Mindful Cooking: An Acceptability Trial

There is a growing consensus in the Nutritional Psychiatry literature that what we eat can influence mental health parameters, but support on mentally healthful foods and how to cook them is not currently available for individuals with depression in the UK. In particular, the number of adolescents and young adults who feel confident in their ability to cook meals from scratch is worryingly low, while rates of depression and anxiety continue to rise. The present study will therefore assess the acceptability of a dietary and cooking skills intervention, informed by two earlier Participant and Public Involvement workshops and designed in collaboration with Jamie Oliver Ministry of Food, which aims to provide young people in the Gateshead area with training to help them to plan, buy, prepare and consume foods to support good mental wellbeing. Similar dietary interventions have seen success in adults diagnosed with depression in Australia, where adherence to a modified Mediterranean diet dramatically improved depressive symptoms (Jacka., 2018). As such, the present study will build on this research, adding in practical food skills and adapting the design for a UK population aged 14-25. While the ultimate aim is to explore whether this is an acceptable intervention for those experiencing depression, this initial pilot will explore whether the intervention is acceptable to individuals in the target age range both with and without low mood or diagnosed depression. To assess the acceptability of the dietary and cooking intervention, two (or three, if funding allows) 8-week courses each enrolling ~10 young people will be run in the local Gateshead community. Participants will attend one 90-minute group session each week where they will be guided through how to cook a mentally healthful meal, each session covering different skills and ingredients and weaving in relevant nutritional education. Alongside this 8-week course, participants will be provided with rough Mediterranean diet guidelines to adhere to for the 8 week period, allowing skills and education from the course to be put into practice. A mixture of informal feedback and quantitative data will be collected to assess the acceptability of the trial.