Effectiveness of cooking with cadets: A 16-week cooking intervention for OSU Air Force and Army ROTC cadets

Abstract

After ROTC cadets graduate, they will become officers and leaders within the military. One responsibility they will have initially is being a leader to at least 50 Soldiers. Soldiers will regularly approach their commanding officer for advice on all topics, including weight management, nutrition, and health. However, these officers are not formally trained in providing such guidance to their Soldiers, which could have negative health and performance implications for the Soldier and the greater military.

Considering that cadets immediately take on leadership roles with a far reach, ROTC could be a big impact solution to the weight concerns of the military, but are they interested? Cadets and their instructors are very interested in such classes though. According to focus group data from my current Wentz project, cadets and instructors ranked nutrition as 4.8/5 and 5/5, respectively, for interest in nutrition classes and 4.3/5 and 5/5, respectively, for importance of nutrition classes to their future military career. They are particularly interested in cooking classes. Cadets and instructors have informed the research team one area of concern is the low food literacy of cadets, which is different from low nutrition knowledge.