Ep.50 How Teaching Teens to Cook Can Improve Their Eating Habits

Can teaching teens to cook be the key to a healthier lifestyle? In this episode, I discuss how a 10-week experiential cooking and nutrition program significantly boosted cooking skills and vegetable consumption among school students. 

Learn how these essential skills, from reading recipes to safely using kitchen tools, can set the foundation for lifelong healthy eating habits. 

Manuscript: 
An Experiential Cooking and Nutrition Education Program Increases Cooking Self-Efficacy and Vegetable Consumption in Children in Grades 3–8  by Elizabeth Jarpe-Ratner et al

If you're wondering…
❓ Why are teens hungry all the time during puberty?
❓ Why are teens craving sugar all the time?
❓ Why teens feel so tired—even when they sleep?

You’re not alone—and it’s not your fault.

Hormones play a HUGE role in how teens gain weight, feel energy, manage emotions, and grow.

Dr Gourgari is a certified pediatric endocrinologist, obesity medicine specialist and health coach for teens.

Each week, she break down how puberty hormones work—and how simple habits like eating better, sleeping more, and moving your body can help you feel better, stronger, and more confident.

We’ll talk about things like:
🥗 Are smoothies really healthy?
🍞 Are carbs bad for weight loss in teens?
💪 And how to stop emotional eating before it takes over your day.

Whether you’re a teen ready to make a change—or a parent looking to support your child the right way—this podcast is for you.

🎁 Want to jump in right now?
Grab your free guide: 30 Healthy, High-Protein Recipes for Teens at lifestyleforteens.com/recipes

Transcript

Speaker 2: 1:04

This is the Lifestyle and Weight Loss for Teens podcast. If you're a mom and want to help your child who is struggling to lose weight, you are in the right place. If you are looking for healthy lifestyle tips, dr Gorgery is here to help you understand the science around safe weight loss in teens and children, because what works for adult weight loss is not always the best for children. This podcast is for educational purposes only. Dr Gorgory does not provide medical, psychological or nutrition therapy advice. You should not use this information to diagnose or treat any health problems without consulting your own medical practitioner and now your host, dr Jenny Gorgory.

Speaker 1: 1:45

Hello, hello, welcome to another episode of the Lifestyle and Weight Loss for Teens podcast. This is Dr Jenny Gorgory, your host, and today I decided to talk about cooking lessons and whether that is important for our teenagers' education as they try to get into a healthier weight. So, to answer this question, I found a great study that actually answered this exactly question. The title of the manuscript is An Experiential Cooking and Nutrition Education Program Increases Cooking Self-efficacy and vegetable consumption in children in grades three to eight. So this was really a program that was done in elementary and middle schools in Chicago in the United States, and students participated in this study were between grades three and eight. Students participated in the study were between grades three and eight and what they did is they had 10-week program for two hours every week. They were going to a class.

Speaker 1: 2:50

There was a self-instructor-led program that was held in the cafeteria, in the kitchens after school, and when the kids were there they learned different things that had to do about food. For example, they learned what is a healthy meal, that half the plate should be filled with fruits and vegetables, a quarter with lean protein, a quarter with whole grain. They understood what are the benefits of fruits and vegetables and they learn how to use the knife so they can cut the fruits and vegetables. They also learn what constitutes whole grains, what are the benefits of eating whole grains, what foods constitute protein, and they learn how to marinate the different types of proteins, how to use a blender to marinate the different types of proteins, how to use a blender. They learn how to create different sauces so they can make the grains and the vegetables taste better. They also learn how it is important to incorporate different foods that have different variety so they can make a healthy meal. And they also learn how to read a recipe and how to also measure the fat and what is good fat and what is bad fat. They were educated also about sugar. They understood what are the and they were educated on other ways that they can make the food taste better without adding extra sugar. They also learn how to read labels and how to saute, which is a specific cooking method, and they also, of course, had measurements done in this kid before and after the program, where they basically score their kids' knowledge about the nutrition. They measure their cooking self-efficacy score and also their vegetable consumption and, their no surprise after only almost three months, the kids' scores in all these areas improved. So at the end of the course they had better vegetable consumption, they knew how to cook better and they understood nutrition better.

Speaker 1: 5:09

Excellent, excellent research that was done, again very hopeful, and what is the take-home message for this is that we can educate our kids. We can educate our teenagers even at a very young age to help them learn how to cook. We know from studies that have been done in teenagers that when we have higher knowledge on how to cook food at home and when we eat food at home and we eat less at the restaurants, that can improve the chances of being in a healthy way. So this is why it is very important to educate our teenagers, to educate our children to learn all these great techniques on what is a healthy meal, how to make vegetables taste better, why it is encouraged to prefer whole grain versus simple grain, why do we not want to have too much sugar? What are other ways we can make the food taste better? Healthy food does not mean it doesn't taste good, right? So educating our teenagers on all those things how to read a label and how to measure the protein and what is the right amount so this healthy nutrition education that can happen very easily in a three-month program can help our teenagers start to be more self-sufficient.

Speaker 1: 6:40

So I hear this all the time from the families that I work with that when they get home oftentimes from school, teenagers are alone.

Speaker 1: 6:50

There is no mom and dad because they're working, or there may be grandmother, and the options that they are offered are not the best.

Speaker 1: 6:58

So giving empowering our teenagers to learn how to cook and know how to make good choices for themselves can help them stay away from those unhealthy choices, can help them eat more vegetables because they know how to make the vegetables taste better, because they are empowered to use the vegetables that they want, they can choose them the way they want and make them the way they want. Go to the kitchen, start learning along as a family, and if you need help again, you can sign up for my program, the Lift program. I try to incorporate as part of this some cooking lessons, and the reason for this is also because I think it is very important that every teenager can learn some basic skills. So that's all I had for today. If you want to learn more about my program, you can go to lifestyleforteenscom for Westas program and, as always, don't hesitate to reach out to me at any point. You can go to lifestyleforteenscom and click on contact me and work with me, and you'll find more information and free advice there. Take care, and I will talk to you soon. Bye.

Speaker 2: 8:19

If you enjoyed listening to this podcast, I invite you to come check out the LIFT program. It's Dr Gorgeri's 12-week coaching program for teens and their moms, where we take all this information, we apply it to your daily life and we work together so your teenager learns how to create a healthy lifestyle so they can feel happier, more confident, less stressed and love their body again. Visit the website at lifestyleforteenscom and click on the work with me and free resources to learn more about this program and get free help to start this journey right away. Thanks for tuning in and we'll catch you in the next episode of lifestyle and weight loss for teens.