Clean Eating Beats Cooking Fatigue

- A 2024 survey found that cooking fatigue is widespread, with 77% of Americans admitting they are often too tired to cook after work. Mondays are reportedly the most challenging day for home cooking. - The "clean eating" focus on avoiding processed foods generally targets "ultra-processed" items, which are industrial formulations with ingredients not typically used in home cooking, such as preservatives, emulsifiers, and artificial flavors. - Batch cooking and meal prepping can significantly reduce "decision fatigue," the mental exhaustion that comes from making the repetitive choice of what to eat each day. - While cooking can be a source of fatigue, some mental health professionals use culinary art therapy to help people decompress and psychologically detach from work-related stress. - Critics of restrictive "clean eating" diets warn they can lead to nutrient deficiencies, particularly in calcium, iodine, and vitamin B12, if major food groups like dairy or grains are eliminated without careful substitution. - Research suggests a link between time spent on meal preparation and better health outcomes; one study found that individuals who ate out less than once a week lived longer than those who had two or more meals prepared away from home daily. - Beyond saving time, meal planning is an effective strategy for reducing household food waste, as it encourages using ingredients efficiently before they spoil. - Some health professionals express concern that the "clean" label can create a "good vs. bad" food mentality, which in extreme cases can be associated with orthorexia, an unhealthy obsession with eating "pure" or "healthy" food.