Why you should learn to cook - 4 real benefits you'll notice right away (2024)

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Why you should learn to cook - 4 real benefits you'll notice right away? ›

Learning to cook isn't just about preparing tasty meals, it's also about gaining another level of independence in your life. Knowing how to cook will give you the ability to whip up a meal whenever you need it without relying on takeout or frozen dinners.

Learning to cook isn't just about preparing tasty meals, it's also about gaining another level of independence in your life. Knowing how to cook will give you the ability to whip up a meal whenever you need it without relying on takeout or frozen dinners.

Cooking food improves digestion and increases the absorption of many nutrients ( 1 , 2 ). For example, the protein in cooked eggs is 180% more digestible than that of raw eggs ( 3 ).

Combining many nutritional elements in a single dish saves prep and cooking time, is easier to store and clean up after, and is often every bit as tasty as something more complex and fancy.

When you prepare your own meals, you have more control over the ingredients. By cooking for yourself, you can ensure that you and your family eat fresh, wholesome meals. This can help you to look and feel healthier, boost your energy, stabilize your weight and mood, and improve your sleep and resilience to stress.

All in all, cooking is an incredibly important skill to have. It can make you more independent, and on top of cutting down your weekly costs on food, it can allow you to cook more of what you actually want to eat instead of what's just lying around. It's truly a skill everyone should seek to learn and hone.

Cooking had profound evolutionary effects because it increased food efficiency, which allowed human ancestors to spend less time foraging, chewing, and digesting. H. erectus developed a smaller, more efficient digestive tract, which freed up energy to enable larger brain growth.

What are the benefits of cooking for one? ›

Benefits of cooking for one

Cooking for yourself gives you greater control over the ingredients in your meals, enabling you to cut down on the additives and calories often loaded into takeout and convenience food.

Creative. Cooking is a highly creative hobby to take up. You can create your own dishes, tweak well known recipes, blend your favourite cuisines, your creative juices will be in full flow. You can pick your own ingredients and do as you please, you can, mash, blend, boil, roast, dice, slice them, it's your choice.

Eating cooked food allows us to digest more easily than eating raw food. It kills the germs attached to the food items and makes it fit for eating. Cooking increases the taste of food.

“Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat” by Samin Nosrat

Samin Nosrat is a world-renowned chef and the autho to a superb New York Times Bestselling, James Beard Award-winning cookbook titled Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat: Mastering the Elements of Good Cooking. On her website, Ciao Samin, you can find her amazing resources that she's created.

It's proven to be healthier

Some studies suggest that people who cook more often, rather than get take-out, have an overall healthier diet. These studies also show that restaurant meals typically contain higher amounts of sodium, saturated fat, total fat, and overall calories than home-cooked meals.

Inadequate cooking is a common cause of food poisoning. Cross-contamination from raw to cooked foods, such as from hands, chopping boards or utensils, can also cause food poisoning. Most foods, especially meat, poultry, fish and eggs, should be cooked thoroughly to kill most types of food poisoning bacteria.