Home cooking is one way to turn around obesity trend The University of California 4-H Youth Development program is doing its part to ensure home cooking - a proven remedy for easing the obesity epidemic – doesn’t become a lost art. In January, the National Center for Health Statistics reported that more than 34 percent of Americans are obese, and another 32.7 percent are overweight. This was the first time obese Americans outnumbered the merely overweight. Twenty years ago, 22.3 percent were obese and 33 percent of Americans were overweight. An alarming side effect of obesity and overweight is increased risk of chronic and deadly diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer and arthritis. The obesity epidemic is worsening and well publicized, but the solutions are elusive. Eating away from home isn’t the only cause. Scientists pin blame on a complex web of intertwining factors, including
4-H teaches youth healthy eating skills To build some of the hands-on skills needed for youth to develop lifelong healthy eating patterns, the 4-H Youth Development Program offers cooking classes to large and small groups, at club meetings, after-school programs and in classrooms around the state. In Monterey County, for example, the Gonzales 4-H club held a "Dads and Lads BBQ" project. This event brings dads and sons together to learn the art of barbecue with all the fixin's. In San Diego County, 4-H members learn how to make sushi from former sushi chef Quang “Hogan” Tong, a Vietnamese immigrant who now serves as a 4-H program representative. “We go over the basic prep work, how to prepare cucumbers, avocados, seaweed – then I take them through the steps for creating an inside-out California roll,” Tong said. “I let the children experiment for themselves.” In Imperial County, volunteer 4-H leader Margo DuBois hosts weekly cooking classes in her home for four 9-year-old boys. “We’re working around a healthy snack each week and learning about measuring liquid and dry ingredients, knife holding and kitchen safety,” DuBois said. “But there are some favorite foods the boys have told me they want to learn. They really want to make meatloaf.” In Fresno County, a group of 4-H boys have been cooking together regularly for nine years under the direction of 4-H volunteer leader Georgene Diener. Now high-school age and having long ago mastered cooking basics, the 4-H chefs continue to meet to tackle more difficult, budget gourmet dishes. “The science of cooking – how foods bake and cook and react – is particularly interesting to the boys,” Diener said. “Boys seem to have this inherent talent for combining things. They are very good at making dishes that don’t require accuracy.” Food preparation has long been a part of 4-H Cooking and consumer economics are traditional 4-H programs. Established in the 1920s, when women’s work and men’s work was delineated more distinctly than today, early 4-H clubs offered hands-on home economics programs to girls, with instruction in canning, cake decorating, meal preparation and kitchen gardening. UC Cooperative Extension 4-H Youth Development advisor for Merced County, Richard Mahacek, remembers participating in 4-H cooking projects when he was a club member in the 1960s. “I remember the focus wasn’t just on making cookies or bread, we were learning about the four food groups,” Mahacek said. “Of course, the teaching has changed since then, with the My Pyramid guide, but we gained an understanding about how to prepare a balanced meal.” Cooking projects, he said, are still fairly popular in Merced County, but they have changed over time. “We organize 4-H groups and have school enrichment programs and reach out to the Southeast Asian and other communities,” Machacek said. “The children are interested in learning to cook, no matter what culture. And in today’s economy we can’t always afford prepared or pre-packaged foods.” UC develops a new healthy living curriculum for youth
A new 4-H food preparation curriculum that reflects advances in understanding based on the most recent nutrition research has been developed by a workgroup of 4-H youth development and nutrition advisors. The curriculum, with six simple healthy-living lessons – each one involving cooking – can be presented in any youth development setting, such as Boys or Girls Clubs, Boy or Girl Scouts, after-school programs or in the classroom. The series of classes is being pilot tested in Contra Costa and Amador counties to determine whether it is most effective when presented to youth on their own or paired with a parent or guardian. Each session includes a 10- to 15-minute physical activity component and a health component, in addition to the cooking component. “We teach the kids fun games and activities – like Hula-Hoops, hopscotch and tag – and give instruction on how to live a healthier life with skills like menu planning and hand washing,” said Nan Lippitt, an instructor and author of the new curriculum. At the last meeting of the series, in addition to preparing homemade pizza with grated zucchini and pineapple, the children make a box of “conversation starters” to use during a family meal. The child can bring the box home, where during a meal a family member will draw a card from the box, which might say, for example, “Share your favorite part of the day,” “Describe the textures of the foods you are eating,” and “When it’s hard to make up your mind about something, how do you decide?” “We want to encourage the participants to go home and enjoy a family meal. Research has shown that family meals contribute to living a healthy life,” Lippitt said. “You have to fight to make family meals a priority. It has an impact on the children’s diet and even on academic performance.” The new 4-H healthy living curriculum will be available later in 2009 (January 2009) |
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Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of California. All contents November 22, 2009 Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. |
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