Nourishing the Body, Feeding the Soul: Cooking from scratch

Cooking from scratch doesn’t have to be complicated or gourmet. It’s about intention and quality ingredients. Whether you’re simmering soup for one or baking bread for your family, you’re taking part in a universal human tradition of nourishment, creativity, and care. You’re not just feeding your body—you’re feeding your soul.

The next handwork modality that I would like to shine a spotlight on in this series is that of preparing handmade meals. Yes, cooking from scratch is handwork, and nourishes you in more ways than one.

In today’s busy world, cooking from scratch may feel like a lost art. With food delivery apps and pre-packaged meals offering instant convenience, it’s easy to overlook the simple, satisfying act of preparing a meal by hand. But beyond the flavor and nourishment, there’s something much deeper happening when you chop vegetables, knead dough, or simmer a pot of soup.

Cooking from scratch is healthy for your mind, body, and brain. It engages all your senses, grounds you in the present moment, and supports long-term well-being. Here’s a closer look at the mental, physical, and neurological benefits of making your own meals with real non-processed ingredients.

Neurological Benefits: A Workout for Your Brain

Cooking is a multi-sensory experience that requires planning, memory, focus, and coordination—making it a natural way to stimulate neuroplasticity, your brain’s ability to form new neural connections and adapt over time. (See previous posts.)

Key brain benefits:

• Enhances memory and executive function through recipe-following and multitasking

• Engages motor and sensory areas of the brain during chopping, stirring, and tasting

• Promotes cognitive flexibility as you problem-solve and experiment with flavors

• Encourages mindfulness and reduces activity in stress-related brain circuits

Cooking from scratch is one of the most hands-on ways to rewire your brain with focus, joy, and intention.

Mental Health Benefits: A Natural Mood Booster

Cooking offers a sense of agency, creativity, and accomplishment—all essential ingredients for good mental health. Even simple meals provide an opportunity to create something from nothing and take care of your body with intention.

Key mental health benefits:

• Reduces anxiety through rhythmic, repetitive motions (like chopping or kneading)

• Improves mood by releasing dopamine as you create and complete tasks

• Builds self-esteem by mastering new skills and nourishing yourself or others

• Cultivates presence by encouraging you to slow down and engage your senses

Cooking can be especially therapeutic for people experiencing depression, stress, or emotional burnout. It reconnects you with the moment—and your ability to create comfort and joy with your own hands.

Physical Health Benefits: Nourishment From the Ground Up

When you cook from scratch, you're in control of your ingredients. This means fewer ultra-processed foods, artificial additives, and excess sugar—and more whole, nourishing, real foods. The benefits double when you grow your food yourself!

Key physical benefits:

• Supports digestive and immune health through fresh, whole ingredients

• Reduces inflammation by avoiding preservatives and cooking oils linked to health issues

• Promotes hormonal balance by stabilizing blood sugar and reducing processed foods

• Encourages mindful eating and a healthier relationship with food

Cooking also inspires you to move more (standing, lifting, reaching) and connects you to the rhythms of nature and the seasons—both important elements of physical well-being.

Cooking also connects you to family and traditions, culture and geography, history and ritual. For us homeschoolers, cooking checks many boxes such as these, as well as math (doubling or cutting a recipe's measurements, fractions, etc). And it's an act of creativity that doesn't feel like the drudgery of school work.

I love how she noted that the recipe is "Good" : )

Do you have a favorite family recipe that has been handed down through generations? Have you started a new tradition yourself? Family recipes also make great gifts! My niece somehow had my mother in law's recipe for Custard Pie printed on cutting boards (in my mother in law's handwriting!) and gifted them to the family one year for Christmas. This is now a family heirloom that will get handed down to my daughter, along with the wonderful memory of her grandmother.