Never Too Young To Learn How To Cook

Gabriel, 3yo helping his mum to make his sandwiches, photo by Fern Rodrigues

True story…

First week at my new job at a local childcare centre. After morning tea, the centre’s chef enters the toddlers’ room pushing the trolley with a large platter of chopped vegetables and some seeds and herbs. He puts the platter on the low table, where the kids have their meals. Everybody gathers around the table. He then takes the large pot he brought on the lower tier of the trolley and puts it on a low chair, next to the table. The room leader, announces to the kids that “today we are going to ‘cook’ our very own lunch”. She, then, encourages the children to explore the items on the platter, pick it up, touch, lick, bite, smell. Those pieces are put away. The rest, she asks the kids to put in the pot to make the soup. They duly put all what is left on the platter into the pot. The chef then takes a bucket with water that also came on the lower tier of the trolley and pours it into the pot as well, covering the vegetables. Then, he tells the children he is going to take the pot to the kitchen and put it on the hot stove to cook for a while, and leaves the room.

Later, he comes back with the hottish pot and a big stick blender. He crushes the mixture in front of the children’s eyes: with a ‘big noise’, the transparent liquid with pieces turns into a thick, orange coloured soup, and it smells amazing! We start to ladle the soup into small bowls which come back from the dining area EMPTY! At this point the room leader tells me that, a week before, the exactly same soup was served at lunch and most of the toddlers demanded ‘something else’ as they wouldn’t touch the bowl!! So, a frustrated chef had to make sandwiches in a flash… But, that day, the scene was very much another… we had to reduce the portion size in the second round, before we run out of soup!

Scientific research shows that children who cook eat better, feel better and grow into a healthier life as adults.

A study run in 2013 in New Mexico (US) with children 9-10 years old who had been given seven cooking lessons at school over a period of six months (1), found that it significantly increased the children’s (a) preferences for fruit and vegetables, (b) their cooking attitudes and (c) self-efficacy which is their confidence of being able to cook (follow a recipe, handle kitchen utensils etc) and concluded that learning how to cook is the fastest way to improve children’s diet and to enable them to develop their food literacy. Another study done a year later with children aged between 6 and 10 years (2) demonstrated that those who assist their parents to cook at home eat more of that meal, eat more vegetables, and feel more positive and in control of their food.

A study done last year in Illinois (US) with almost 500 families (3) found that three-year-olds that helped in meal preparation at home ate more fruit and vegetables and less fast food when they turned four-year-olds than those children who never participated in cooking activities. That goes in line with studies done with adults. Researchers at the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health (4), found that young adults (18-23 years old) with adequate cooking skills were “more likely to be preparing meals with vegetables and eating less fast food” 10 years later, than those who reported not being able to cook as youngsters.

So, no matter what age researchers choose to study to find out whether acquiring and using cooking skills has the power to improve our eating habits and, consequently, our health down the road, as we grow older. The evidence says that IT DOES! Knowing how to cook our own food, or at least participating in the making of it, is the best way to increase our odds of growing into healthier adults.

As for the two-year-olds from that childcare centre I was working at, that day, a seed was planted and I wish I could find out how their relationship with food is these days, now that they turned into pre-schoolers – we went parted ways since then… My guess is that, at least, when presented with a bowl of soup at dinner, hopefully it is not thrown across the room!

References

1. Cooking with KidsPositively Affects Fourth Graders’ Vegetable Preferences and Attitudes and Self-Efficacy for Food and Cooking. (Study, 2013)

2. Involving children in meal preparation. Effects on food intake. (Study, 2014)

3. Family food involvement is related to healthier dietary intake in preschool-aged children. (Study, 2018)

4. Self-Perceived Cooking Skills in Emerging Adulthood Predict Better Dietary Behaviors and Intake 10 Years Later: A Longitudinal Study. (Study, 2018)