Thoughts About Cooking, Eating, and Health

As I've been thinking about what I eat for dinner this past week, it hit me that I don't like to cook for myself...it's just not as satisfying. Also, as I've been getting little update emails from the husband this last week, it was a bit satisfying to hear that he hasn't been thrilled with the food that has been in front of him this past week, his comment that he realized that he really misses my cooking and that I've spoiled him a bit, has been bouncing around in my head quite happily. I've also made a point of going for regular walks while I've been alone, and even before that when I began my online job, all with the purpose of slimming down and getting into better shape.

So with my mind on these things, I came across this interesting exerpt on another blog today:

Wanna lose weight? COOK FOOD YOURSELF.

"[Harvard economist David] Cutler and his colleagues ...surveyed cooking patterns across several cultures and found that obesity rates are inversely correlated with the amount of time spent on food preparation. The more time a nation devotes to food preparation at home, the lower its rate of obesity. In fact, the amount of time spent cooking predicts obesity rates more reliably than female participation in the labor force or income. Other research supports the idea that cooking is a better predictor of a healthful diet than social class: a 1992 study in The Journal of the American Dietetic Association found that poor women who routinely cooked were more likely to eat a more healthful diet than well-to-do women who did not. So cooking matters — a lot. Which when you think about it, should come as no surprise. When we let corporations do the cooking, they’re bound to go heavy on sugar, fat and salt; these are three tastes we’re hard-wired to like, which happen to be dirt cheap to add and do a good job masking the shortcomings of processed food. And if you make special-occasion foods cheap and easy enough to eat every day, we will eat them every day. The time and work involved in cooking, as well as the delay in gratification built into the process, served as an important check on our appetite. Now that check is gone, and we’re struggling to deal with the consequences." --Michael Pollan, "Out of the Kitchen, on to the Couch" New York Times Magazine, July 29, 2009.

So cooking for yourself matters...this past week that I've been alone has put that into even better perspective. Saturday and Sunday night's dinners have been semi-failures in the cooking realm, I'll share more on that a little later in the week. But, Sunday morning I did get a baking bug and whipped up two loaves of fresh bread, two loaves of pumpkin bread, and a batch of oat cookies that are sweetened only with bananna and dark chocolate chunks. I have to admit that the time in the kitchen was calming and almost theraputic. I felt the least lonely that I've been in the past week while I was measuring ingredients, turning on the mixer, preparing a pan, kneeding dough, turning on the oven, cleaning flour off of the countertops...even the smell of wonderful things baking in the oven changed how I was feeling.

Just as there is something to be said about growing your food yourself, or in the case of our eggs, raising your food yourself, there is equal value in the time spent preparing a meal that nourishes you. I've struggled in my relationship with food for a long time, knowing how to properly portion amounts onto my plate, knowing when I'm hungry vs. when I'm just bored, or stressed, or sad. My weight as an adult has reflected that struggle.

I am a classic "yo-yo-er", and while I'm not sure that's even a word, I am sure that when I am preparing healthy meals from ingredients I trust, for just myself or to share with others, I have a tendency to slow down and appreciate what is going in. Working from home has helped with this...as a teacher in a traditional brick and mortar building, I was overwhelmed by the pressure to eat a meal and enjoy the company of my colleagues whom I didn't spend time with at any other point in the day, all within a matter of 30 minutes. The bells ringing in a school building are unforgiving...you must move when you hear them, your students are waiting, your administrators may be watching...I don't miss that.

In the last year, I've felt like I've been on a path back to having a healthy relationship with meal times. While I really don't like the experience of "cooking for one" again, I think this past week has made me more sharply aware that I need to continue on that path. I am not at a point where I feel like I've "got it", there are always going to be new challenges...for instance, there is a history of diabetes in mine and the husband's family.

So as I continue to gain understanding, I will periodically continue to share what I've learned. Not because it makes for fascinating reading, I'm not so vain as to think this post is that fantastic, but because I want to mark my journey. I want to pay attention to my relationship with food, and remain conscious of my choices.