OBJECTIVE: To present the designing and testing of an educational methodology for the promotion of a healthy diet that adopted cooking as its structural axis. METHODS: The theoretical references adopted were: health promotion precepts, critical approach of health education, human right to adequate food and food and nutrition security and reflections about food culture in the contemporary context. The steps of the project were: identification of people that represented the target groups (elementary school teachers, primary healthcare network professionals, school cooks and adolescents); designing and testing the education model in city of Rio de Janeiro; analysis of the collected material and production of education materials. RESULTS: The model proposed and tested consisted in an educative workshop structured in: experiencing cooking; a debate among the participants; a meeting called "Seasoning Concepts", in which the issues that appeared in the previous debate were discussed and an evaluation meeting. Eight educative workshops were carried out involving 116 participants, who indicated that if the education model was able to motivate them with respect to the subject for their personal life and professional activity. CONCLUSION: The model tested in this study represents a methodological innovation in the area of education practices for healthy diet promotion and proved to be feasible. The second stage of the study, which is ongoing, consists in the development of an education method for training multipliers for healthy diet promotion, using the model presented here as one of its education strategies.
feeding; culture; cookery; health promotion; food safety
