Researchers wanted to know if children who have better cooking skills eat healthier foods. They studied 81 kids with an average age of 9 years and asked them about their cooking abilities and what they ate. The results were mixed: cooking skills didn’t seem to affect overall diet quality, but kids with better cooking skills did eat more vegetables. While this is interesting, the researchers say we need more studies to really understand if teaching kids to cook makes a real difference in their eating habits over time.

The Quick Take

  • What they studied: Whether children who know how to cook eat better overall and eat more healthy foods
  • Who participated: 81 children averaging 9 years old from 68 families, mostly white families, participating in a health study in Guelph
  • Key finding: Kids with better cooking skills ate more vegetables, but their overall diet quality wasn’t significantly better. The connection to vegetables was small but real (statistically significant).
  • What it means for you: Teaching kids to cook might help them eat more vegetables, which is a good thing. However, this study alone doesn’t prove that cooking classes will completely transform a child’s diet. More research is needed before making big claims about cooking lessons fixing eating habits.

The Research Details

This was a cross-sectional study, which means researchers looked at information from children and their families at one point in time, rather than following them over months or years. The children answered questions about their cooking skills using a special assessment tool designed for kids. Parents reported what their children ate over 24 hours using an online food diary. Researchers then scored the children’s diets using a system called the Healthy Eating Index, which measures how well someone follows healthy eating guidelines.

The researchers used statistical methods to look for connections between cooking skills and diet quality while accounting for other factors that might matter, like the child’s age, sex, family income, and whether the family was part of a special health program. This helps them understand if cooking skills alone were connected to better eating, or if other things were really responsible.

Understanding whether cooking skills actually help kids eat better is important because childhood obesity and poor eating habits are big health problems. If cooking skills really do help, schools and families could focus on teaching kids to cook as a way to improve their health. However, this type of study can only show if two things happen together—it can’t prove that one causes the other.

This study has some strengths: it used validated tools (tested and proven methods) to measure both cooking skills and diet quality, and it adjusted for other important factors. However, it has important limitations: the sample size is small (81 kids), most participants were white, and it’s a snapshot in time rather than following kids over time. The study can’t prove that cooking skills cause better eating—only that they might be connected.

What the Results Show

On average, children scored 3.08 out of 4 on cooking skills, which is fairly high. Their overall diet quality score was 60 out of 100, which is below what health experts recommend. When researchers looked at whether cooking skills connected to overall diet quality, they found no significant relationship—meaning kids with better cooking skills didn’t necessarily have better overall diets.

However, when they looked at specific food groups, they found something interesting: children with better cooking skills did eat more vegetables. This was a small but real connection. For every point increase in cooking skills (on a 4-point scale), vegetable intake increased by a small but measurable amount.

No other food groups showed a significant connection to cooking skills, including fruits, whole grains, dairy, or protein foods. This suggests that cooking skills might specifically help kids eat more vegetables, but don’t automatically improve their eating in other ways.

The study looked at many different parts of diet quality (like whole grains, dairy, and added sugars) but only found significant connections for vegetables. This suggests that if cooking skills help kids eat better, it might be specifically because cooking helps them prepare and enjoy vegetables, rather than improving their entire diet.

Previous research has suggested that cooking skills might help people eat better, but studies in children are limited. This study adds to that conversation by showing a specific connection to vegetables. However, the overall finding that cooking skills didn’t connect to total diet quality suggests the relationship might be more complicated than simply ‘cooking skills = better eating.’

This study has several important limitations: First, it’s small (only 81 kids), so the results might not apply to all children. Second, it only looked at one moment in time, so we don’t know if cooking skills actually lead to better eating over time or if something else is happening. Third, most participants were white, so results might be different for other groups. Fourth, children self-reported their cooking skills, which might not be completely accurate. Finally, parents reported what kids ate, which might not be perfectly accurate either.

The Bottom Line

Based on this study alone, we can say: Teaching kids to cook may help them eat more vegetables (moderate confidence). However, we cannot yet say that cooking classes will improve overall diet quality (low confidence). More research is needed. In the meantime, teaching kids to cook is still a good idea because it builds life skills and may encourage vegetable eating.

Parents and educators interested in helping kids eat better should know about this research. Kids who are picky eaters or don’t eat enough vegetables might especially benefit from cooking lessons. However, cooking lessons alone probably won’t fix all eating problems—they work best as part of a bigger approach that includes healthy food availability and family eating habits.

If cooking skills do help kids eat more vegetables, this might happen relatively quickly as they learn and practice. However, changing overall diet quality likely takes longer and requires other changes too. Don’t expect dramatic results from cooking lessons alone in just a few weeks.

Want to Apply This Research?

  • Track vegetable servings eaten daily and cooking activities completed weekly. For example: ‘Cooked a meal with vegetables’ (yes/no) and ‘Vegetable servings eaten today’ (number). Look for patterns over 4-8 weeks.
  • Set a goal to cook one simple vegetable-based meal or snack together each week. Start with easy recipes (like roasted vegetables or vegetable stir-fry) and gradually try more complex ones. Track which recipes the child enjoys most.
  • Monitor both cooking frequency (how often the child cooks) and vegetable intake (servings per day). Create a simple chart showing the connection between cooking activities and vegetable eating. Review monthly to see if more cooking leads to more vegetables eaten.

This study shows a possible connection between cooking skills and vegetable eating in children, but cannot prove that cooking skills cause better eating. This research is preliminary and should not replace advice from your child’s doctor or a registered dietitian. Before making major changes to your child’s diet or starting cooking lessons as a health intervention, consult with a healthcare professional. Individual results may vary based on many factors including family food preferences, food availability, and overall lifestyle.