The purpose of this post is not to refute the fact that we ought to replace our sponges here and there. Truly we should. And we should wash our hands and our dish towels and be sure to get our cutting boards very clean. The purpose of this post is to remind you of the many many (and much less terrifying reasons) you will not get sick from your kitchen. Not only that, but it will also point out the ways that you will actually benefit from making an appearance in your kitchen every so often, preferably with the intent of making and eating something and not just to admire your utensils. (The other purpose of this post is to make fun of my very own mother, who I'm sure will take this in a wonderful and good natured way, right Mom? Mom???)
Because seriously, how often have you really gotten sick from your kitchen? I have gotten sick approximately 0 times from my kitchen. On the other hand, I have gotten sick approximately 7,832,901 times due to the fact that I send my kids to a public school. Yet there are no regular Yahoo articles on the dangers of elementary education (I'll have to look in crunchier places for warnings about that). I've gotten sick from attending church, from visiting relatives, from going to the store, from exposure to pesky germ-carrying hosts called human beings, and from functioning in a world does not consist of a 6' by 6' bubble. But I have never--no, not once, gotten sick from my kitchen. Or any body else's kitchen either. I am not a slob, but I am not at my counters/sponges/dish clothes/cutting boards/etc. with bleach every three minutes either. Not only have I been spared from death in my own kitchen, but I have also never gotten sick from my mother's kitchen, which was well-used and which was well-used long before there were Yahoo articles telling her that she had to replace her sponge every 37 minutes or risk dread disease. My mother, in fact, was what I would like to call--respectfully, of course--a wee bit lax in the sponge replacement department in general (and a few other kitchen-sterility-related departments we don't need to discuss in detail right here).
So, while I admit that it is humanly possible to get sick from you kitchen, and while I will even warn that it would be dreadful to get something horrible like salmonella and that you should take precautions not to do so, I see far more benefit in the home kitchen than harm. Let's discuss a few of the pro's, shall we.
1. In the kitchen, you generally prepare food. Generally speaking this food is lower in sodium, sugar, and fat than many of the other kitchens or factories who would otherwise be preparing your food for you. Even if you spend your time preparing cookies or cake, your cookies or cakes will have more whole and wholesome ingredients than their store-bought counterparts. Unless, of course you've got some maltodextrin and lecithin hanging about in your spice rack. Or perhaps a bit of liquid sugar. Or some sodium stearoyl. Anyway, you get my point. You know what's in your food and you can put even better things in it if you choose. Which leads us to point #2...
2. The home cook has the power to reduce any of the things the home cook deems unhealthy in his/her foods. If you need to cater your diet to one that is low-sodium or low-fat or low-sugar, you can do so. If you think raw foods are good for you, you can prepare them that way. If you think your eggs and meat should be cooked until they are dark brown at the edges, go for it. Not only do you have complete control over what goes into your food, but you can achieve this for much cheaper. Which brings us to the lovely #3.
3. Food cooked in the home kitchen is generally cheaper. It is darned near always cheaper, though I'll leave a bit of room for an exception or two. You can go to a restaurant (where, frankly, for all you know, the sponges are 17 years old), and pay a booty-load for factory-farmed meat and vegetables that were brought in from Chile. Or you can make the same meal (only much tastier) from grass-fed or humanely raised meat and local and/or organic vegetables for the same price or (usually) much cheaper. Or you can just use the cheap food from your local WhateverMart and really save a chunk of change. It's all up to you, but whether you care about the environment or your health or just the thickness of your own pocketbook, you win. Which leads--can you guess--to #4...
4. Control. We've already discussed how, through cooking at home, you can control your health, but through cooking at home you can control everything else as well. If you want to eat certain types of food, you can. If you want to disinfect your sponges on the hour, you can. Get your food from a source outside your home kitchen and there's no guarantee (at least not any kind of real guarantee) that their sponges/counters/dish towels/aprons/noses are clean. It's also difficult to know where your food came from or what exactly is in it. Which in a round about kind of way leads to #5...
5. If you and your kitchen spend a little time together, you're bound to end up eating there at some point. This is really nice even when you're alone (in fact, sometimes I take special measures to ensure I get a little meal or snack by my lonesome). But most likely you'll wind up eating with some of the significant others in your life. There are plenty of studies these days saying how this will benefit your health, you kids' health, your kids' intelligence, everybody's waistlines, and provide mental stability all around. But I bet if you already know your home kitchen and if you have a dinner hour without the TV on, you probably already know this. No, it's not, like the peaceful family glamour of 1950's programming. My kids complain about the food and argue more than their fair share. Even when they're not complaining about the food or arguing, they tend to be making stunning amounts of noise. (Stunning, I say.) But with that noise, comes laughter and sometimes even a story or emotion shared. It's worth it's weight in organic grass-fed beef. And it's not going to happen if you're so paranoid about the dangers of your home kitchen that you just opt for take-out in front of the TV again. Which doesn't really lead to our bonus reason, but we're going there anyway...
Bonus: Tastier. Spend even a little time regularly in your kitchen and you'll find that the stuff you start to turn out is a lot better than the stuff BurgerHut or Leany Cuisiney can provide.
No comments:
Post a Comment