How Cooking & Preparing Food Benefits Your Mental Health

For quite a while in the 2000s we were a culture that loved to eat out, but between cost-of-living increases and the pandemic, preparing meals at home has become more popular again.

That’s not a bad thing. Cooking and preparing meals for yourself and your family not only saves you money, it makes you less likely to overeat, encourages you to eat healthier, and – surprise! – is actually good for your mental health.

Food Prep: A Basic Life Skill

Preparing meals and snacks for yourself and your family can be strangely satisfying. If you think about it, it’s one of the first things we need to do regularly once we become independent. There’s nothing like cooking for yourself to make you feel like an adult – preparing healthy meals and snacks for yourself and loved ones can be a huge boost to your self-esteem.

But what do you do when the novelty wears off and grocery shopping, food prep, cooking, and cleanup become just another chore? A great place to start is to view cooking as being good for whole health: mind, body, and spirit.

Prepping Food at Home Encourages Healthy Eating

Even when you go with the best of intentions, having your meals in a restaurant can quickly derail your attempts to eat healthier. Making a list ahead of time to take to the grocery store or before you order fruits online helps you stay accountable to your eating plan for the week or month but eating out adds randomness and temptations you can’t account for ahead of time. After all, it’s harder to say “no” when someone sets a basket of bread down in front of you!

Plus, shopping for your own food – whether you buy a fresh fruit basket or vegetables from a farmer’s market, order a fresh fruit delivery online from a company like Pittman & Davis, or visit a local grocery store – gives you more control of what goes into your food and how it’s prepared.

Cooking at Home Lets You Focus on Foods That are Good for You

You probably already know that a diet high in sugar, carbohydrates, calories, and fat can lead to diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, heart disease, and obesity. But did you know that what we eat directly impacts our brains, and ultimately, our mood as well?

The brain functions best when it is given high quality foods that nourish it, such as those containing vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. Fresh fruits and vegetables (like pears and oranges) and nuts contain supplements that are essential for optimum health. Such foods not only nourish the body, but the brain as well, with properties that contribute to psychological well-being, cognitive processing, and emotional regulation. The best way to take advantage of the different benefits such foods offers is to regularly include a variety of them in your diet, particularly at a time when they are in season (for instance, you could order apples in the fall, Honeybell oranges in December and January, and grapefruit throughout the winter months).

Cooking Helps You Form Connections

The pandemic may have kept us apart, but sharing meals brings us together. Food is meant to be shared, and you don’t have to fix something fancy to enjoy time together over a good meal or a tasty snack. When it comes to food, there are plenty of opportunities for social interaction, whether you’re having a few friends over for dinner, sending fruit gifts to a distant loved one, or stopping in for a quick, light snack after going on a walk together. You can even recruit some family members in joining you to prepare and enjoy a new recipe!

Preparing Food Feeds Your Creativity

Creative activities are proven to boost our mood and overall sense of well-being. But if you’re not into crafts, fear not – cooking counts. Preparing pretty plates made up of colorful ingredients like fruits and vegetables can give you as much satisfaction as knitting a scarf or paining a picture, and makes a great gift, too!

Preparing Food Helps You Maintain a Routine

One thing lends hugely to our sense of well-being and contentment is our ability to get things accomplished. Finishing work tasks and household tasks efficiently and in a timely manner can do wonders for reducing stress and giving us a sense of accomplishment. Obtaining and preparing food for ourselves and our family members is one more way to attain this.

The above are just some of the many great reasons to prepare food at home more and eat out less. Don’t let a lack of confidence stop you – dive in and start preparing food at home and you’ll soon see all kinds of great benefits to your health – including your mental health!

Try some of our recipes!