I’ve always felt that preparing your own food is a good idea, but recently I was reminded of that by two well-known writers.
Making simple foods at home, like guacamole, is easy with just a few ingredients.
The first is Michael Pollan, author of Cooked and noted in Oprah magazine as “the man who changed the way we think about food.” The second person is Mark Hyman, MD, author of many books, including the Blood Sugar Solution Cookbook, but he is also an advocate for healthy eating.
A few weeks ago, I heard Michael Pollan as he was interviewed on one of my favorite radio shows, The Splendid Table, hosted by Lynn Rosetto Kaspar. I often listen to this cooking show on my iPad when I’m working in the kitchen and always come away learning a new thing or two. But hearing Pollan was the catalyst for this blog post.
I Was Raised on Home-Cooked Meals
Obviously, I think cooking your own food is terribly important and that’s why I have devoted the past 20 years to writing cookbooks so gluten-free people can prepare their own (safe) food at home. I was raised on a farm where my mother prepared every single meal; there was no fast food (unless you count the hotdog sandwiches we carried in our lunchboxes to our one-room country schoolhouse because there was no school lunch program back then). We raised our own cattle and pigs so fresh meat was standard fare, although I still have a hard time eating lamb because we had a pet lamb named “Baa-Baa.” And, I raised my son with home-cooked meals—even after working 12 hour days—because that’s how I was raised.
So, you see where I’m coming from and why cooking at home is important to me. I am afraid that cooking has become a spectator sport. We’re willing to watch hours of Food Network/Cooking Channel shows, but we’re loathe to spend time in our own kitchens. I think that is sad.
Now, what do these two thought-leaders have to say about cooking at home? Read on …..
Michael Pollan: Cooking is Calming, Grounding, and Meditative
According to Michael Pollan, research shows that Americans spend today, on average, about half the time preparing food that they did in the 1960’s. But part of it is how we’ve come to think about leisure. For some reason, he says, we’ve defined it as passive consumption, and we’ve learned to think of cooking as hard work.
But, it’s not hard. Pollan says that even a novice can make food that’s better than a frozen dinner. And cooking is the best thing you can do for the health and well-being of your family and friends. He has now come to view the aspects of food preparation that used to seem like a chore as “calming, grounding, and sometimes even meditative,” and he says, “Cooking is how we transform nature into culture.” He describes it as a “really profound thing—a spiritual thing” that transcends the notion that food preparation is drudgery.
When he was interviewed on Splendid Table, Pollan said the agro-industrial food system has deliberately denigrated cooking because corporations very much want to take over this work…and make you pay them to prepare food for you. Manufacturers have portrayed cooking as drudgery rather than a creative outlet and brainwashed us into thinking that fast food, TV dinners, and food that just needs microwaving is the solution.
Mark Hyman: Take Back Your Kitchen and Cook Real Food
Mark Hyman says we’ve now raised the second generation of Americans who don’t know how to cook. The average child in America doesn’t know where food comes from and thinks cooking means microwaving. They perceive food as “growing” in boxes, plastic bags, and cans. He agrees with Pollan by saying that we’ve been brainwashed into thinking that cooking real food is too hard or takes too long and that we should rely on convenience food.
Hyman fears that our reliance on convenience food—with all of its fat, sugar, and sodium—is not healthy and we are paying for this convenience with our health. In fact, he says real food is the best investment in your health.
Speaking of dollars, did you know that Americans spend only about 9 percent of each dollar on food, compared to 20 percent in Europe. (I know that figure is even higher in other countries, such as Japan.) So, we are fortunate to have access to food that is relatively less expensive than elsewhere.
In Conclusion: Get in the Kitchen
So, that’s my view on cooking at home. If you want to know more about how Michael Pollan and Mark Hyman feel about it, get their books—they have each authored several. In the meantime, get out your gluten-free cookbook (mine or someone else’s) and start cooking your own food. Your body will thank you with better health and you just might learn to like cooking.
