Kitchen Confidence & Mental Health

For me, the week after Labor Day feels more like the new year than January.

The kids are back to school, the temperatures are cooling, and we begin to settle into our Fall routines with one question in mind:

“What’s for dinner?”

September is the time to move away from free-for-all Summer eating, get organized and start some healthy meal prep.

Healthy meal prep starts with confidence in the kitchen, and new research shows that feeling confident in the kitchen is also good for your mental health!

For the study from Edith Cowen University in Australia , 657 Australian adults took a 7-week healthy cooking class. What happened was not only increased cooking confidence but also improvements in…

⭐ The ability to easily change eating habits

⭐ General health

⭐ Mental health

⭐ Self-reported vitality

Vitality sounds good, right?

It’s easy to get stuck in a rut of grabbing convenience foods or ordering out, but what if you could actually feel HAPPIER by spending some time in the kitchen? 

Preparing whole foods from scratch is a great way to eat more nutritiously dense meals that are closer to nature. We know that’s good for your body, and now we know it’s also good for your mind. 

Need some ideas or recipes to get back to the kitchen? Follow me on Facebook and Instagram for inspiration! I’ll be focusing on healthy Fall meal prep routines over the coming weeks.

Carin Nielsen, MD

Reference: Rees J, Fu SC, Lo J et al. How a 7-Week Food Literacy Cooking Program Affects Cooking Confidence and Mental Health: Findings of a Quasi-Experimental Controlled Intervention Trial. Front Nutrition. 2022.