Unwinding the COVID-19 Paradox of Food Insecurity and Obesity in the Same Household in Rural Populations

The double burden of obesity and food insecurity is a recognized global health issue. What is less understood are distinct factors protecting against and contributing to this nutritional health paradox in rural America and how nutrition educators can tailor their message to address the issues. We talked with people in rural communities across the country. Common themes included the loss of protective factors such as a multi-generational culinary knowledge sharing or readily available garden produce. Nutrition education needs require innovation to address different learning styles. Participants who attended culinary nutrition sessions rated their confidence in preparing healthy meals as higher and their perceived motivation to teach their families about healthy cooking as increased.

This session uses a case study approach to demonstrate the use of culinary nutrition to help patients and families increase the frequency of family meals. Evidence-based culinary nutrition skills for teaching participants in reintroduction to society programs, diabetic education for Native American clients, migrant worker's free clinic and others will be demonstrated. A simple, effective method for designing culinary nutrition sessions to engage your patients and community participants will be shown.

CPE Level: Level 2
CPEU: 1.0

Performance Indicators

• 8.2.1 Assesses the physical, social and cultural needs of the individual, group, community or population.
• 8.4.5 Uses counseling techniques to promote behavior changes in food preparation.
• 9.3.2 Develops and/or selects a variety of learning activities based on a plan of action and outcomes, and the needs of the individual, group, community and population.

Learning Objectives

• Design a culinary nutrition session to meet the needs of diverse populations using evidence-based teaching methods.
• Implement recipes and tips in a culinary demonstration to meet specific and measurable nutrition goals to reach a target audience.
• Describe effective tools to be used to address nutrition issues seen at diverse settings such as a migrant workers clinic, a Native American diabetes education class and rural community settings.

Speakers

• Jacquelyn Nyenhuis
• Rondee Boe-Feltman