Cooking Is Like Love

I love this quote by Harriet Van Horne: Cooking is like love, it should be entered into with abandon or not at all. Since my second son developed Multiple Food Protein Intolerance (similar to food allergies) shortly after birth, I became very knowledgeable about food and what we put into our bodies. I started reading ingredient lists from restaurants, labels on grocery store food, and questioning waiters at restaurants. What I discovered is that the only way to truly know what we are consuming is to make it myself using whole foods. If it's food, eat it. If it has words you can't pronounce or has been previously processed, is it really food that our body can use?

So, with abandon, I have cooked. I've cooked some really good things, and I've cooked some really bad things. But I just keep cooking. Every morning my youngest gets up and one of the first things out of his 3-year old mouth is, "Mommy, what'chu going to make today?" Sometimes it's just apples and pecans, sometimes it's gluten-free vanilla hazelnut pancakes. But always it's made with love.

It's my belief that cooking can heal you and your loved ones through the mind, body and spirit. Cooking is therapy for the mind--you can cry over a cup of hot tea, take out some anger by chopping veggies, create love through baking or cooking a special dinner. What happens when you are cooking something your mom, dad or grandparents made, especially if you are using their recipe? It provides comfort and peace, which calms your mind and thus your body.

Cooking heals your body by nourishing it with what it needs and giving it energy. Eating whole foods can cure cancer, asthma, diabetes, high blood pressure, eczema, allergies and many other maladies. I recently watched a movie called Simply Raw where 6 people with diabetes went on a completely raw foods, vegan (no meat or dairy) diet and within one week, all but one were completely off ALL of their medications, including their insulin. This is the power of healthy food.

Cooking is spiritual in many ways. When you're preparing food for yourself, friends or family, your love is absorbed by the food. When together you enjoy the food you've prepared, you're creating a memory or a set of memories and long after the food is gone, that energy and those memories stick with you and them. And isn't it a spiritual experience when you bite into that piece of chocolate? Come on, you know it is!!

How does cooking heal you? Do you cook? If not, why not?