Have Americans forgotten how to cook" Many lament the fact that Americans spend less time cooking than they did in previous generations. Whereas women spent nearly two hours a day in the kitchen in 1965, they spent a little less than an hour preparing meals in 2016. Men are cooking more than they used to, but still only cook 20 minutes a day.
In a 2014 TED Talk, which has more than 8 million views, British chef and food celebrity Jamie Oliver paces the stage, lecturing the audience about the amount of processed food people in the United States consume. His message: Americans ?need to start passing on cooking skills again.?
Oliver and other food reformers believe that the time is there to cook, if only people would get their priorities straight. Families could be more efficient by cooking in batches on the weekend or investing in time-saving gadgets like the Instant Pot. But telling families to better manage their time is not likely to solve the cooking struggles American families face.
As social scientists who study food, family and health, we embarked on a five-year study to find out what it takes to put a meal on the table. We interviewed a diverse group of 150 mothers of young children and spent over 250 hours observing families as they shopped for groceries, cooked meals and ate them.

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