Gastro-educational intervention proposal in the classroom with family recipes: Prevention of cardiovascular risk in adolescent students

Abstract

Nutritional education is key for disease prevention. This project is based in recovery of traditional family recipes and characterization of ingredients. Therefore, the objective of the study was to elaborate a family recipe, discuss their nutritional value and modify with new ingredients in the context of a healthy diet. The intervention has been carried out in two High School Centers in Elche (Spain). A total of 120 adolescent volunteers (16–19 years of age) participated. Then, students freely prepared recipes at home with their family, indicating ingredients, cooking protocol and taking a picture at the end of the elaboration. Finaly, 54 recipes were selected and analysed according their cholesterol/saturated fat ratio. The hypercholesterolaemic and atherogenic potential was calculated to classify the recipes into three ranges according to cholesterol/saturated fat ratio as high (range: 50–122), medium (18–46) and low (5–12). The intervention proposal intends to inquire about the knowledge that students have about food, gastronomy and health, particularly to their usual diet. The evaluation of knowledge adquisition is made by using a questionnaire available in Kahoot platform and passed at the beginning and at the end of intervention. Through this activity, we intend that students become aware that an unbalanced diet is a bad habit and it can be modified from adolescence, in order to obtain health benefits in the future. The aim is to give information to prevent possible health problems such as cardiovascular disease as working topic of this educational project. In this context, high schools are appropriate environments and teachers are key actors to work on all these aspects.