment and household income) and not working overtime. Being male was associated with a higher frequency of consumption for all out-of-home meal types. Consuming takeaways more frequently was associated with lower SES (measured by lower educational attainment and household income), whereas eating out more frequently was associated with higher SES (measured by greater educational attainment and household income) and working overtime. CONCLUSIONS: Sociodemographic characteristics associated with frequency of eating meals from different out-of-home sources varied according to meal source. Findings may be used to target public health policies and interventions for promoting healthier diets and dietary-related health towards people consuming home-cooked meals less frequently, such as men, those with lower educational attainment and household income, and overtime workers.

Informal learning and food sense in home cooking.

This exploratory article examines the novel term food sense and informal learning in the context of home cooking. Its theory draws from Dewey's work and from his notions of reflexive thought and action. The data consist of a transcribed audio recording of an in-depth, video-based, stimulated-recall (SR) interview. The auto-ethnographic videos were used to stimulate conversation during the interview and were previously collected as part of a broader research project on home cooking in a Finnish family context. Based on the theory and the data, the definition of food sense was refined into a model consisting of three levels: 'Understanding' as the ability to define and interpret emerging ruptures in activity; 'Applying' as the competence to plan and execute solutions that function in context; and 'Re-defining' as the reformulation of activities to enable new ways of doing. In reference to the empirical examples, two of the three episodes represented 'Understanding' and 'Applying'; whereas the third example included also the potential for re-defining habitual ways of action. However, despite possession of relevant knowledge and initial motivation, the emergence of negative emotions of the person in charge of the cooking process prevented reformulating existing cooking habits. By providing novel insights into the social, cultural, and situated nature of home cooking, the article complements the more individual-focused and/or knowledge-based approaches used by other recent studies of cooking skills and learning.

Frequency of eating home cooked meals and potential benefits for diet and health: cross-sectional analysis of a population-based cohort study.

BACKGROUND: Reported associations between preparing and eating home cooked food, and both diet and health, are inconsistent. Most previous research has focused on preparing, rather than eating, home cooked food; used small, non-population based samples; and studied markers of nutrient intake, rather than overall diet quality or health. We aimed to assess whether frequency of consuming home cooked meals was cross-sectionally associated with diet quality and cardio-metabolic health. METHODS: We used baseline data from a United Kingdom population-based cohort study of adults aged 29 to 64 years (n = 11,396). Participants self-reported frequency of consuming home cooked main meals. Diet quality was assessed using the Mediterranean Diet Score, Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) score, fruit and vegetable intake calculated from a 130-item food frequency questionnaire, and plasma vitamin C. Markers of cardio-metabolic health were researcher-measured body mass index (BMI), percentage body fat, haemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), cholesterol and hypertension. Differences across the three exposure categories were assessed using linear regression (diet variables) and logistic regression (health variables). RESULTS: Eating home cooked meals more frequently was associated with greater adherence to DASH and Mediterranean diets, greater fruit and vegetable intakes and higher plasma vitamin C, in adjusted models. Those eating home cooked meals more than five times, compared with less than three times per week, consumed 62.3 g more fruit (99% CI 43.2 to 81.5) and 97.8 g more vegetables (99% CI 84.4 to 111.2) daily. More frequent consumption of home cooked meals was associated with greater likelihood of having normal range BMI and normal percentage body fat. Associations with HbA1c, cholesterol and hypertension were not significant in adjusted models. Those consuming home cooked meals more than five times, compared with less than three times per week, were 28% less likely to have overweight BMI (99% CI 8 to 43%), and 24% less likely to have excess percentage body fat (99% CI 5 to 40%). CONCLUSIONS: In a large population-based cohort study, eating home cooked meals more frequently was associated with better dietary quality and lower adiposity. Further prospective research is required to identify whether consumption of home cooked meals has causal effects on diet and health.

Empowered to cook: The crucial role of 'food agency' in making meals.

What makes an individual, on any given occasion, able and willing to prepare a meal for themselves: that is, to cook? As home cooking has increasingly become the focus of public-health, nutrition, and policy interventions and campaigns, the need for a better understanding has become apparent. It is clear that cooking is not merely a matter of mechanical skill or rote training; beyond this, it is difficult to explain why similar individuals have such different capacities for setting and achieving food-related goals. This paper proposes a new paradigm for cooking and food provisioning - termed "food agency" - that attempts to describe how an individual's desires form and are enacted in correspondence with social environments: broadly, agency emerges from the complex interplay of individual technical skills and cognitive capacities with social and cultural supports and barriers. Drawing on a close reading of anthropological and sociological research into cooking, the authors propose that an individual's ability to integrate such complexity in regard to provisioning - to possess 'food agency' - is crucial. This argument is supplemented by empirical case studies from a large body of ethnographic observations and interviews with home cooks from the United States, conducted over the last decade. Overall, more food agency means the cook is more empowered to act. Adopting the paradigm of food agency into the consideration of everyday cooking practices has the potential to support transdisciplinary food scholarship integrating individual actions within a food system and thus inform nutrition and public health interventions related to meal preparation.