US-Americans and the Death of Home Cooking

According to the Economic Research Service's Adult Eating & Health Module (EHM) study carried out over two three-year periods (2006-2008 and 2014-2016), US-Americans spend less time eating and drinking as a primary activity (decrease by 5%) than they did ten years ago. The amount of time spent eating as a secondary activity, i.e., eating while engaged in another activity, has not changed much. Education - directly or indirectly - has an impact on the amount of time dedicated to eating. Those with more than a bachelor's degree spent 18% more time eating and drinking as a primary activity than those with less education. The data collected also showed an increase in prepared food purchases (via).

After the pandemic, spending at restaurants and food-service providers (excluding grocery stores) returned to what was perceived as normal before. The percentage of US-Americans spending money on eating out vs cooking and eating at home swelled to 53.2. (via)

Based on time-use surveys carried out in France and the US, Maria Pleszz and Fabrice Etilé come to the conclusion that both people in the US and in France spent about 15 to 20 minutes less time cooking and eating at home in 2010 than they did in 1985, however, for different reasons. In France, the decrease was mainly due to a drop in eating time while the time spent cooking had remained relatively stable. According to the authors, the time drop in France was mainly caused by an increase in smaller households. In the US, the drop was explained with people spending less time making meals (via).

For some Americans, going out to dinner is a treat, planned and budgeted for. For others, it’s just another Tuesday night. And Wednesday. And Thursday. 
And that second group of people is becoming the majority. The number of Americans who enjoy cooking is declining, while the prevalence of food delivery startups, and culinary-centric television shows grows. (via)

The importance or non-impartance of food is surely culture-bound. Compared to other nationas, US-Americans only spend a small portion of their household income on food (via) and, again in comparison, spend little time on cooking (via). The early introduction of fast food as an acceptable alternative to real meals, their consumption portrayed in movies, and TV characters throwing away food easily might be further contributors to the message that food is nothing to think about much.

Eddie Yoon gathered data over two decades. In his first survey, he found three groups of US-Americans: 15% saying the love cooking, 50% saying they hate it and 35% being ambivalent about it. 15 years later the percentages had shifted, not necessarily for the better: 10% loved cooking, 45% hated it, 45% were indifferent or liked to sometimes cook, In other words, 90% are not really fond of cooking (via). Grocery shopping and cooking are shifting to a niche activity (via).

(...) our fondness for Food TV has inspired us to watch more Food TV, and to want to eat more, but hasn’t increased our desire to cook. (via)

Monsiavais et al. (2014) carried out a study on time use. The authors stratified the sample into those who a) spent less than an hour a day on food preparation and cleanup, b) one to two hours a day, and c) more than two hours a day. Those who spent the least amount of time on food preparation were working adults with a strong focus on convenience. Time spent on food preparation positively correlated with diet quality (more vegetables, salads, fruits, and fruit juices). Spending less than an hour a day on food preparation meant spending more money on food outside home and using fast food "restaurants" more often: "The per-person expenditure in the lowest time-use group was >$22/week whereas that in the highest group was approximately $15/week". 

Surveys show that the time US-Americans spend on cooking has decreased substantially since the 1960s, i.e., to an average of 33 minutes per day for food preparation and cleanup. Lack of time is mentioned as one reason but surely only explains part of the situation (Monsiavais et al., 2014).

A survey from 2019 found that 41.43% of US-Americans preferred to spend less than 30 minutes cooking a weeknight meal, 50.17% found it acceptable to spend between 30 and 60 minutes, 8.4% were happy to spend more than an hour on it (via).

- Monsivais, P., Aggarwal, A. & Drewnowski, A. (2014). Time Spent on Home Food Preparation and Indicators of Healthy Eating. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 47(6), 796-802.
- photographs of Marilyn Monroe eating hot dogs with Arthur Miller in New York, 1957, taken by Sam Shaw via