Dear Dad,
Do you ever feel like you are massively wasting your time?
The first test I ever had in college was cutting an onion. That’s not a euphemism. The test was literally cutting an onion with proper technique. My major required a cooking class and it felt like a massive waste of time.
Restaurant Management was the course every first semester nutrition undergraduate had to take. We learned the protocols of managing a commercial kitchen and apparently one of the necessary skills was properly dicing onions. Every Tuesday and Thursday I had to change into a chef’s jacket, hat, and rubber shoes and go into “lab” in a classroom kitchen. My football teammates thought it was a hoot that, as a somewhat serious student, I had to dress up like a chef and play kitchen. Luckily, I also had to take other hard sciences like chemistry to preserve my status as an intellectual.
Well, jokes on all of us because as an adult I cut an onion probably 1-2 times per week and NEVER solve a chemical equations. In reality, the time spent in the kitchen as a college freshman was some of the most valuable learning I did as a college student. It sounds crazy but it’s true.
As a society we are losing the ability to cook and it’s destroying our health. People are far more inclined to order take out or cook via the microwave than old fashion pots, pans, and fresh ingredients. The most tangible evidence is the sodium predicament. Sodium is an essential mineral to the functioning of our bodies but in excessive amounts is attributed to high blood pressure and diet related death. Therefore, a general and widely applicable health tip for most Americans is to reduce sodium. Many believe this is accomplished by fewer shakes of the salt shaker. However, salting our food only accounts for roughly 10% of the sodium in our diets.1 The honest solution would be to eat real food cooked at home.
Where does the salt come from? Most of the salt that we eat comes from either processed food or food that we eat at restaurants. In food processing, sodium is used to preserve food by controlling the water activity which limits water binding capacity and microbial growth. This magical property of salt was consequential in ancient times when food was only available periodically and preservation meant survival.
Today, preservation is about shelf life instead of life-life. American’s have traded home cooked meals for frozen “TV diners,” bags of chips instead of fresh fruit and vegetables, and soft drink for water. Each substitution piles on salt, other preservatives, and replaces nutrients. Home cooked meals have declined and our nations health has joined the spiral. By giving up the autonomy to determine how our food is prepared we are subject to the interests of the preparer— which tends to skew toward the cheap methods and addictive substances. Mass amounts of added salt allows packaged food to sit on grocery store shelves and remain “edible” for long periods of time, while also enhancing what’s left of the good flavors and masking the bad ones. Yum…
For similar reasons eating at restaurants is another sure fire way to inadvertently consume too much sodium. Salt makes food tastier. Saltier foods also leave you thirsty for more drinks and food. What a great business concept for restaurants, leaving customers wanting more food and ordering more drinks. Even at finer dining establishments the incentive to pour on the salt and cook in extra oil is usually too great to pass-up. Extra fat, salt, and sugar is the perfect recipe for over consumption and more sales. The only fool proof way to reign in your sodium intake, as well as other unwanted ingredients, and to eat the freshest most wholesomely prepared food is to cook at home.
Beyond monitoring sodium intake, cooking at home with fresh ingredients is the easiest way to consistently eat the best foods. Sodium serves as a helpful proxy to identify lesser known food additives and preservatives likely stuffed in packaged foods. Cooking at home saves money, can be individually tailored to your exact taste buds, and is easier to control the amount of food and quality of its ingredients.
The kitchen can be an intimidating place and I’m thankful I was forced to learn basic cooking skills while in college. A class that seemed to waste time in the moment saved countless minutes, dollars, and calories in the future!
Learn your way around the kitchen and get dicin!
With Love,
JSR