High cooking skills do not lead to healthy mediterranean eating habits. Focus on catering students

Publication date: Available online 5 July 2019Source: International Journal of Gastronomy and Food ScienceAuthor(s): Cesare Altavilla, Pablo Caballero Pérez, Jose TuellsAbstractThe lack of human nutrition and dietetics knowledge may have a detrimental effect on the eating habits of catering students. The purpose of the study was to assess the adherence to the Mediterranean Diet of catering students. A cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out. 108 catering students completed the KIDMED questionnaire. The mean score and the confidence intervals were calculated. A Student’s t-test was used to evaluate the differences for sex and year of study. For each answer, the odds ratio by logistic regression adjusting for sex and year of study were calculated. The students had inadequate fruit and vegetables intake. Despite the catering students had high cooking skills, findings revealed a moderate adherence to the Mediterranean Diet. Results and claims suggest that catering students would benefit from studying nutrition and dietetics subject. The cooking skills are probably a tiny part of the tools and knowledge necessary to have a good adherence to the Mediterranean Diet. This work recommends the incorporation of nutrition and dietetics subject in catering degrees.
Source: International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science - Category: Food Science Source Type: research