There’s a reason women being “pregnant and barefoot in the kitchen” is now mocked these days. Women instead are praised for being in the workforce. The health of this nation has gone downhill quickly since women left their homes for the workforce and fast food joints popped up everywhere. Here is a great thread that was written By Casey Means on Twitter.

Of all the unintended consequences of the feminist movement, perhaps the most generationally damaging was the implicit push to outsource the role of a primary food-preparer in family, and the outright disrespect for the role.

Ten points on how this has unfolded and how we need to update our thinking, fast. 👇

1. Feminist messaging made the role of food preparation out to be some kind of second-class subservient role and the embodiment of wasted potential. Purpose was found outside the home.

2. The messaging convinced so many of us that food preparation is a roadblock in the way of reaching our highest purpose (which is squarely at the top of the corporate ladder).

3. I know this because I grew up with this messaging and judged women harshly who labored in the kitchen for their families as sad and a waste of potential.

4. As I have woken up and look around at the increasingly sick, depressed, anxious, overweight, and infertile world around me, I see I was sorely mistaken.

5. The result of the shift in our food culture? Now, 70 percent of meals are eaten out of the home and fewer than 33 percent of families eat together twice per week or more. 93 percent of Americans have metabolic dysfunction. 75 percent are overweight or obese. 30 percent of young people have prediabetes. Close to 40 percent of women report depression.

6. Henry Kissinger said, “When you control the food, you control the nation.” By families giving up control of food management, we have handed over our power and potential to corporations with misaligned incentives (profit >> health) and entered the biochemical trap of chronic disease under the guise of “empowerment.” In putting the value of the dollar above all else, we convinced both men and women that tasks that are not *directly* revenue generating are less than.

7. The point is that that cells need real, unprocessed, organic, fresh food eaten in calm, safe surroundings in order to function properly. [This only happens when women take time in the kitchen to prepare healthy food for their families. *my addition*]

8. And as individuals and a society we need to make that a TOP priority, not an afterthought. This means making different choices than we are making now in how we spend our time and money. So be it.

9. We must respect thoughtful food preparation for what it is: the alchemical creation of the substance (“meals”) that will generate the form and function of the members of the home and be the foundation of mental and physical health and productivity for each member of the household.

10. Thoughtful food preparation is one of the highest ROI investments we can make; one of the greatest gifts we can give to those we love and a key way to honor our country.

Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table.
Psalm 128:3