RESUMO
College students are challenged to consume healthy diets, and veterinary medical students may also have difficulty achieving optimal dietary intake, yet improved well-being is associated with following healthy dietary patterns. Individuals with food literacy-the inter-related knowledge, skills, and behaviors to plan and manage, select, prepare, and eat healthy foods-are better able to meet dietary recommendations. The Eating with Ease program developed and tested a nutrition education/culinary skill-building program to build first- and second-year veterinary medicine students' food literacy and healthy behaviors toward food. The curriculum emphasized health and nutrition, taste, food preparation skills, planning/decision making, and convenience. Students engaged in four 30-minute sessions and communicated through a mobile group messaging application. Pre- and post-program scores on the Eating and Food Literacy Behaviors Questionnaire (EFLBQ) were compared between those who finished the intervention and a control group of graduate students who completed a money management program. The intervention group (n = 23) had a mean age of 24.2 years (SD = 2.6), and the control group (n = 14) had a mean age of 27.1 years (SD = 2.3). Most participants were female (87%, n = 20 and 79%, n = 11 in the intervention and control groups, respectively). After completing the program, the veterinary medical students' mean EFLBQ factor change score for health and nutrition was significantly higher (p = .03) when compared to the control group. These findings suggest that a short, evidence-based nutrition education/culinary skill-building program may improve veterinary medical students' behaviors to choose, prepare and consume healthy foods.
