How Big Is Your Kitchen?
An analysis of the evolution of the kitchen, and how that might contribute to the greater incidence of overweight among Americans. The headline of the article ("Do bigger kitchens equal bigger people?") may seem pretty ridiculous, but there are one or two interesting points in the article that I think make it worth checking out.
Blatner generally admires the trend toward big, open kitchens, which she says foster positive feelings about cooking and discourage people from eating high-calorie takeout or going to restaurants, where portions are almost always too large. But she's not crazy about using the kitchen as an ersatz media center or office space. 'Americans become very mindless when they eat while watching TV, paying the bills, answering the phone, doing e-mails,' she says. 'When we put all those tasks in the middle of the kitchen, with all that food around, we're creating a recipe for a lot of mindless munching.'
My kitchen and my living room are one and the same, but that's because I live in a miniature apartment. I don't have any food though, so that's probably meaningless.
Blatner generally admires the trend toward big, open kitchens, which she says foster positive feelings about cooking and discourage people from eating high-calorie takeout or going to restaurants, where portions are almost always too large. But she's not crazy about using the kitchen as an ersatz media center or office space. 'Americans become very mindless when they eat while watching TV, paying the bills, answering the phone, doing e-mails,' she says. 'When we put all those tasks in the middle of the kitchen, with all that food around, we're creating a recipe for a lot of mindless munching.'
My kitchen and my living room are one and the same, but that's because I live in a miniature apartment. I don't have any food though, so that's probably meaningless.
posted by mo pie at 3:35 PM
6 Comments:
Actually, you could posit the theory that those of us with miniscule kitchens are prone to takeout 'cause there's no place to put the George Forman grill and the CrockPot.
Don't know where I was going with that, though.
Happy Mom's Day to all the Moms (even the Celebrity Moms who lost all their babyweight in less than three months. Hee).
My kitchen is small when I am cooking (like today's Mothers' Day Brunch) but large when I am cleaning (like later today).
It's a miracle kitchen!
littlem, thanks for the nod in that earlier post.
It’s been in studies that families that have meals at home are less likely to be obese so couldn’t having a good kitchen do the opposite. Small kitchen lend themselves to not have the fresh produce out.
I was morbidly obese with my small kitchen and now I am not with the same kitchen. I have to be creative to store my veggies.
The kitchen size doesn’t reflect my weight. I know many people who have huge kitchens and they are not obese.
Good lord. I would KILL for an 80 square foot kitchen. My kitchen is ~20 square feet. Only one person can fit in the space at a time. It actually becomes a hinderance to healthy cooking, since I can't ask my husband to help with prep work.
The funny thing is, houses are getting bigger and bigger kitchens and people are cooking less, instead eating more processed foods and resteraunt meals. The kitchen becomes a place for social snacking, but not a place for serious meal preparation. That's just sad. I wish someone with one of those beautiful generously sized kitchens who eats out all the time would trade kitchens with me. Mine is perfect for the kind of person who only heats up the occasional microwave dinner.
I've lost four pounds since the beginning of the month by exercising every day and cutting my calorie consumption by about 25%. As long as I burn more calories than I eat, the weight comes off. (Setpoint? What setpoint?)
I see their point. When I'm in the kitchen, I do eat: it's true. When I'm upstairs at my computer (which is all the time) I don't think about the food. Until I get hungry...
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