Eating outside foods has become a trend in modern society. The reason is many consider cooking as a highly time-consuming activity. But if you are looking to give your health a boost, then you may consider cooking as a hobby instead.
Now you are probably wondering:
“Why is cooking as a hobby good? or Is cooking a great hobby?”
Well, today I am going to clear that for you. Cooking helps our mind to relax from the daily routine work. Cooking supports in your life to follow good food hygiene, healthy food habits and ensuring nutrition in every meal that you consume.
It is true that in today’s busy life not everyone is going to be an expert cook. You need enough time and patience to start cooking – These are the two things many of us lack these days. However, for cooking enthusiast it can make an excellent hobby. There are several benefits in terms of health and nutrition, apart from the other fringe benefits. Today I’d like to explore just a few.
So, all you need to do is spend a few minutes reading these 7 things and how each one makes more sense in developing cooking as a hobby.
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'7 benefits of cooking as a hobby [simple facts]'
See if this cooking quotes interests you.
Cooking Quotes
If you can organize your kitchen, you can organize your life. – Louis Parrish
A recipe has no soul, you as the cook must bring soul to the recipe. – Thomas Keller
If there’s a recipe for success in life, it starts with picking the right ingredients. Tweet this saying now.
Until I discovered cooking, I was never really interested in anything. – Julia Child
Before I dive into the main topic
What are hobbies?
They are activities done regularly in one's leisure time for pleasure.
synonyms:pastime, leisure activity, leisure pursuit, leisure interest, amateur interest, sideline, diversion, avocation, enthusiasm, recreation, relaxation, entertainment, amusement; informal thing.
Developing hobbies and leisure activities are important to the Young and Elderly. Not only are hobbies fun, but they can recharge your mind and body; assist one in staying healthy, active, and happy. It is a proven fact that engaging in healthy activities that we derive pleasure can help delay-aging signs and the pleasure of participating can lead to positive feelings that can help prevent us from some illnesses.
Hobbies and leisure activities can be beneficial in a variety of ways. Look at some of these beneficial factors and if you want to develop a new one select this hobby list.
Benefits of having a hobby
- Stress Reduction: Most people pursue hobbies because they enjoy them and many think that they help relieve stress in their lives. Some of these ideas may also help create a calm atmosphere to reduce stress. For example Cooking or baking, gardening, taking a walk, singing, reading, or playing a musical instrument, studying your favorite collections like stamps, coins, or any other antiques.
- Improve Concentration: Helps in focusing on the result rather than wavering on issues that have created some bitter moments in life. It helps you forget these bitter moments and finally reducing stress. Most hobbies also offer mental stimulation in reference to completing the task.
- Enhance your Self Esteem: Mainly hobbies involving a group of friends that make a team can improve socializing and building up your self-esteem. Some of them are Chess, Cards, and Caroms, etc. Where there is collective participation of more than one person is a very healthy pastime.
- Good quality Sleep: Engaging yourself in productive activities during the daytime helps you get a good night’s undisturbed sleep and waking up fresh the next day. You are energetic and feel free internally to start the day.
Therefore, it is better to have a pastime that can kill your time and keep you engaged throughout the day. Do you have a hobby? I mean that kind of activity, which prevents you from idling and generate weird thoughts and ideas that can damage you and the people around you. Take some time to pick up from this list of hobbies and develop it to keep you engaged.
In this article, I will discuss how cooking as a hobby benefits. In my opinion for both male and female cooking as a hobby is the best activity because it is very useful in life.
I developed cooking as a hobby when I was studying engineering. I used to stay in a hostel. At times when I was getting bored of eating the same kind of food served in the mess, I used to prepare my own food.
I do very simple cooking for a change and found the joy of cooking is something that cannot be expressed by words but need to be experienced. This is how I developed a liking for cooking. Look at some of the benefits of cooking yourself.
So let us see
How
cooking as a hobby benefits
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Being a hobby, apart from the benefits gained as mentioned in the previous paragraphs, treating cooking as a hobby, can reap also other important benefits.
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- Cooking helps reduce stress
- Cooking at home helps us stay healthy
- You can keep fats to a minimum: Select lean meat, low-fat dairy products and avoid highly processed foods that contain hidden fats. Relying on nuts, fish, olive is healthy choices due to the presence of long-chained fatty acids and also contain essential nutrients.
- You can start low-fat cooking: the best way to fry vegetables is to cook the vegetables in a pressure cooker or microwave oven using the liquids present in the vegetables and then putting them in a frying pan followed by either spraying oil or using a pastry brush to apply oil in the frying pan.
- You can shop on your own: This helps carefully selecting the low-fat versions of foods. You can also avoid purchase fast foods; chips, crisps, processed meats, pastries and pies, which all contain large amounts of fat and salt.
- You can control the salt intake: Add salt to the cooking at the end of cooking, choose fresh or frozen vegetables instead of canned vegetables since they are preserved in brine, avoid buying butter, cheese or margarine since they contain a higher percentage of salt, instead use low salt versions.
- You can take steps to retain the natural nutrients in the vegetables: Scrub the vegetables instead of peeling them since most of the nutrients are present near the skin, steam the vegetables instead of boiling them.
- Use the herbs carefully: Herbs are added to add flavor to the food but also contain health-protective phytoestrogens. So it is better to add them during the last few minutes before the end of cooking to prevent damage to phytonutrients.
- Cooking enhances knowledge of food preparation
- Storing foods the right way. Like keeping cold foods in cold temperatures and preserving them in airtight containers.
- Use of fresh ingredients. Old spices and condiments that have developed fungus on them should be avoided.
- Storing vegetables in the correct compartment in the refrigerator (crisper). The temperature in the refrigerator varies from the freezer to the crisper. Accordingly, place the items in the right section.
- Avoid the peeling of vegetables. Instead of scraping and rubbing is the best practice. Most of the vitamins and minerals are present very close to the skin so peeling might destroy valuable nutrition.
- Steam, microwave, grilling is a good practice than boiling. Nutrients in vegetables (like folates, thiamine, and vitamin C) known as water-soluble vitamins, dissolve in water. The longer vegetables are immersed in water, a high amount of the vitamins seep out from the vegetables. The loss is even higher when these vegetables are heated, such as during boiling.
- Cut vegetables should not be exposed to air for a long time. Oxidation is the enemy. Also, cut vegetables should not be stored in refrigerators. So, cook them immediately.
- Cooking helps maintain good food hygiene
- Wash all the fruits and vegetables purchased before eating. Fruits and vegetables can come in contact with insects and rodents while transit, so pay special attention to thoroughly wash in running water before use.
- Store raw foods and cooked foods separately. Storing them together can lead to cross-contamination. Ensure that raw foods like meat, eggs, and poultry are washed and sealed in separate bags and stored away from the ready to eat foods in the refrigerator.
- Wash your hands often with soap while handling food. This is to ensure that your hands are not contaminated while handling raw foods or after washing utensils.
- The right temperature used for cooking. Foods consumed raw or half-cooked is harmful, especially the non-vegetarian varieties. Indigestions, the formation of gas and severe stomach disorders are the possible effects.
- If you are unsure about the quality of food, discard them. A food when stored outside for a long time after cooking develops fungi which are not visible by the naked eye. Consuming such foods can cause allergies. Never store food for more than four hours after cooking. Consume it completely or discard the leftovers.
- Keep track of the expiry dates mentioned on the packing. It is harmful to use if the expiry dates are over. Such foods can cause adverse reactions when used.
- Cooking helps increase family attachment
- Strengthening family custom: Most nuclear families have forgotten their family traditional cooking procedures, so preparing family special recipes on certain festival occasions together is a great way of maintaining a long-established custom or belief that has been passed on from one generation to another. The younger generation will be in a position to appreciate the importance of the festival occasions.
- Providing an experience for children to practice cooking skills: Kids get an opportunity to understand prepare a tasty dish right from scratch, after referring recipes, understanding the amount of ingredients, and following the right procedures to process foods.
- Encouraging children to learn important life skills: Kids need to be given a chance to learn about healthy eating involving nutrition, foods safety, and hygiene so that they do not have to depend on others to cook their own foods when they start leading a separate family.
- Boosting a kid’s self-esteem: Children are very sensitive. The moment they complete successfully preparing a delicious dish gives them a feeling of deep pleasure derived from their own achievement. They derive immense enthusiasm to learn more about cooking.
- Wash hands before preparing food using warm water and soap. Using disposable towels for hand drying since germs can spread using terry towels.
- Understand the entire recipe thoroughly and ensuring the availability of all ingredients in the right proportion before the start.
- Children have to be taught how to observe strict safety in operating all the cooking equipment.
- Finally, they need to also know how to clean up after the cooking process is over. This includes the cooking equipment, the utensils, and the kitchen working area.
- Home cooking is very cost-effective
- Maintain a good inventory of non-perishable items to last for one to two months.
- Plan your menu for the next week. These help to ensure the stock of non-perishable items, and also plan daily shop for perishable items.
- Maintain a note pad in the kitchen to quickly note down items that are less in stock and need replenishment. This will be your shopping list.
- Do not shop on an empty stomach.
- Stick to your shopping list and do not purchase anything out of the list.
- Compare the prices of different brands for any given product and buy the one that is economical.
- Check for offers to get the advantage of the price.
- Frozen vegetables are a good choice because they are cleaned, peeled so there is no waste. Normally here all vegetables are frozen immediately after picked and so their nutrition values are not reduced and have good flavor.
- Fresh fruits and vegetables are cheaper at greengrocery.
- Preferably buy seasonal fruits and vegetables.
- Avoid eating ready-made foods since they can be expensive, and they can contain an excessive amount of hidden fat/salt/sugar. Always prefer home-cooked food as they are more nutritious and less expensive.
- Avoid meat and meat products instead increase the number of vegetables, beans, and pulses. They are a cheap and healthy solution to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
- Sauces, especially tomatoes sauces can be prepared in the house instead of buying ready-made ones because they contain excess salt and preservatives.
- Consume starchy foods as they are cheap and nutritious.
- Please check use-by dates before buying and do not overstock items with shorter use-by dates with lesser consumption.
- Minimize your cooking time by cooking extra once. You can refrigerate the leftovers for further use in the evenings or afternoons. Please note, do not store processed foods for more than one day. There are chances that they might get stale.
- Make your simple breakfast/lunch and carry them to work. This is a better way to save money and is healthy too.
- Rely on filtered water from home instead of buying packaged mineral waters.
- Cooking helps improve our moods
The reason why cooking reduces stress is that it helps prepare food in a mindfulway. It is one of the key principles of mindful eating. This concept was derived from the Buddist psychological traditions. This can be applied to various activities. It works.
Being aware of the nutritional values in your food and connecting with your food through the process of preparing it builds total mindfulness. You become more aware of what you consume when you prepare your own food. Mindful cooking is in a way imparting healing touch and love into the food. Finally, the same is transferred to you and your family.
I do not know about you, but I was a very busy professional organizing meeting, monitoring factory performances, working out plans for improvement and many other functions related to the overall improvement of efficiencies. All these kept me very stressful and I could feel that I was mentally drained and exhausted.
I sometimes used to spend sleepless nights thinking about my work. What should be my strategy for the next day? Finally, I used to get up the next day with a heavy head.
Therefore, in order to come out from this mental trauma, I decided to keep myself occupied in some activity that can shift my thoughts to something very creative.
So, I started giving more importance to cooking and also joining my wife in the kitchen during dinner preparation. I used to take the lead role in deciding the menu and the nutritional benefits my family could derive out of it. I used to move around the kitchen briskly doing one activity after another. When performing this physical activity I could feel that my office stress which I had carried home vanish and settle down with a very happy mood for the dinner.
Science has also proved that the emotional benefits of cooking are many.There are many programs around the world that help people complaining about mood disorders and other mental issues recommend to take up cooking as part of their treatment. It is known as therapeutic cooking. You can practice them in your home too with simple recipes.
The reason why cooking helps reduce your stress level and makes you happy is that it stimulates all your senses. The beautiful aroma, the change of cooking stages, the sound produced during cooking (egg beating, dough mixing, etc) stimulates your senses and creates more endorphins. They are called as "feel-good" chemicals because they are a reliever of stress and boost happiness.
Another reason is that by cooking you are focused on the recipe and you forget to ruminate over your problems.
This is a perfect activity that will draw your whole attention. When you watch your soup boil and then simmer at medium-low heat, the delicious aroma spreading all-round the kitchen makes you forget all your disturbing thoughts. The whole process has an meditative or soothing effect on you leading to concentration and focus on the end result.
Many of us conveniently ignore the basic nutritional requirement for a healthy lifestyle. It is surely a very tedious and painstaking work of assessing what is good and what is not good for leading a healthy lifestyle. Therefore, we choose the easy choice and that is to rely on outside foods.
Relying on outside foods has an impact on our health because most of them are not prepared considering the daily nutrition requirement to stay healthy. These diets are not balanced or nutritious. Insufficient vitamins and minerals may make you less energetic and can also result in premature aging symptoms. The result of this is depleting stem cells in the body making you susceptible to illness.
Eating outside (served in restaurants and fast-food parlors) foods cannot guarantee you any nutrition values. In addition, to make their foods tastier they liberally use sugar, sodium, carbohydrates, fats, artificial flavors, and artificial preservatives. Whereas home-cooked foods are prepared by you considering correct levels of the above ingredients. Therefore, the food you consume is under your control. Good health is ensured.
Generally, when a person relies on foods that require minimal preparation or food prepared by restaurants for them, such a person will become increasingly disconnected from food preparation. Since good nutrition plays a major role in health, food preparation and cooking skills have a direct impact on the wellbeing and health of a person.
Eating the right kind of foods, the right quantity at the right time is normally the mantra nutritionists talk. All this is possible when you can start cooking at home. You can try out new healthy recipes, learning more about food and its nutritional values and preparing a well-balanced eating plan. This way, you can ensure you and your family to lead a healthy lifestyle.
A study in ‘Public Health Nutrition’ researched and found that people who relied on home cooking 6 to 7 times a week consumed foods that are healthier than those who did not prepare their own meals as often.
When you start cooking at home you can take control of the following:-
You can add certain supplements along with your food in order to get the daily nourishment. You can also follow certain eating habits to maintain a healthy lifestyle.
According to various researches people who are used to eat home-cooked foods regularly tend to be happier and healthier. They normally cut down sugar and processed foods, to maintain higher energy levels and good mental health. Relying on home-cooked meals five or more days a week also helps to live a longer healthier life.
Cooking regularly can improve your cooking skills, helping you prepare very tasty and nutritious food, whereas you miss this opportunity if you frequently rely on outside readymade foods. Nutritious food can heal, whereas non-nutritious food causes sickness or even inflict pain, allergies. Therefore, it is very essential to know about the food you consume.
Cooking your own meals can teach you what foods are high or low in certain vitamins, minerals, and fibers. You can learn to combine nutritious foods to satisfy your taste.
Cooking is not difficult it is simple and interesting. You do not have to join any school to learn cooking, try with the simplest recipes. Repeat several times then you can master them.
There is a direct impact of the preparation and cooking on the nutritional values of vegetables and legumes. Normally, steaming, roasting, broiling, sauteing, microwave and pressure cooking are generally used for food preparation. But, not all types of cooking are good for all vegetables and legumes.
Some tips to know about how to preserve the nutrition of vegetables while cooking.
For healthy eating it is absolutely important to prepare food carefully to preserve its nutrients and prevent disease, as well as being aware of how foods are produced and stored.Nutritious food can heal but a non-nutritious food can cause sickness and diseases.
You very well know that improper hygiene can lead to various diseases. Improper hygiene can cause foodborne illness attacking us through deadly germs. Foodborne diseases are caused due to various reasons like eating outside food, bad food preparation, serving and storage at home. You cannot check or stop the bad processes followed in restaurants, so it is better to avoid them, but you can definitely do something to ensure safe cooking at home. This prevents allergies and sensitiveness.
Some of the tips that help good food hygiene while cooking.
Paying close attention to good food hygiene helps avoid the spread of bacteria when cooking, preparing, and storing food. Foods that are not washed, cooked, stored and handled correctly can cause several food borne diseases.
Cooking at home establishes very good bondage within the family. Preparing favorite family menus and eating together develops healthy eating habits for your children. This becomes a very useful tool to prepare your children to know the importance of home cooking rather than relying on restaurants or parlors with friends.
The entire family joining together at the dining table is associated with fewer psychological problems, the higher performance of the children in studies and good family bondage. There are various studies conducted by different universities that support this concept.
Cooking together in the family has many benefits like
While learning how to cook in the kitchen children also learn basic habits like.
Childhood obesity is spreading and is a great problem of epidemic now. So, if you want your children to learn healthy eating habits, you must teach them at an early age to select wise eating choices. Children are more inquisitive and quickly learn your family’s food preferences and their eating habits. By taking pains to create an example of the correct healthy eating system, you are sowing the seeds of right healthy eating habits to your children which will form a lasting habit in them.
It is wiser to cook your own food than eating outside. Just imagine the cost that you have to pay to eat some food outside whose nutritional values, safety, hygiene and the extent of incorrect levels of ingredients used are unknown. Obviously, comparing the cost, cooking at home is very cheap. You can save a lot and free yourself from excessive money stress.
By some clear planning, you can do many things to make cooking at home much more cost-effective and off course healthier too. By doing so, you might even enjoy cooking at home and also the food you make.
All that you need to do is you need to organize your cooking activities yourself. You need to look into all aspects right from stocking, shopping to final preparation of food to cut down costs. This is not at all difficult.
I would like to share a few points on how to cut down cooking cost, and still make them healthier. I do most of the cooking at home and have managed to save a lot of money. I always make small changes once but consistently applying this every time.
Home tips
Shopping tips
Cooking tips
Office tips
Therefore, I encourage people to take up cooking as a hobby and it is the only hobby that can reap multiple benefits. Most people consider cooking as a hobby, which is very cumbersome, and time-consuming. Instead, they prefer to spend their time glued in front of the idiot box (TV) and after having wasted most of their time there, hastily rush to the kitchen to make some quick cooking. In the process, they lose all the above benefits. I suggest that you try it sincerely and experience the joy of cooking. Start with preparing a cup of tea/coffee. You will really enjoy. In order to lead a healthy lifestyle for you and your family, develop cooking as a hobby amongst other hobbies that you have already developed.
When we eat at a restaurant, we pay for not only the food but also the costs of running that business. The lights, the water, the building, and the staff — in addition to the meal we are eating. The same goes for pre-made or frozen meals at grocery stores. So, home cooking is very cost effective.
Psychologists have found that when we perform some activity and we get a reward at the end makes us pleasurable and improves our mood. This further encourages us to perform new activities that have total positive effects. Therefore, by cooking a meal for yourself or for someone you get rewarded which is the tasty food (you have prepared) and the feeling, that you have done something meaningful.
This process of performing an activity proactively even if you are hesitant to start with, helps you come out of the inactive state is called behavioral activation (BA). This is a psychology tool used by psychologists and has been proved to be effective in making life meaningful and pleasurable again.
Cooking or baking is now an effective tool to cure stress or depression. Science has proved small creative tasks that end up with a meaningful reward might make people feel better in stressful daily life.
Conclusion about benefits of cooking
Amongst other hobbies cooking is a great hobby especially when you practice it sincerely. You can experience mindfulness; understand the nutritional value of foods that can help you maintain good health and many more. Try to spend a day in a week to prepare simple dishes that do not need more cooking time, like sandwiches, bread toasts, etc.
The activity cooking was done by our ancestors who roasted meat of wild animals and birds to satisfy their hunger. Today, cooking is done not only to satisfy our hunger but also to satisfy our taste buds that are craving for tasty delicacies. This is why a number of ingredients like spices, herbs, and additives were found out to make our foods tastier. And, now cooking is considered as a cognitive skill that is just not about controlling the cooking heat, but the mental capacity to resist the temptation to scoff the ingredients, understanding the cooking transformation process, a great deal of patience, and memory power.
You need to develop an inclination towards cooking which comes out of practice. Eventually, you can master the skill which will be useful at any time of your life. I have witnessed it and now it makes my life easier as I do not have to depend on others.
Over to you now
Right now, I wanted you to do one thing:
Specifically, I want you to leave a comment describing your opinion regarding cooking as a hobby
For example:
- How have you felt after cooking a good meal yourself for your family?
- Have you anytime compared the cost of having dinner in a restaurant and what costs you if you cooked all by yourself?
- Any other observation and experiences you have had after you have done your own cooking. I’ll be glad to learn from you and add them as an update to this blog.
So, leave a comment.
Refer to our other healthy living practices.
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