Healthy Cooking and Nutrition Programme

Introduction

The theory of the Healthy Cooking and Nutrition Programme (HCNP) is to empower participants through education to make healthy changes to cooking and their eating behaviors. This education is delivered through whanau centered healthy cooking and nutrition workshops, with the use of appropriate referencing to scientific evidence, relevant analogies, discussions, and hands on learning. The education is about the effects of poor and good nutrition, what are good and bad foods, and most importantly empowering the participants to be able to prove to themselves they can enjoy making cost effective food that is tasty, without a reliance on high amounts of saturated fat and salt for flavour. This is done by practical learning where participants experience a low calorie simple healthy cooking methodology, of layering flavours through the food by using cooking techniques as well as spices, herbs, healthy sauces and the use of different vegetable combinations.

 The questions for the two evaluations, the process evaluation and the outcome evaluation, have been extracted from this theory of learning healthy cooking and nutrition.

 

Executive Summary

The New Zealand health survey 2006/2007 found 26.5% of all New Zealanders to be obese and 41.7 % of Maori adults to be obese (Ministry of Health, 2008).

 The Healthy Eating Healthy Actions (HEHA) strategy was launched in 2002 with three goals: to improve nutrition, increase physical activity, and reduce obesity.

 HEHA is a Ministerial priority reflected in the Bay of Plenty District Health Board (BOPDHB) District Annual Plan 2008 (DAP). HEHA strategies are in place in parts of the district across the population; however there are few actions that are implemented with comprehensive coverage in all settings e.g. Marae and Hauora based. Therefore there are gaps in all of the HEHA priority areas.

 The Healthy Cooking and Nutrition Programme (HCNP) is an innovation of the BOPDHB HEHA Community Educator, a qualified chef (20 years) who holds a bachelor degree with a focus on nutrition and activity.

 

The objective of the HEHA Community Educator is to

• raise awareness of healthy eating/cooking on marae and within Maori communities through the  implementation of the HCNP
• educate about healthy eating/cooking on marae and within Maori communities through the implementation of the HCNP 
• promote sustainable healthy eating/cooking on marae and in Maori communities through the implementation  of the HCNP
• support, through any possible assistance, sustainable healthy eating/cooking on marae and in communities
• provide assistance to any organisation that would like input on the implementation and the delivery of HEHA or a healthy eating/cooking programme 

 

The HCNP consists of four three hour workshops that are promoted to Maori providers and community health organisations working with 

• koroua and kuia kaumatua programme
• whanau/ hapu with marae cooks groups
• parenting young mothers wahine groups
• rangatahi (youth) groups
• health promotion or nutrition events ( wanting the one off demonstration option)

 

The goals of the HCNP are to

• Increase knowledge of good simple effective nutritional health
• Increase skills and abilities to plan cost effective healthy meals (working with a limited budget)
• Improve skills and abilities to extend existing cooking techniques and ideas, introduce natural food flavours, and encourage simple, healthy methodology for tasty cookery
• Improve and maintain essential kai Maori preparation methods, focusing on nutritional value
• Improve understanding and appreciation of shared, interactive experiences with a hands-on cooking and learning approach
• Provide whanau an experience of enjoying preparing and eating healthy kai
• Whanau-centered learning providing a fun, empowering environment

The attendance numbers at the HCNP workshops during the 20 month period from mid 2008 until March 2010 were 3591. Sample groups where evaluated over a 4 month period through a process evaluation and an outcome evaluation

 

Process evaluation method and results

The process evaluation assessed the delivery of the workshop. The answer choices for the first five questions are; strongly agree, moderately agree, agree, moderately disagree, and strongly disagree. The final question has a yes/no option

 

The process evaluation has shown a majority (82% to 93% dependent on the question) strongly agree the workshops delivery is clearly explained, interesting, fun, understandable, motivating and improved knowledge of healthy cooking/nutrition. The final question “Would you recommend this workshop to others” scored 100% yes

 

Outcome evaluation method and results

The outcome evaluation showed a majority of self assessed answer’s shifted from poor, not very good and average, before the workshops, to very good and excellent after the four workshops. Results

·         Healthy cooking knowledge and ability, before workshops, poor 5%, not very good 41%, average 45%. After workshops very good 36%, excellent 55%.

·         Ability to use healthy cooking techniques, before workshops, poor 5%, not very good 32%, average 45%. After workshops very good 45% excellent 45%.

·         Knowledge of the effects nutrition has on health before workshops, poor 5%, not very good 36%, average 45%. After workshops very good 36% excellent 59%.

 

The final three outcome evaluation questions used a rating of strongly agree, moderately agree, agree, moderately disagree, and strongly disagree.

·Before the workshop 45% agreed that they felt they would prefer to buy junk food more than once a week, rather than make healthy food at home. Post workshop showed a 77% shift to strongly disagree

·After the workshops 81% shifted to strongly disagreed with the question “I feel that cooking food with a lot of fat is necessary to make the meal tasty”

·The answer to the question “I feel that I do make/cook many different varieties of healthy vegetable dishes that taste nice” had a positive shift above average, although this was only by 30% in total. 

 

Conclusion

The high numbers of Maori that attended HCNP is evidence that whanau and their health providers want to address healthy cooking healthy eating. The evaluation has shown that improvements to a healthy eating life style are achievable with the support of healthy cooking and nutrition workshops. The results have proven to be positive when these workshops are delivered through an education process that is whanau centered, visually engaging, hands on, fun and empowering