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An Exploratory Study Examining the Impact of Participating in a Nutrition‐Education and Culinary Skill‐Building Program on Adolescents' Dietary Intake Using the Remote Food Photography Method
Author(s) -
Robin Molly E,
Cater Melissa,
Miketinas Derek,
Bailey Ariana,
Rhea Kwadernica,
Martin Corby K,
Tuuri Georgianna
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.31.1_supplement.957.1
Subject(s) - nutrition education , psychological intervention , medicine , competence (human resources) , wilcoxon signed rank test , environmental health , exploratory research , food group , consumption (sociology) , gerontology , psychology , nursing , social psychology , sociology , anthropology , mann–whitney u test , social science
It is important for adolescents to develop healthy eating habits, yet many youth lack adequate cooking skills and frequently purchase and consume foods away from home. Away‐from‐home meals tend to be low in fruits and vegetables, and a lack of these foods can contribute to a lower quality diet. Nutrition‐education and culinary skill‐building programs have been found to improve adolescents' motivation and competence to follow the 2010 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommendations, yet it is not known if such interventions improve dietary intake. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of participating in a summer nutrition‐education and culinary skill‐building program on high school students' consumption of fruits, vegetables, and overall dietary quality. Three‐day diet records were gathered before and after participating in a six‐week summer enrichment program using the Remote Food Photography Method. Participants sent photographs of foods and beverages consumed to investigators, and dietary information was analyzed by researchers at Pennington Biomedical Research Center. Normally distributed data were analyzed using t ‐tests and data not normally distributed were examined with Wilcoxon Signed Rank Tests. Twenty adolescents were invited to participate, and eight enrolled (40%). Four participants were male (50%) and all were African American. The adolescents' mean age was 16 ± 1.1 years. Wilcoxon Signed Rank Tests indicated that the adolescents' 3‐day‐average servings of fruit significantly increased from baseline (M dn = 0.00) to post‐program (M dn = 0.69), Z = −2.02, p < 0.05, r = 0.71, but consumption of vegetables and overall diet quality estimated from Healthy Eating Index (HEI) Score did not change as a result of participating in the program. For the eight participants, the number of vegetable servings pre‐program was M dn = 0.00, and the number of servings post‐program was M dn = 0.00. The HEI pre‐program mean score was M = 61.50, SE = 0.54 and the post‐program score was M = 64.58, SE = 2.16. The results from this study suggest that behavioral interventions promoting nutrition education and cooking competence can improve older adolescents' consumption of fruit. Support or Funding Information Partially funded by Hatch Project 94127, and NIH grants P30DK072476 and U54 GM104940.