There is some evidence that developing cooking and food preparation skills is important for health and nutrition, but the practice of home cooking is declining and is now rarely taught in school. A new study has found that developing cooking skills as a young adult may have long-term health and nutrition benefits.
Data were collected as part of a long-term study of teens and young adults. The participants reported on the adequacy of cooking skills in 2002-2003 when they were 18 to 23 years old. Data was then collected in 2015-2016 on diet-related outcomes in participants aged 30 to 35 years. Questions rated the perceived adequacy of cooking skills, how often they prepared a meal with vegetables, how often they ate meals as a family, and how often they ate at a fast food restaurant.
Most participants found their cooking skills to be adequate by the ages of 18–23, with about a quarter of adults describing their cooking as very adequate. There were no differences in perceived cooking skills by gender, race or ethnicity, education level, or age. Perceived adequacy of cooking skills predicted multiple indicators of nutritional outcomes later in adulthood including a greater likelihood of preparing a meal with vegetables on most days and less frequent fast food consumption. If those who experienced their cooking skills as adequate had family members, they ate family meals more often, less frequent fast food meals, and had fewer barriers to food preparation.
