Promoting Healthy Cooking to College Students

Abstract

College students gain weight due to unhealthful food availability on campus, snacking, eating due to stress/boredom, and alcohol-related eating. The Mediterranean diet has been proven to reduce risks of chronic diseases and help with weight maintenance. The purpose of this study was to teach interactive cooking classes with recipes inspired by the Mediterranean diet to college students to give the students the knowledge of how to cook foods in healthy ways. The hypothesis is that the students who attend the cooking classes would increase the number of meals they cook on their own, as well as have improved diet quality. Participants answered a pre-survey and then attended 3 interactive cooking classes that had a theme (olive oil, whole grains, and fish). After the classes, participants answered a post-survey and 2 months later they answered a follow-up survey. 25 participants were recruited (n=10) and females (n=15), ages 18 to 28 years. 14 participants answered the post-survey and 10 answered the follow-up survey. Average meals that participants prepared each week increased from an average of 10 to 11 for post and follow-up. Although there were no significant changes in preparing their own meals after attending cooking classes, all of the participants reported that they would like to cook more of their own meals in the future.