Sudoku with a Spatula— Ep 2/4 of the Series The Kitchen Defence

Turns out your stove is a gym for your brain. In episode 2 of The Kitchen Defence, Ashok and Meera dig into the real neuroscience of cooking — the studies where people who cooked literally improved their memory and executive function. It's planning, timing, multitasking, and improvisation all at once: left brain and right brain firing in unison. Skip the brain-training app. Cook dinner instead

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Hosted by Meera & Ashok Vasudevan

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:03

Okay, here's a quick test for you. Right now you've got the rice on, the onions browning, a timer for the dal that's simmering, and you're about to respond to my question on a calendar conflict. How many things is your brain doing?

SPEAKER_00 0:21

Uh, too many.

SPEAKER_01 0:23

Not really. Here's the thing neuroscientists would call that a near-perfect workout for the brain.

SPEAKER_00 0:31

Welcome back, folks, to Pay the Pharma, not the pharmacy. This is episode two of four in the series we are calling the kitchen defense. I'm Mashok.

SPEAKER_01 0:41

And I'm Ira. If you caught our last episode, it dealt with some troubling statistics about our time in the kitchen. The ways in which modern life has reduced our cooking time to 27 minutes a day and made us sicker. Today is good news. Today, we are going to argue that your stuff is a gym for your brain.

SPEAKER_00 1:03

You know, I love cooking too, Mira. You know that. So I'm not skeptical about the kitchen. But should I be skeptical about the brain part? Why is chopping an onion say brain training?

SPEAKER_01 1:17

Okay, so here it is. There's a part of your brain that handles what scientists call executive function. It's like a project manager up there, planning, sequencing, holding things in working memory, switching between tasks without setting fire to the kitchen.

SPEAKER_00 1:36

That bit that's quietly running the show.

SPEAKER_01 1:39

Exactly. So now if you think about following a recipe, what are you doing? You're reading ahead.

SPEAKER_00 1:44

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 1:45

You're prepping an order, you're timing three things to finish at once, and you're remembering that someone in the family will not touch green beans. That is executive function doing push-ups in a sense.

SPEAKER_00 1:58

Okay, but that's the description, Mira. You promised me science. So did somebody actually measure all this?

SPEAKER_01 2:04

Yeah, they did, and this is the part I love. Researchers built a cooking task. So you're juggling several dishes, setting the table all on a clock. And they used this to test and even train executive function. Now, there's a 2011 study in older adults where structured cooking training produced a short-term boost in executive control. Another 2015 study literally titled this, calling it making a meal of executive functions.

SPEAKER_00 2:38

They titled a serious paper that.

SPEAKER_01 3:17

Completely. The first part is your methodical sequential side, and the improvising is your creative, sensory, pattern reading side. Cooking makes them work together. So you're an artist and a scientist in the same 30 seconds. Take that, Master Chef.

SPEAKER_00 3:34

You know, I'll admit, Mira, when I nail a dish without measuring just by taste, I feel like a genius walking tall the rest of the day.

SPEAKER_01 3:44

True. And that's not insignificant, you know, that's a real feeling. In fact, there's research done on cooking courses showing how cooking improves people's confidence and sense of self-efficacy. The belief that you can handle things. So interestingly, in one cooking course, the nutrition didn't even change much, but the mood and the confidence did.

SPEAKER_00 4:09

So becoming a good cook is basically good for the ego.

SPEAKER_01 4:13

Yeah, in fact. Shamelessly good for the ego. You make something with your hands, people make these happy noises, and you know you did that. So I say there's no app that competes with that feeling.

SPEAKER_00 4:26

And here's where it stops being about getting sharper and starts being about staying ourselves. You know, cooking is now used in get this dementia care. And the reason is really beautiful. Even when other memory fades, procedural memory, the hands knowing the motion can hold on. There's a 12-week brain-activating cooking program that even helped maintain executive function and eased distress in residents with dementia.

SPEAKER_01 5:03

How amazing is that? And you know that better than anyone in a kitchen. The motion outlasts almost everything else.

SPEAKER_00 5:11

Yeah, because it's everything at once. The smell, the movement, the people around the table. You don't have to remember the recipe. Your hands already do.

SPEAKER_01 5:22

Yeah, in a sense, it's like sensory, physical, cognitive, social, all firing together. A mead, in a sense, I think is like a memory you can hold.

SPEAKER_00 5:32

So let me play back the skeptic turn convert um piece here, Mira. Following the recipe trains the project manager. Getting off script trains the artist. Pulling it off feeds our confidence. And the whole ritual may help protect the brain as we age.

SPEAKER_01 5:54

Yeah, and you know, it does all of that while also, and here's a minor detail, feeding you actual nutrients instead of preservatives.

SPEAKER_00 6:03

You know, which is the part that really gets me. We pay for the cooking show on the screen and we outsource the cooking on the stub.

SPEAKER_01 6:12

Gosh, yeah. So let's tackle that issue very specifically in our next episode where we go back a generation to the people who did all of this without a single study to guide them. Our grandmothers, the original master chefs.

SPEAKER_00 6:28

And until then, remember nourishing well being is easier than nourishing ill health. So let's give our brain a workout, and we know it'll actually thank you for thank you for listening to pay the farmer, not the pharmacy.