Food Writer Michael Pollan Explains Why Cooking at Home is Much Healthier Than Eating Out

Renowned author, journalist and food activist Michael Pollan explains how cooking at home is much healthier than getting food from the outside in this two-and-a-half minute animated RSA short produced by Damn Fine Media.

If you’ve ever made french fries, you have to wash the potatoes, peel the potatoes, you have to slice the potatoes, you have to fry them in a lot of oil, you have to spatter your entire stovetop, you have to clean up and then you have this pot of oil that you have to get rid of. I mean it’s really difficult and it’s a pain. They’re wonderful, but it’s a pain. And if you make them yourself, you’ll only eat them once every six weeks or two months because it’s too much work. But when you let corporations cook for you, it’s so simple and it’s so inexpensive and they’re really good that you will have them twice a day, as many people in America do. You see that the kinds of food you end up with, these labor-intensive foods and desserts, these special-occasion foods become everyday foods when we let industries cook our food. Eat anything you want, just cook it yourself.

This short was excerpted from a longer RSA talk that Michael gave at at the City University of London.

video by Damn Fine Media

Lori Dorn
Lori Dorn

Lori is a Laughing Squid Contributing Editor based in New York City who has been writing blog posts for over a decade. She also enjoys making jewelry, playing guitar, taking photos and mixing craft cocktails.