Home Cooking

[wosnes]

This was in the New York Times today:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/04/dinin ... =permalink

Even if home cooking is of the fried-chicken-and-mashed-potatoes variety, it rarely produces extreme obesity, said Barry Popkin, a nutritional epidemiologist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “Almost any kind of cooking you can produce in a kitchen is healthier than fast food.†The decline of home cooking worldwide, he said, is an underlying cause of obesity.

“People are eating more, and more often,†Dr. Popkin said. “And the foods that they are consuming almost always replace meals cooked in a kitchen and eaten at a table.†It is difficult to quantify a decline in cooking skills, but many studies show that time in the kitchen has declined steeply since 1965, when American women spent a weekly average of 13 hours cooking. Last month the government of Britain, where obesity is spreading rapidly, passed a law requiring all secondary-school students to attend cooking classes.

I think anything you make is going to be better than anything that is ready-to-eat. It's not just fast food or food consumed at restaurants.

[mjn]

I so agree with this. I love to cook, though, and I know it is becoming a lost skill in our society.

[apomerantz]

I cook, and I totally agree . . . my family is all normal weight even though I think we all have a genetic predisposition toward weight gain. I think that's because we mostly eat at home . . .and not pre-packaged food items. I'm still heavier than I'd like to be . . .but I know I'd be 10x worse if I ate out a lot.

[BrightAngel]

This was in the New York Times today:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/04/dinin ... =permalink

Thanks for sharing the article.
I remain fascinated by The Biggest Loser TV program,
and I very much enjoyed reading some of the drastic methods used.

[wosnes]

I cook, and I totally agree . . . my family is all normal weight even though I think we all have a genetic predisposition toward weight gain. I think that's because we mostly eat at home . . .and not pre-packaged food items. I'm still heavier than I'd like to be . . .but I know I'd be 10x worse if I ate out a lot.

I agree -- and we eat whenever and wherever. We don't stop, sit down and enjoy what we eat. We just shove it in. By "we" I mean people in general. If we stopped and sat down to eat, I think we'd find that it isn't possible to enjoy some of the food!

[Nichole]

I love the New York Times. I learn so much from reading it. This is a great article, thanks for sharing!!