Better Together BC’s Hands-On Cook-Off competition is back for a seventh edition to encourage people to stop eating alone and get together to share meals with families and friends.
Until noon on May 20, any B.C. resident can enter the Hands-on Cook-off contest with a friend or relative. Contestants need to create a home video cooking show – maximum three minutes – that must include two or more people preparing a recipe together and having fun.
Meghan Molnar, community dietician on the Sunshine Coast, said cooking in groups has become something of a lost art.
“In general when you cook together, you tend to eat healthier,” Molnar said. “So my message is always about the importance of eating together, but don’t worry about what you’re putting on the table. It’s more important just to sit down around a table and eat together.”
Molnar said that if people are putting more thought into what they’re cooking, healthier eating typically follows. On the other hand, watching TV and eating alone means less consciousness about what people are putting in their bodies.
“Eating alone is a big factor in loneliness,” Molnar said. “You don’t tend to cook as much or as well and you don’t tend to eat as well when you eat alone. You just don’t put the effort in and the food just doesn’t taste as good.”
This is why the Hands-On Cook-Off doesn’t have a judging criterion for nutrition. You can cook anything you want, as long as you do it with other people and show in the video submission that there is engagement happening between you and your group members.
“What we found is that if you tell people they should eat together more often, it kind of induces guilt and paralyzes them,” Rola Zahr said.
Zahr is a dietician with the BC Dairy Association, which administers Better Together BC.
“They know it’s good but they just don’t have the time. So we’re trying to use a more positive approach in encouraging them to do it in baby steps,” Zahr said. “If you can’t do it every day, that’s fine, but at least start with once or twice a week. It doesn’t have to be dinner – if dinner is challenging, do it at lunch time, do it as a snack thing. It’s just a way of encouraging families to get the kids in the kitchen and helping the kids to build those skills from an early age.”
According to Zahr, research has shown that kids benefit psychologically from eating with their families. Kids get into less trouble in school, their grades improve and they adapt to social situations more easily.
“There are nutrition benefits, obviously,” Zahr said. “They eat more vegetables and fruits, they eat less fried foods, they drink less pop. But there’s also a lot of communication and mental benefits, so they feel more connected with family members. They talk at the table together, so they feel mentally happier because they feel like they can find support within the family.”
This year the Hands-On Cook-Off spread to Manitoba as well as B.C. There is a multi-generational category with a top prize of $1,000 as well as a youth category and a people’s choice award.
Video submissions are posted on the Better Together BC website (www.bettertogetherbc.ca/contest). You can go online and vote for your favourite or submit your own.
