(Food-Beverage-News.Com, March 12, 2013 ) San Francisco, CA -- In recent studies on cooking and health it has been found that even short cooking classes can provide long-term positive impacts on healthy eating.
While surveying parents who took part in a government-funded course on cooking in Scotland, surveyors found that the individuals that partook enjoyed more fruit and vegetables with fewer ready-made meals a year later.
Participants were also more confident overall when faced with simple recipes, according to the University of Glasgow researchers that took part in the survey.
There are numerous locally-funded programs that improve cooking and nutrition skills all over the country, but until now there has been no sure data regarding the long-term effects of the course.
The new study looked into courses that last between four to eight weeks for parents of children per-kindergarten age. The classes included not only cooking, but also food budgeting, nutrition, and simple meal preparation.
Questionnaires that were given to the students immediately following the classes showed a boost in participants confidence in cooking, preparing of foods and meals, as well as willingness to try new foods.
Over a year after taking the class, 44 of the 100 attendees still felt they had a significant increase in their overall confidence to follow recipes and use the most basic of ingredients. Furthermore, participants were found to be eating fewer ready-made meals and their proportions of fruit and vegetables per day had increased compared to before taking the class.
Some of the overall scores for confidence and proper eating did slip over time. The study leader Dr. Ada Garcia stated that the study numbers were small due to the difficulty of contacting individuals a year later.
"It is very encouraging that we have these positive results," she said.
"This suggests that the intervention has benefited participants' eating habits and health not only in the short-term, but also in the long-term," she added.
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