How does food literacy affect fruit and vegetable consumption among Canadian adolescents?

Background. Adolescents are losing the opportunity to observe and practice food skills since diets are shifting from home prepared meals made from basic ingredients to a diet comprised of ultra-processed foods, resulting in reduced consumption of minimally processed foods such as fruits and vegetables. Evidence suggests that engaging in food preparation during adolescence is associated with ongoing healthy dietary behaviours and food preparation practices into adulthood, thus developing food preparation skills in adolescence may help better support individuals to make health informed food choices. Food literacy represents the interdependent concepts related to the facets influencing dietary practices. The objective of the current study was to examine the association between food literacy and fruit and vegetable consumption (FVC) among Canadian adolescents. Methods. Guided by the food literacy framework developed by Thomas et al. (2019), a secondary analysis was conducted on the Canadian Community Health Survey, Rapid Response on Food Skills (Part 2) – mechanical skills and food conceptualization. The sample population (N=790) included all survey respondents aged 12- 17 years who responded to the survey questions that built the outcome variable: total daily fruit and vegetable consumption. Results. When compared to respondents who report low levels of food skill, respondents who reported high food skill levels in the ability to cook from basic ingredients (OR 1.84, 95% CI 1.12-3.02), freeze vegetables from raw (OR 1.50, 95% CI 1.00-2.24), and to adjust a recipe to make it healthier (OR 3.02, 95% CI 1.29-3.26) were more likely to consume fruits and vegetables five or more times a day. Respondents who came from households where the highest level of household educational attainment was trades had lower odds of consuming fruits and vegetables five or more times a day compared to households where the highest level of educational attainment was a bachelor’s degree or higher (OR 0.34, 95% CI 0.14-0.81). Within the logistic regression model, significant relationships were found between FVC and a respondent’s sex (p=0.04), perceived eating habits (p<0.001), and highest level of household educational attainment (p=0.02). Discussion. Significant relationships between FVC and food literacy were evident in food skills that were multifaceted, requiring that adolescents have the ability to perform a number of basic food skills and reflective of several food literacy attributes. The relationships found between multifaceted food skills and adolescent FVC suggest that food literacy attributes are interconnected and have reciprocal relationships. Conclusion. Dietary behaviours are influenced by multiple factors. Study findings suggest that higher levels of adolescent food literacy, as reflected in multifaceted food skills, have the potential to positively impact their FVC. However, when societal factors are controlled for, food skills were not found to have a significant relationship with adolescent FVC, suggesting that factors outside of the control of the individual have the potential to minimize the influence of individual food literacy characteristics on adolescent FVC. Future food literacy programs should be inclusive of adolescents from all SES and should aim to teach and evaluate food literacy attributes that build more complex food skills.