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Cooking skills research

What do researchers talk about when they talk about cooking skills courses?

I was recently lucky enough to attend and present the results of our realist evaluation of cooking skills courses at a conference in Lisbon. This was the 3rd COOK and Health international conference and was attended by around 60 researchers, all of whom, like me, were enthusiastic about cooking skills. So what did we have …

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Reasons to be cheerful part 2 – CFHS cooking skills research. What did we learn about the best ways to run a cooking skills course?

Our cooking skills study group realist evaluation (2016-2018), gathered information from 29 community cooking skills courses (attended by 75 adults -all of whom were managing on low-incomes and the majority were ‘vulnerable’*). The results showed that: 79% improved their cooking skills (a further 16% could already cook) 68% made steps to improve their diet As …

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Cooking skills blog: Cooking skills research – Reasons to be cheerful, part one

Earlier this year, around 50 people, many who run or manage cooking skills activities came together to hear evidence about the impact of community cooking activities. They heard from Professor Martin Caraher (City, University of London) and Dr Ada Garcia (University of Glasgow). Lyndsay Clark (Fife Health & Social Care Partnership) and I discussed the …

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CFHS blog – from the reading pile …

Part of our role is to share evidence, learning and knowledge, so a few of my reflections on a little something from my reading pile. This week I read a briefing paper published by Glasgow Centre for Population Health, setting out principles for effective social regeneration and interventions.  It is based on the work of …

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Cooking skills blog 27: Cooking skills research: Are you more likely to cook if you have cooking skills?

This blog post looks at a research article which suggests that possessing cooking ‘skills’ is only one of a range of factors associated with whether a person is actually more likely to cook their meals at home. The article explored who is more likely to cook at home and why; and what impact home cooking …

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Cooking skills blog 24: Cooking skills research: cooking, confidence and enjoyment

Last year, Dr Ada Garcia and her colleagues published a narrative review on community cooking courses and their impact on people’s confidence to cook and their eating behaviour. The review wasn’t systematic, so it looks at a relatively small number of studies. However, if you are looking for academic evidence on the impact of community …

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Cooking skills blog 20: Are cooking skills courses any use to people experiencing food poverty?

Many practitioners running cooking courses across Scotland try to ensure these focus on preparing tasty, affordable healthy meals, using ingredients that can be bought in the shops that course participants already use. However, what do you do if you become aware that someone on your course might not be able to afford these budget recipes, …

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Cooking Skills Blog 15 – Researcher guest blog: developing sustainable cooking courses in partnership with people using a mental health support centre

In this guest blog, Michelle Estradé, research consultant at the Scottish Collaboration for Public Health Research and Policy (SCPHRP) explores how the idea of ‘ownership’ might help develop cooking courses within a mental health support centre that can be sustained in the longer term. ‘Over at SCPHRP we love partnering with community-based organisations to learn …

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Cooking skills blog 3: research on involving children in cooking

In this fortnight’s blog, I’ll look at two presentations from the COOK and Health Scientific Symposium held at the Basque Culinary Center in San Sebastian that my colleague Jacqui attended last November. Both suggested that involving children in hands-on cooking programmes can have a positive impact on their diet (at least in the short-term) and …

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Cooking skills blog 2: research on involving children and their parents in cooking

Last November, my CFHS colleague, Jacqui McDowell, attended the COOK and Health Scientific Symposium held at the Basque Culinary Center in San Sebastian. This shared up-to-date academic knowledge on the relationships between cooking, eating behaviours and health. In this fortnight’s blog, I’ll highlight one piece of the research presented which focused on involving children and …

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