Why don't we cook?

Americans don't cook--we eat out. Why? It's easy sure. You can let someone else wait on you, do the shopping, the cooking and the dishes for you. The options for dining out are limitless...fast food, fast casual, full-service and everything in between. Every type of food from American classics to Thai to Italian and beyond are at your finger tips. Convenience is certainly a factor, laziness on our part, nutritional ignorance--they all play into our eagerness to hand over the feeding of our bodies to complete strangers.
When we do eat at home it's often boxed, canned or prepared food with little nutritional value. Boxed and canned foods don't offer a lot in the way of nutritional value and they are almost always laden with artificial preservatives, sodium, calories, fat and fillers. Even products labeled low sodium can contain up to 40% of the recommended daily allotment.
Cooking isn't hard...it's not always easy either, but with a little education, time and motivation you can take charge of what you eat and in that take charge of your health.
Education is the first step...knowing what and how much of what to eat. I love junky fried food more than the average bear, but the great thing about preparing your favorite junk food at home is that you can control everything going into it...often cutting down on empty calories. In general we should eat more vegetables and whole grains than we do meat. Fresh or frozen vegetables are the best options. Meats should be lean and if possible go organic. Go for whole grains...whole wheat bread, long grain brown rice...think outside the box. Fresh fruit is really the only way to go...frozen is great for baking, but not so much for eating plain. Canned fruit is sugary and syrupy and just isn't much good save a few cooking and baking applications.
Time and motivation are a little more difficult to put your finger on. You don't need hours to put together a great meal, but you do have to put in 20-30-40 minutes to get dinner on the table. Motivating yourself can be hard, but by making things that are your favorite or something you've always wanted to try can be a great motivational tool.
Give yourself a chance. You don't have to be a professional chef to make dinner for yourself, your family or your friends. You do have to be willing to try new things to succeed sometimes and to fail others. Cooking is part science, part art and part gut. Trust yourself and your abilities. Don't let the kitchen scare you off.