Salud con Sabor Latino: A culturally sensitive obesity prevention curriculum in an underserved Latino community

Salsa con Sabor Latino is an obesity prevention curriculum that incorporates the traditions and values of the Latino community, recognizing that the family functions as a unit. The four-week curriculum meets twice a week, and includes education and cooking. Key components of the curriculum include: portion size, reading food labels, taking small steps, eating a variety of foods, and the importance of physical activity. Program graduates play a leadership role by co-facilitating the cooking segment, allowing it to be more culturally appropriate. Participants take ownership of the course by getting actively involved in influencing the health status of their community. The final week includes a supermarket tour and celebration potluck. Assets of this program are the transferred learning with participants modifying their lifestyles and modeling this for others in their community network. Goals of the program are to increase: 1) awareness of fitness and nutrition, 2) levels of physical activity, and 3) healthy eating habits. This study was a quasi-experimental pre- and post- test evaluation of nutrition, physical activity and anthropometrics after the intervention with Latinas (n=27). Results indicated an increase in physical activity (t(27) = -5.03, p < .01), and increase in knowledge regarding weight loss t(26) = 2.13, p < .05). Forty-six percent of participants increased their vegetable intake and 22% decreased milk fat consumption. Body Mass Index (BMI) decreased overall, and was approaching statistical significance (t(26) = 1.99, p = .057). Sixty-three percent of participants showed a decrease in BMI.