One Michigan State student says homemade meals can be more rewarding than dinner out and a biologist says it can curb appetites. Photo: Joanna Sanders Bobiash via Flickr.
By Allie Jarrell
Playing with your food is one way to combat obesity. About 25 percent to 29 percent of adults in the Great Lakes region are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention statistics. Playing with their potatoes might just be what the doctor ordered.
It’s time for adults to tap into their inner food-mashing child, according to Carol Deppe, biologist and author of The Resilient Gardner: Food Production and Self-Reliance in Uncertain Times. To maintain healthy lifestyles, Deppe says that purchasing fresh ingredients and taking the time to cook from scratch curbs appetites — not because of what you eat, but how you eat it.
Deppe writes that humans have been hunting and consuming animals for more than 2.5 million years. We mastered fire about 300,000 years ago, and we’ve been using ovens for at least 250,000 years. And more recently, about 12,000 years ago to be exact, we’ve been producing agricultural crops, most of which require some sort of cooking.
We’re obviously meant to manipulate our meals. The question is, are there really any benefits to cooking?
Some people think so. Richard Wrangham, author of Out of the Pan, Into the Fire: How Our Ancestors’ Evolution Depended on What They Ate, says people are supposed to make fresh meals. He writes that “humanity was launched by an ape learning to cook.”
Melissa Gosbee, a junior at Michigan State University living in an apartment for the first time, thinks that cooking more has led to a more nutritious diet.
“Since I’m buying my own food now, I make healthier choices and purchase fresh ingredients to cook with,” Gosbee said. “I don’t want to waste money, so I don’t take my groceries for granted. In the dorms, the food is already prepared for me so I could have whatever I wanted.”
Making a meal can be satiating. Sitting down after slaving away in the kitchen is much more gratifying than going out to dinner. Eating pre-made meals often just encourages overeating because of their convenience.
“When I make meals, I try to make them healthier and more substantial. To make them last longer, I eat smaller portions,” Gosbee said. “When I’m at a restaurant, I just eat what’s in front of me, kind of like the dorms. I just order whatever I want.”
So next time you go to order in, remember that preparing your own Chinese dish might not leave you hungry two hours later.
“Eating pre-made meals often just encourages overeating because of their convenience.”
This is not true to me. I always eat a lot more if I cook. haha~~