What if I told you that you didn’t have to live with chronic headaches? What if your family’s history of heart disease was completely avoidable? What if your marriage issues, your parenting issues, your work issues, could be solved by eating at a table? What if cooking from scratch wasn’t just for your physical health, but it was also for your emotional and spiritual health? That is what I want to communicate today. Many people may think that cooking from scratch is just too time-consuming, but at the end of reading this, I hope you see there are so many blessings that come with cooking meals at home, physically, relationally, and spiritually.
When I was in college, I took a job at Subway thinking it was one of the healthier fast food options (and because I genuinely enjoyed eating there). However, it wasn’t long before I realized that “Eat Fresh” was not so fresh. On my first day, they had me on dishes. I was appalled when they told me to dip the clean dishes in a sanitizing liquid and then not rinse it off. Wouldn’t that stuff be harmful to ingest? Wouldn’t that kill our gut bacteria? It wasn’t long after that that I learned how the meat is mostly fillers, all the dressings had seed oils (even the “olive” oil and vinegar was cut with canola oil), and they microwaved their meatballs in plastic bags. I started to realize that eating anything out of a restaurant would have far more health risks than we think. Outside of their ingredients, you have to think about, do they use chipped teflon pans? Do they spray bleach on their cutting boards without rinsing it off? Even if you pay top dollar to eat at a “healthy” restaurant that doesn’t use seed oils, serves wild caught fish and makes their own sourdough, what other chemicals are you ingesting simply because it is impossible not to use them in an industrial setting?
I don’t mean to say never eat out again, but I want to highlight that there is no substitute for cooking at home. The level of quality that you can have, and the controlling of chemicals, cannot be found in a restaurant. But cooking from scratch is so much more than the health aspects of cooking on cast iron versus teflon, or using lemons to clean your cutting board versus bleach; it is also the emotional aspect of creating a meal from scratch.
Cooking is an art that is as old as time. The Bible describes a meal that was made by Abraham and Sarah for 3 angels in disguise. It says, “So Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said, ‘Quickly, make ready three measures of fine meal; knead it and make cakes.’ And Abraham ran to the herd, took a tender and good calf, gave it to a young man, and he hastened to prepare it. So he took butter and milk and the calf which he had prepared, and set it before them; and he stood by them under the tree as they ate.” Genesis 18:6-8
Aren't you glad we don't have to cook food that much from scratch?! We are so blessed to have pre-butchered meat, automatic flour mills, and prepared cheese. Yet, even with these modern conveniences, many of us struggle to make meals from scratch. It's all too convenient to get fast food or pre-made freezer meals. While we may have saved time, we have lost the blessings that come from cooking a meal in your kitchen with your family and then eating it around a table while having meaningful discussions. I don't want over spiritualize this, but if I was the enemy and I wanted to destroy the family unit, I would make unhealthy, brain-killing food that was super cheap and easy to throw in the microwave and then make meal time consist of sitting in the same room (or even separate rooms), watching a screens and not talking. It's no secret that so many families have become broken or dysfunctional in our country, and it's only getting worse. I truly believe a big anecdote to this rising issue will be to make meals together and eat them together. It's so much fun to branch out in creativity in your kitchen, especially when you can do it with someone you love. Also, most people report that the food tastes much better! I personally don't know anyone who regularly cooks from scratch that would say it's not much more life-giving.
On that note, our Great Life-Giver, Jesus Christ, didn't just come to give us life in the age to come–He came to give us life to our mortal bodies! (Romans 8:11) Therefore when we eat responsibly, with food that God created, He will bless us abundantly, not only with physical health but with spiritual health. There's something about doing the hard thing instead of the easy thing that helps us also be more responsible in our spiritual practices, like daily Bible reading, attending church weekly, serving others and so much more. Also, when we eat better and feel better, we have more mental energy to meditate on the word and be patient with our families. Have you ever gotten “hangry”? It’s that all-too popular excuse for our short temper because “we just need to eat”. This is a direct example of how when we don't take care of ourselves physically, it can cause us to sin. Now we never have an excuse to give into sin, but if you were constantly under-nourished, it would lead to constantly feeling foggy-brained, and in turn constantly feeling irritated. Many people might pray to God to take away these feelings (and they should), but don't know that these feelings can simply be fixed with proper nourishment. If you take care of your nutrition, it will be so much easier to have self-control.
Good physical health can greatly help you have good spiritual health, and the best way to achieve good health is to cook meals from scratch. With that change, you will also find much joy and stronger family relationships. If you start doing it, you'll probably find even more benefits than what I covered. I’ll leave you with this–if you're a beginner, start with cooking at least three meals from scratch a week. If you're already advanced, I would encourage you to try making more meal components from scratch, like bread, pasta sauce, or mayonnaise. Wherever you are in your journey, continue to look to the Author and perfector of our faith, who came to give us life abundantly, not only when we get to Heaven, but for the here and now!