Search results

The purpose of this paper is to examine the self-reported food skills, cooking confidence and practices amongst a sample of parents on the Island of Ireland (IOI) and to highlight jurisdictional similarities and differences between Northern Ireland (NI) and the Republic of Ireland (ROI).

Parents (n=363) on the IOI completed a questionnaire exploring confidence levels of food skills, cooking techniques executed and the identification of barriers which might impact on meal preparation. Non-probability convenience sampling was utilised.

The majority of parents (75 per cent) learned their basic cooking skills from their mother with home economics classes being the second most popular source of learning. There were a number of statistically significant jurisdictional differences. For example, when preparing dinners, NI parents were less likely to enjoy cooking and more likely to use processed foods such as breaded frozen chicken and jars of sauces than ROI (x²=56.167, df=1, p<0.001). Similarly, parents in NI were less likely to involve family members in meal preparation (x²=17.939, df=1, p<0.001). Parents in the ROI reported higher confidence levels than NI parents when cooking from basic ingredients; following a simple recipe and preparing new foods. Over half (51 per cent) of parents identified barriers to cooking with fresh ingredients as: time, cost, busy family life and limited facilities.

Findings indicate that parents would benefit from exposure to practical food skills intervention focussed on quick, nutritious family meals while simultaneously developing parents’ culinary skills and cooking confidence in home cooked meal preparation.

There is a lack of information pertaining to food skills and cooking confidence amongst parents on the IOI.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the association of various family factors with children’s fruit and vegetable (FV) intake.

A cross-sectional analysis of data from 601 parent-child dyads with children aged three to six years old was conducted. Parents completed questionnaires on child’s FV intake, parenting styles, parental feeding practices, family functioning, television viewing at mealtimes and frequency of family meals. Logistic regression was used to assess the association between various family factors and the likelihood of meeting the child’s daily FV recommendation with adjustment for different demographic variables.

Multivariate model adjusting for sociodemographic data indicated that meeting vegetable recommendation was associated with lower frequency of dining with grandparents (Odds ratio (OR) 0.94, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.89–0.99, p=0.031) and positively associated with parents using more desirable parental feeding practices (OR 1.15, 95% CI 1.09–1.21, p<0.001). Meeting fruit recommendation was associated with parents using more desirable parental feeding practices (OR 1.13, 95% CI 1.09–1.17, p<0.001), higher frequency of dining with grandparents (OR 1.05, 95% CI 1.00–1.10, p=0.041), lower frequency of dining with father (OR 0.89, 95% CI 0.82–0.98, p=0.014) and higher score on authoritative parenting style (OR 1.05, 95% CI 1.01–1.08, p=0.009).

This study highlights the potential protective roles of various family factors, in particular authoritative parenting style and parental feeding practices, such as role modeling, moderate restrictive practices for less healthy foods, avoidance of forced feeding, and not using junk food as reward in relation to meeting FV recommendation in children. The role of grandparents in influencing the young children’s eating behaviors within the Chinese family warrants further investigation.

The aim of this paper is to explore parents' and teens' perspectives on the significance of being able to cook.

In this qualitative study, 22 families participated in in‐depth interviews that explored their perspectives on food in the family and the significance of being able to cook. The sample was socio‐economically diverse and drew from one urban and one rural community in British Columbia, Canada.

The main themes from participants' descriptions of the significance of home cooking were that home cooking gave families control over their food supply, helped them to connect to others, enabled them to explore their own and others' food cultures and, in the case of teens, become more independent.

The paper shows that the familial motivations for home cooking go beyond concerns for health or home economy and would benefit from further exploration.

For food producers and retailers, cooking instructors, dieticians, food scholars and writers, understanding familial motivations for home cooking provides the opportunity to better target family cooks with food products or services, and to encourage increased home cooking as a means to promote healthier, more sustainable diets and socially rich family food practices.

A perceived broad‐based decline in home cooking has received a great deal of attention in the UK and elsewhere. In contrast, this paper describes how participating families really do see value in home cooking—though they place as much emphasis on social, cultural and personal motivations as they do nutritional health.

The objective of this explorative study was to analyse the association of socio-economic factors and attitudes towards cooking with the time devoted to home meals cooking in the Czech Republic. Furthermore, the authors tested and analysed data to see if there is any relationship between the time devoted to cooking by respondents and obesity.

The sample data consisted of 1,006 inhabitants’ subjects selected using the quota sampling following the structure of the population structure. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions were estimated to analyse factors influencing the time spent in the preparation of meals at home. The correlation between time devoted to cooking by respondents and obesity was addressed using the Kruskal–Wallis test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA).

The results showed that female gender, higher age, smaller household size and presence of children increased the time spent by respondents in the preparation of home-cooked meals. Home cooking is perceived as a tastier option compared to, for example, chilled ready meals. The time devoted to cooking by respondents and her/his above average weight are correlated in our study.

To the authors’ knowledge, no recent study has comprehensively analysed cooking behaviour and time spent cooking in the post-Soviet countries, including the Czech Republic. The authors’ quota-representative study provided relevant insights into eating behaviour, as the Czech Republic has faced a high increase in the obesity rates in the last decade.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the association of individual and environmental indicators with body mass-index-for-age-z-score (BAZ) of female adolescents living in the North-West of Iran.

In this cross-sectional study, 380 female adolescents aged 16-18 years were selected from two major ethnic groups (Azeri and Kurd) in Urmia city selected by stratified cluster sampling method. In total, 13 high schools (9 public and 4 private) were selected across all municipality zones of Urmia city. BAZ was calculated by Anthro-Plus software. Demographic and socioeconomic information of samples were collected by a questionnaire through interviews. Home environment features (including physical activity facilities, television, computer games and social media use, food consumption habits and family rules) and school environment features (including socioeconomic status [SES], physical activity facilities, food consumption habits) were evaluated by two separate self-constructed questionnaires via an interview with adolescents and schools’ deans, respectively.

Azeri adolescents had parents with higher education and job level and higher SES compared to Kurds (p = 0.000). A higher percent of Azeri adolescents were obese than their Kurd counterparts (p = 0.006). No association was found between individual factors and BAZ in each ethnic group. Considering home environment characteristics, in Kurd adolescents, the maternal occupational level was positively associated with BAZ (p = 0.02). With regard to school environmental features, accessibility of physical activity facilities in school was inversely associated with BAZ only in Kurds (p = 0.005).

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to investigate various environmental factors in association with adolescent’s overweight/obesity prevalence in different ethnical groups in northwest Iran.

The purpose of this paper is to explore associations between different food literacy dimensions and diet quality among a sample of Canadian parents and examine differences in the prevalence of food literacy items between mothers and fathers.

Parents responsible for food preparation (n=767) completed an online survey including dietary intakes and 22 items across five dimensions of food literacy (knowledge, planning, cooking, food conceptualisation and social aspects). Differences between genders for each item were analysed with χ² tests. The healthy eating index (HEI) adapted to the Canadian Food Guide (CFG) was computed from a food frequency questionnaire. Associations between HEI scores and each item were analysed with linear regression models, controlling for sociodemographic variables and multiple testing.

Of parents responsible for food preparation, 81 per cent were mothers. The mean HEI score was 76.6 (SD: 10.6) and mothers reported healthier diets in comparison to fathers (p=0.01). More mothers than fathers used CFG recommendations, selected foods based on nutrition labels, made soups, stews, muffins and cakes from scratch and added fruits and vegetables to recipes (p<0.05). More fathers reduced the salt content of recipes than mothers (p=0.03). Two knowledge items and seven food conceptualisation items were significantly associated with better HEI, after controlling for covariates and multiple testing. Planning items, cooking skills and social aspects were not significantly associated with HEI.

This study investigates multiple dimensions of food literacy and identifies knowledge and food conceptualisation as potential targets for future interventions involving parents responsible for household meal preparation. This study highlights the importance of considering gender differences in food literacy.

The purpose of this paper is to report the results of a study using photoelicitation interviews to investigate the relationship between the habitualised and unconscious aspects of consumers' food choices, the front‐of‐pack nutrition labelling schemes on food products and the healthiness of their diets.

To this end, photographs of ten German middle‐class families at different stages of the family lifecycle were taken at the point of purchase (during a shopping trip made by the main person responsible for meal planning) and at the point of consumption (during a family meal at home). The paper used selected photographs as stimuli for photoelicitation. The interviews were recorded and analysed using a holistic approach.

Four themes concerning food characteristics, participants' food choices and their healthiness emerged from the data: perceived time pressure at the point of purchase; the relevance of nutrition information for making inferences with regard to the healthiness and tastiness of products; consumers' trust in nutrition information; and their use of this information at the point of purchase or point of consumption.

Photoelicitation interviews allowed us to bridge the gap between researchers and respondents and to study what happens in real‐life situations when consumers go shopping and prepare family meals.

By putting nutrition information on food packaging, especially on the front of the pack, manufacturers and retailers enable consumers to make faster and healthier decisions at the point of purchase – i.e. as long as the consumers notice, understand, trust and like the labelling and use it in making their final decision. Front‐of‐pack labels are of less relevance at the point of consumption.

The paper provides a number of insights into the processes involved in making healthy (or unhealthy) food decisions. It also provides directions for future studies in visual research and in the fields of consumer behaviour, marketing and public policy.

Children’s cooking abilities are correlated with increased self-efficacy (SE) for selecting healthy foods and increased consumption of fruits and vegetables. Instruments that measure outcomes of nutrition education programs require psychometric assessment for face validity. Survey items related to cooking experience (CE), SE, and attitude used in a school-based cooking program were assessed for face validity. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Cognitive interviews were conducted with children who had completed third to fifth grades in Northern Colorado, USA. Interviews were examined using content analysis to derive categories for children’s concepts of cooking and making food and to assess survey item comprehension.

In total, 24 children participated. Most were white, non-Hispanic/Latino and half had most recently completed fourth grade. Categories related to “making food” and “cooking” included foods prepared with and without a heat source, baked goods/desserts, and activities used in meal/food preparation. Most participants comprehended the survey items and provided responses that were congruent with operational definitions established from identified themes, demonstrating face validity with this sample.

Children’s concepts of “cooking,” although robust, show interpersonal variation requiring a prudent approach toward intervention evaluation and supporting use of these face valid survey items. Consider revisions of survey items that add frequency qualifiers and explicit cooking examples as appropriate.

This study addresses a gap in the literature on children’s understanding of cooking and offers face valid survey items to measure CEs, skill, and attitudes.

The nutritive properties of various dietary components and their effects on health are regularly debated in the scientific literature and popular media. The study of the regular consumption of cake in relation to the risk of developing metabolic disorders is however an exciting new development in the field. This chapter suggests that cake consumption is amongst a number of factors that may explain The Ambridge Paradox: the extremely low incidence of metabolic disorders such as obesity and Type 2 diabetes observed in a small Borsetshire village. The chapter identifies 10 dietary and lifestyle habits observed in this population that may be beneficial for cardiovascular health, acting through a variety of mechanisms. Key amongst these may be the synergic properties of several biochemical components of cake, especially the phenolic compounds in varieties with a fruit-based element, such as lemon drizzle. The chapter concludes that the dietary and lifestyle habits of the Ambridge cohort show promise as a model for improving the metabolic health of wider populations. In particular, it suggests that cake consumption may be a promising therapeutic supplement to prevent and even treat metabolic disorders.

This study aims to assess the nutritional status and physical fitness status of school children among major ethnic and Dalit populations, in Rajshahi, Bangladesh.

Data were collected through structured questionnaires administered to mothers or caregivers of the children, followed by physical fitness assessments. Anthropometric indicators were used to evaluate nutritional status, including body mass index-for-age, height-for-age, and weight-for-height, based on Centre for Disease Control guidelines. Physical fitness was assessed through tests for flexibility, abdominal, muscular, speed, and lower limb strength. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS.

Approximately 45% of boys and 55% of girls had normal nutritional status. However, the study also identified varying percentages of children with stunted, underweight, wasted, and mixed nutritional issues, highlighting the prevalence of malnutrition among this population. Boys consistently outperformed girls in terms of physical fitness across all age groups, with 84% to 90% of boys meeting established fitness criteria. Girls face a 1.8-fold and 2.2-fold increased risk of wasted and underweight conditions compared to boys. Lower-income group children exhibit a 2.6-fold and 1.6-fold increased risk of wasted conditions and underweight conditions. Children consuming meals twice a day have a 2.1-fold and 2.5-fold elevated risk of wasted and underweight conditions compared to others.

This study highlights the need for interventions and strategies to improve the nutritional and health status of ethnic children in Rajshahi, Bangladesh, considering their diverse dietary habits and lifestyles. By addressing these issues, the authors can empower these communities to actively contribute to the social and economic development of the region.