Identificação e promoção do desenvolvimento de habilidades culinárias em universitários

Abstract

University student feeding changes since they entered university, with a great tendency to adopt an inappropriate diet, marked by ultra-processed foods consumption and less regular meals. Therefore, as a strategy for promoting healthy eating, The Food Guide for the Brazilian Population proposes the development of culinary skills as an instrument capable of promoting healthy eating habits. Therefore, the general objective of this research was to identify and promote culinary skills to promote healthy eating practices, as well as to evaluate culinary workshops as a model of food and nutrition education.A sample of 88 students was used, divided into Control Group (without intervention) and Intervention Group (submitted to practical culinary workshops and lectures) both enrolled in the first, second or third period of undergraduate courses at the Federal University of Lavras. The research was carried out in three stages: 1st stage: online self-completion of questionnaires; 2nd stage: carrying out intervention activities in food and nutrition education (five culinary workshops lasting 3 hours each) with the Intervention Group, and reapplication of questionnaires for both groups; 3rd stage: occurred 4 months after the end of the 2nd stage and consisted of the reapplication of the questionnaires. Of the total students in the intervention group, 95% belong to the age group of 18 to 25 years and 56.8% are female, with family income of one to three minimum wages predominating (47.7%), with the majority living with colleagues (52.3%). Most (81.8%) were not from Lavras-MG. Regarding nutritional status, the eutrophic state was predominant (61.4%). The T1 analysis revealed significant improvement in Intervention Group compared with Control for: availability and accessibility index of fruits and vegetables; culinary attitude; self-efficacy in the use of basic culinary techniques; self-efficacy in the use of fruits, vegetables and spices; self-efficacy in fruit and vegetable consumption and increased knowledge of basic cooking terms and techniques. Only the ‘availability and accessibility of fruits and vegetables’ indicator showed no significant improvement in T1. The results suggest that culinary intervention is an effective tool for the development of culinary skills and the promotion of healthy eating among university students. Concluding, culinary workshops can become a model of food and nutrition intervention to be worked out among the university public and general population.