• Felipe Silva Neves, Carla Adriano Martins, Vanessa Sequeira Fontes, Aline Priscila Batista, Eliane Rodrigues de Faria, Michele Pereira Netto, Renata Maria Souza Oliveira, and Ana Paula Carlos Cândido.
• Department of Nutrition, Institute of Biological Sciences, Federal University of Juiz de Fora - UFJF, Juiz de Fora, MG, Brazil; Graduate Program in Public Health, Department of Public Health, School of Medicine, Federal University of Juiz de Fora - UFJF, Juiz de Fora, MG, Brazil; General Coordination of Food and Nutrition - CGAN, Department of Prevention and Health Promotion, Secretariat of Primary Health Care, Ministry of Health, Brasília, DF, Brazil. Electronic address: felipe.sneves@outlook.com.
• Nutrition. 2023 Jun 1; 110: 111998111998.

ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to investigate the involvement of Brazilian adolescents in home cooking, estimating its associations with sex and socioeconomic status.MethodsThis cross-sectional study involved a probabilistic sample of 14- to 19-y-olds enrolled in 29 public schools in the municipality of Juiz de Fora, MG, Southeast Brazil (n = 835). To assess involvement in home cooking, a 12-question questionnaire was used. The content was based on the Brazilian Food Guide, which encourages the acquisition, development, and sharing of culinary skills. Pearson's χ test and Poisson regression models were carried out, without and with adjustments.ResultsMost of the adolescents did not usually participate in meal planning (61%), and in the choice/purchase of food and culinary ingredients (67%). Boys were less likely to know how to cook "from scratch", positively self-evaluate their culinary skills, enjoy cooking, wish to learn more about cooking and meal preparation, and to participate frequently in the planning and preparation of meals. Belonging to a lower socioeconomic status represented a greater probability of preparing meals alone for the family.ConclusionsWe verified an alarming prevalence of adolescents with behaviors unaligned with Brazilian Food Guide recommendations; that is, most of them, especially boys, were not involved in home cooking. Adolescence may present a window of opportunity for the development of culinary skills, resulting in long-term benefits for the population's diet quality. Furthermore, to change a historical pattern that overloads women's daily lives, it is necessary to encourage, from an early age, the presence of boys in the kitchen.Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

15 keywords...

hide…