Food Skills Education and Low-Income Adults’ Healthy Food Choices

Abstract

Background The Cooking Matters food skills education program equips low-income families with the skills and knowledge to shop for and cook healthy meals within budget and time constraints. Aims To explore whether participation in Cooking Matters is associated with healthier food choices using a 6-item scale, comprised of a variety of food categories. Methods Cooking Matters participants (n = 332) and a comparison group (n = 336) completed surveys at baseline, 3-, and 6-month follow-up. Results Cooking Matters participants experienced greater improvements in healthy choices overall (p < 0.0001) and for each of the six underlying items at 3 month follow-up. Improvements were sustained at 6-month follow-up overall and for all categories, except low-fat milk (p = 0.1168). Discussion Participation in Cooking Matters was associated with improvements in overall healthy food choices across a variety of food groups and maintained at 6-month follow-up. Enabling healthy food choices is an important step toward improved diet quality.