Cooking lessons in schools: a recipe for healthier minds, not just healthier bodies

A small study with a big message

Writing in the Malta Review of Educational Research, researchers Marie Therese Pavia and Sylvia Caruana examined how childhood involvement in meal preparation shapes eating habits, surveying 101 Maltese adolescents aged 13 to 15. Their findings are encouraging. More than half said that cooking as a child had positively influenced how they eat today — and of those, close to two-thirds now eat more fruit and vegetables and report a greater awareness of food and health.

Around three quarters of the young people had helped in the kitchen growing up, most often by chopping ingredients, choosing recipes or coming along to the shops. Tellingly, it was parents and guardians who encouraged that participation in more than nine cases out of ten. The authors argue that practical experience matters because knowing about nutrition does not, on its own, change behaviour — a distinction every clinician will recognise. Their recommendation: make practical cooking compulsory throughout secondary school and introduce basic home economics in the primary years.

Food is fuel for the developing brain

Why should a mental-health team care about what happens in a kitchen? Because the relationship between what we eat and how we feel is no longer a fringe idea. Current understanding suggests that the gut and the brain communicate constantly, and that the quality of what we eat can influence mood, energy and concentration over time. A diet rich in vegetables, fruit, fish, olive oil and legumes — the Mediterranean pattern many Maltese families already know — is associated in research with better mental wellbeing, though the evidence continues to evolve and no single food is a cure.

For adolescents, whose brains are undergoing a period of intense development, steady nutrition is especially relevant. Research is exploring how regular, balanced meals may support the focus and emotional regulation that school, friendships and exams all demand.

Cooking is a life skill — and a cognitive one

There is something else happening when a child cooks, beyond the plate. Following a recipe is a quiet exercise in executive function: planning, sequencing, timing, and holding several steps in mind at once. Sharing a family meal is one of the most reliable, low-cost rituals for connection — and connection is a known protective factor for adolescent mental health.

The study also surfaces a subtler point. A companion paper traces how home economics was historically taught as a domestic subject aimed mainly at girls. Reframing cooking as a universal life skill — useful to everyone, tied to independence and self-care rather than gendered housework — is itself a small act of cultural change. Competence in the kitchen builds confidence, and confidence builds wellbeing.

What this means at home

• Invite children into simple, safe tasks — chopping, mixing, choosing a recipe — rather than waiting for the school curriculum to change.
• Focus on experience over outcome: a slightly imperfect meal made together teaches more than a perfect one served to them.
• Use family meals, however brief, as a regular anchor for conversation and connection.
• If a child's relationship with food has become a source of worry — for either health or emotional reasons — a clinician can help you tell ordinary fussiness apart from something that needs support.

This article is for general information and does not replace individual psychiatric, psychological or medical assessment. If you are concerned about a young person, please speak to a clinician.