Cooking literacy measures an individual’s ability to obtain, prepare, cook, and serve food. The erosion of cooking skills among recent generations has led to an increased consumption of fast food and other highly processed foods. Highly processed foods metabolize very quickly in the body, and can overwhelm the system with excess sodium, added sugars, and saturated fats, while providing few nutrients needed for health.
The OU Culinary Medicine Program emphasizes essential cooking skills for preparing tasty, low-cost meals using whole and minimally-processed ingredients to address important nutrition gaps caused by a Western diet.
