Putting convenience over health: Parents' reluctance to cook at Home could be harming their children's health

Hoda McClymont, author of “My Kids Love Veggies,” outlines the barriers faced by parents in preparing home-cooked meals and sets out solutions and tools to remove these barriers. End Quote

(1888PressRelease) April 20, 2023 - According to recent reports, the world is experiencing an overweight and obesity crisis, with one in four children being overweight or obese in Australia, one in five in the United States, and one in three in Europe. This is a concerning situation because obesity in childhood can lead to a variety of health problems and reduced quality of life, including problems with daily activities, emotions, social interactions, and school functioning.

One of the contributing factors to this overweight and obesity crisis is that households are replacing home-cooked meals with pre-packed and takeaway meals that are less filling and nutritious. As parents, it is crucial to recognise the impact of convenience meals on children's health and take steps towards making healthier choices. Hoda McClymont, mother, researcher and author, sheds light on parental barriers to preparing home-made meals. These barriers include the food preferences of family members, a lack of time to prepare healthy meals, the higher cost of healthy foods, parental lack of self-efficacy in planning and cooking healthy meals, and fatigue and a lack of motivation to cook.

Recognising that parents are not alone in facing these challenges, researchers have asked parents what solutions they've implemented to overcome these barriers to preparing meals at home. For example, parents’ tips for reducing the high cost of healthy ingredients are to plan to avoid temptations and use alternative grocery channels. Experts also recommend avoiding food waste to reduce the budget. Parental tips for reducing meal preparation time include sharing the meal preparation load with household members, using time-saving devices such as air fryers and slow cookers, and pre-planning and preparing meals for the week ahead. Parents also give recommendations to improve their self-efficacy in the kitchen including having access to information tools that provide both healthy recipes and corresponding grocery lists. The goals of these resources are to inspire parents with new meal/snack ideas, provide opportunities for making more healthy meals, and simplifying the shopping task. Hoda McClymont explores some of the parent-given solutions to barriers, and provides several web and mobile based tools to action them in her research article “How parents remove hurdles to cooking at home.”

Hoda McClymont (PhD, BBus[Hons], GradDipPubHlth, GCertHuman Services) is the author of the book "My Kids Love Veggies," which is targeted at parents who want to improve their children's diets. To read the article in full or learn more about the author, visit: https://hodamcclymont.com.

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