Nowadays food has become easier to prepare. Has this change improved the way people live?

As an old adage goes: “You are what you eat”, there are few things that could be more important than food. Consequently, we spend a great deal of time and energy on planning and making our meals. The fact that food preparation has become easier is, in my opinion, a great improvement in that it frees up time that can be spent doing other things. However, this is not the only advantage of recent advancements in the cooking department. Before the development of ready-made foods, electric stoves and microwaves, cooking was a full-time job that was usually carried out by women, who then did not have time to do many other things, including pursuit of a career outside the home. The fact that food has become easier, and thereby faster, to prepare has therefore had a huge impact on women and on their options in life. One could even go so far as to say that it has had a direct impact on the emancipation of women and thus has improved their lives considerably. In addition to the freed up time, there are other advantages of easier food preparation. Having better implements for cooking at our disposition, we are more likely to be creative at the stove and try out new dishes and cuisines. For example, having a food processor in the house allows me to make things like smoothies, pestos and soups that would be hard work to make by hand. As a result, there is more variety on the menu, and there is the added satisfaction of creating interesting dishes that were previously unavailable. To sum up, it is easy to see how advancements in the kitchen department have greatly improved the lives we lead. Not only have the developments freed women from the stove, but they have also made cooking more fun and interesting, bringing new options to the table.