Cooking, Food Agency and Pro- Health Behavior

We explore and summarize the evidence linking cooking to health with consideration of the broader implications for nutrition security. We begin with an overview of social transformations in everyday meal preparation over the past century and how these transformations and cooking at home are associated behaviors. With increased availability of prepared and processed foods in the food environment, making meals at home has emerged as a pro-health behavior with the potential to promote nutrition. Food agency is a means of defining and assessing meal preparation practices, which include cooking but also other practical and cognitive actions. We discuss the theory and measurement of food agency and provide a framework for action to better understand and address possible associations between food agency, cooking skills and behavior, and nutrition security.

Available evidence suggests higher level cooking skills, greater frequency of cooking at home, and higher cooking confidence are associated with greater fruit and vegetable intake and higher diet quality. However, numerous barriers to making meals from whole ingredients at home exist including food environments and sociocultural pressures that prioritize convenience. Much of the current research on food and cooking remains focused on consumption. However, more work is needed to articulate the pathways through which food agency and cooking could support dietary quality and nutrition security.