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By Matthew Rees

Food and Health Fact #148: Let's bring back home ec classes

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With America’s child obesity rates the world’s highest (and rising higher during Covid), there’s a pressing need for new preventive measures. Here’s one idea: incorporate cooking classes into more school curriculums.

You may recall taking a “home ec” class. I took one in 7th grade at Stanley Junior High in Lafayette, California as part of a required year-long “MASH” course (Music, Art, and Shop were the other three courses). I wish I could say it nurtured a lifelong interest in cooking. Alas, I don’t remember anything about the class – a reflection of my 12-year-old self rather than any shortcomings in Mrs. Rowe’s teaching.

But my experience notwithstanding, teaching kids to cook – while also teaching them about the nexus between nutrition and health – would equip them to make healthier decisions about what to consume, while also giving them the skills to take control of their diet and counter the flood of fast-food advertising.

Those ideas are based in part on a 2018 study in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior. The authors found that when people aged 18-23 possessed “very adequate cooking skills,” they had “better nutrition-related outcomes 10 years later,” reflecting that they cooked more often with vegetables and consumed fast food less often. And if those young adults become parents, they’re going to be strongly influencing what their kids eat and how their meals are prepared.

Alas, the national obesity data suggest not enough parents or kids are cooking at home. There could be several different reasons for this, though a fundamental one being the decline in school-based cooking classes. One study, looking at the period from 2000-2012, found a 38 percent decline in high school enrollment in classes focused on “family and consumer sciences” (a modern rechristening of “home economics”).

There are glimmers of hope. Several non-profits are doing valuable work to bring cooking into schools, such as Common Threads, FoodCorps, and Recipe for Success. Mt. Diablo High School, in Concord, California has an innovative cooking and nutrition education curriculum, led by Cindy Gershen.

Students can also learn beyond high school. A few years ago, Stanford’s School of Medicine offered an eight-week elective course to its students, in which they would learn to prepare healthy meals, while also giving them guidance on how to counsel their patients on healthy cooking.

Getting more people to cook more of their own meals is fundamental to preventing obesity. Think about the alternatives. Eating restaurant food means being served large portions of food that is typically high in salt, sugar, or fat. (About 70 percent of fast-food meals, and 50 percent of full-service meals, were of “poor quality,” as defined by the American Heart Association, according to this study.)

Eating pre-cooked frozen meals that are eaten at home aren’t going to be much better. And consuming ready-to-eat ultra-processed foods, which account for 58 percent of the calories consumed by American adults – and 67 percent among American children – is a health disaster waiting to happen.

If cooking classes could help reduce this dependence on ultra-processed foods, it would represent a major step forward in America’s health.

America’s toxic food culture hurts people throughout the country, but it’s kids who pay the highest price. Schools are supposed to equip students with the knowledge and skills that will enable to them to make smart decisions about seizing (or creating) opportunities. Individual health is fundamental to that equation. Teaching children to cook, and to understand how food interacts with the body, will deliver lifelong – and life prolonging – dividends.