Cooking May Boost Your Physical and Mental Health, Finds Study

According to a recent study, people who cook feel better physically and mentally. Those who participated in an experimental seven-week healthy cooking program felt the benefits for six months. Put on the apron! Because cooking has healing benefits for both your mental and physical health. That’s the finding of a study conducted by researchers at Edith Cowan University (ECU) and other universities in Australia and published in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition. And the positive effects aren’t just about changing your diet; the activity itself increases confidence and satisfaction.

To conduct their study, the researchers were able to take advantage of a partnership between their university and a learn-to-cook program called The Good Foundation’s Jamie’s Ministry of Food initiative. Between 2016 and 2018, 657 participants, two-thirds of whom were overweight, took part in a seven-week program to learn how to cook healthy food. At the same time, the experts “measured the effect of the program on participants’ self-perceived cooking confidence and mental health, as well as their overall satisfaction with cooking and diet-related behaviors.”