It’s been a long week. You’re exhausted after you get home from work at 5 o’clock. It’s winter time so the sun is already setting. “I’m just too tired to cook anything tonight, let’s just pick something up?” Does this line sound familiar to anybody? I can be the first to say that sometimes this is the reality of my life. Working 40 hours a week on a crazy schedule as a nurse can suck all the motivation out of me at times. I’m sure many of you can relate! Let me share with you the reason why there are benefits to a home cooked meal.
How many times a week do you find yourself or your family cooking a meal at home? 1-2 times a week? 5 or more times a week? Let me know in the comments what the challenges are for you.
Well known Functional Medicine doctors of our time believe something that I certainly can agree with, “You can eat anything you want, just prepare it yourself”.
A growing group of health professionals and intellectuals, notably Harvard Professor Michael Pollan, believe that a major part of the problem with the American food system is that we are no longer physically making the foods that we eat, and the studies back him up.
Published in 2017, the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity reported findings “that Participants who consumed home cooked meals more frequently generally had higher plasma vitamin C, higher fruit and vegetable intakes, and higher MDS and DASH score. They were also less likely to have an overweight BMI, excess percentage body fat, high risk cholesterol ratio, or to be at risk of developing diabetes according to HbA1c level.”
These findings are significant because it shows that physical preparation and contact with the ingredients in the dishes you create matters in the long term. This study explicitly shows us that the time we spend cooking on a day to day basis impacts our risk of heart disease, diabetes, infections, and so many other risk factors related to BMI. When we prepare food it allows us to be aware of each ingredient. This process forces you to think through the nutritional content, rather than grabbing something in a drive through and eating it mindlessly.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5561571/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3639863/
3 tips To start cooking more at home:
- Decide what you want to eat for dinner for the next 3 days.
Seriously, whatever day it is, think ahead. What do you want for dinner tomorrow? Curry, tacos, Italian? What is your body craving? A warm chicken soup or a cooling smoothie? After you decide, write down the ingredients that you’ll need to make that specific dinner. If you don’t have it put it on a list. Planning out meals is important because it allows you to be ready to put together those items quicker and more efficiently. This is by no means saying you need to actually prepare the meal in advance (although that is a huge time saver in the long run), rather just making sure you’re setting yourself up for success. Having ingredients on hand in your pantry and freezer gives you little room to make excuses for going out to dinner
2. Have a baseline stock of essential items for meals!
I have a blog post linked here with a list of the staples that I keep in my house at all times to keep me accountable when it comes to making healthy meals and treats. Understanding that the majority of all our our favorite dishes are based off of a few simple ingredients is going to make you successful in the pursuit of whole health. Making sure you have the tools to build a healthy meal from the ground up can be a game changer when the inevitable question hits at 430 pm.. What am I going to eat for dinner? I have curated a list of some of my favorite staples to keep stocked in my house so that I can be prepared to make the majority of recipes without having to leave the house!
3. Don’t cook alone!
This one can be tough if you live by yourself, but can be even more fun that way too! Invite somebody over to cook a meal with you. Enjoying quality time in the kitchen preparing a meal with the people I love are some of my best memories. I know that cooking isn’t “fun” for everybody, but cooking can be turned into a fun experience by doing it together with another person you like being around. Blast some music, get out the apron and dance around the kitchen while you cook and have fun with it! So what if you added too much off this or that? So what if it doesn’t turn out to be like the precisely staged photographs of the dish present to be on the website or cook book. Take pride in knowing you cooked something healthy for you and your loved ones.
When we change our mindset around what it means to share time together in the kitchen, it starts to shift our focus onto what ingredients make us feel good, what we like to prepare, and what our bodies are asking for. Mindful eating starts in your kitchen! If you have children in their late adolescent or young adult phase, getting them into the kitchen to help learn the building blocks of cooking sets them up for a lifetime of successful healthy eating, and here’s the evidence proving it. “Emerging adult food preparation predicted better dietary quality five years later in the mid-to-late twenties, including higher intakes of fruit, vegetables and dark green/orange vegetables, and less sugar-sweetened beverage and fast-food consumption.” https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3472035/
Bottom line: The evidence shows that cooking at home leads to healthier habits over time! If you have any questions about meal prepping or how to incorporate more home cooking into your daily life I’d love to help. Let me know if these articles were helpful or meaningful to you in the comments below!
