Let's Cook, Eat, and Talk: Encouraging Healthy Eating Behaviors and Interactive Family Mealtime for an Underserved Neighborhood in Texas.

Abstract

Family meals are associated with significant benefits including increased dietary quality,1 4 reduced risk behavior for substance abuse3 5 and disordered eating behaviors,3,4 improved cognitive performance among children,3 5 and strengthened family connectedness.4,5 Promoting healthy eating through family meals is suggested to be an important public health strategy, but family mealfocused interventions that educate entire families are lacking.6 Furthermore, family programs that promote healthful family mealtimes through an experiential and observational learning environment for underserved families within a community setting are limited or not widely reported. The objective of Let’s Cook, Eat, and Talk (LCET) was twofold: to promote healthy eating behaviors by providing combined nutrition education and cooking classes to underserved families in the community setting and to facilitate family mealtime communication to strengthen family relationships among participants in East Lubbock, TX.