MestreChef Nutritional game: an alternative method to promote nutrition facts label reading in obesity outreach activities

Adv Physiol Educ. 2024 Jan 4. doi: 10.1152/advan.00044.2023. Online ahead of print.ABSTRACTReading nutrition facts label is a competency for which training is given in several nutrition education programs, especially in obesity outreach workshops. The top trump-style card game is commonly used in obesity prevention educational programs to engage participants in reading nutrition facts labels; however, the success of TV cooking shows among children and teenagers has not been explored for educational purposes. This paper is a descriptive study of developing a gamified activity as part of the one-time outreach workshop facilitated by the Obesity and Comorbidities Research Center (OCRC) in Brazil. By playing the MestreChef Nutritional (MCN) game, participants followed similar rules as the corresponding TV cooking show. They were challenged to decide to select food items, calculate dietary food intake and prepare a recipe to visualize the proportion of macronutrients contained in daily diets. The analysis of the nutritional dietary table completed by participants revealed to be a rich source of information, and we identified in our cohort that selecting an adequate number of food items and making healthy food choices was not concerning. However, their lack of competency in performing mathematical reasoning, particularly in calculating serving sizes and converting grams of macronutrients into calories, was evident. Moreover, facilitators of the workshops agreed that the MCN game pr...
Source: Adv Physiol Educ - Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Source Type: research