title: Attitudes and beliefs of Australian adults on reality television cooking programmes and celebrity chefs. Is there cause for concern? Descriptive analysis presented from a consumer survey.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There is evidence suggesting that the nutritional content of recipes promoted by celebrity chefs or television cooking programmes contradict healthy eating guidelines. This study aims to investigate people's attitudes and beliefs about popular television cooking programmes and celebrity chefs.
  
  
  METHODS
  Males and females who watch television cooking programmes were recruited to participate in a self-administered online questionnaire (22-items) which included multiple-choice and rank order questions.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of n = 207 participants undertook the questionnaire with fully completed questionnaires available for n = 150 participants (Males, n = 22; Females, n = 128; aged 38.4 ± 14 years). The majority of respondents watch ≤30 minutes of television cooking programming per day (total responses, n = 153/207; 74%) with almost three-quarters (total responses, n = 130/175; 74%) having attempted a recipe. New cooking ideas (total responses, n = 81/175; 46%) and entertainment (total responses, n = 64/175; 36.5%) were the two main reasons participants gave for watching these programmes. Significantly more respondents believed recipes use excessive amounts of unhealthy fat, sugar or salt (unhealthy: 24%; healthy: 7%; P < 0.0001). Almost half of all respondents (total responses, n = 67/151; 44%) believed these programmes have no impact on their habitual diet.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results suggest television cooking programmes and celebrity chefs are unlikely to impact habitual dietary intake; rather, vicarious viewing and entertainment appear important factors relating to why people watch these programmes. However results generated from the present study are descriptive and subjective and further investigation into the impact of television cooking programmes and celebrity chefs on behavioural change requires attention. Further investigation including a systematic investigation into the dietary quality of recipes promoted by celebrity chefs against national healthy eating benchmarks is also warranted.
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences, University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. Electronic address: anthony.villani@unisa.edu.au.
authors.forename: A M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Villani
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences, University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Egan
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences, University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
authors.forename: J B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Keogh
authors.affiliation: School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences, University of South Australia, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.
authors.forename: P M
authors.initials: PM
authors.lastname: Clifton
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D003258:Consumer Behavior; D003296:Cooking; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004032:Diet / Q000009:adverse effects*; D004034:Diet Surveys; D005197:Famous Persons; D005247:Feeding Behavior; D005260:Female; D005518:Food Preferences; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018673:Nutrition Policy; D010349:Patient Compliance; D013021:South Australia; D013690:Television / Q000639:trends; D000078329:Workforce; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Celebrity chefs; Dietary behaviour; Television cooking programmes