A recent BankRate survey suggests that the average Millennial eats out five times per week — which is pretty often.
Reasons might include that it’s quick, easy, tasty, or that millennials have poor budgeting skills. I’m sure we could go on and on, but what if you flip this finding on its head and ask, why aren’t Millennials cooking at home?
On the one hand, fast food can be cheaper than grocery shopping and preparing a meal for one. And as Food & Wine Points out, “millennials are actually workaholics who have a better work ethic than their baby boomer counterparts… maybe they are too busy trying to make ends meet to cook every night.”
It is also true that American adults aged 18-to-34 are more likely to be living with their parents than living with a spouse or partner in their own household. With this being the case, many millennials still rely on mom or dad to put dinner on the table.
But even if millennials had the time and money, and mom and dad refused to put a meal on the table, many millennials simply don’t know how to cook. This can be directly correlated with the decline of home economics classes in school. Enrollment in Family and Consumer Sciences classes, or “home ec,” has declined almost 40 percent in the last decade.
This trending failure to cook a meal at home has changed American diets, leading to quickly processed and cheaply created foods and resulting in a health crisis. More than half of adults and more than a third of children are overweight or obese. Chronic diseases associated with weight gain, like heart disease and diabetes, are also on the rise.
The left might have chased off home economics because of its reminiscent feel to poodle skirts and the patriarchy, but it’s affecting the behavior, health, and wallets of an entire generation. Home economic used to be considered a science, and a crucial part of preparing students for the real world.
There are many resources for millennials who want to learn how to cook. You can ask parents or grandparents for help, watch YouTube videos or the Food Network Channel, or simply order meal delivery service like Blue Apron or Hello Fresh which include step-by-step recipes.
“Food is meant to be enjoyed, so it’s time people let millennials enjoy it, without the reminders that they’re ‘killing‘ big chains or their budgets in the process,” Food and Wine advises. But when you know what you’re doing in the kitchen, cooking is meant to be enjoyed, too.
If for no other reason than learning to be self-sufficient, millennials should learn how to cook. It might just surprise you how accomplished you feel after your first, delicious meal at home.
