There are many necessary life skills people complain that they're not taught in school. Doing your taxes is one people mention a lot in these types of discussions. I'd say that cooking is also a pretty necessary one. Yet, a survey in 2013 revealed that 28% of Americans say they can't cook. 

Granted, some schools around the world include cooking education and classes in their curriculum. The UK, for example, has The Cooking and Nutrition Curriculum. The purpose of these classes, as stated by them, is to teach children "how to cook and apply the principles of nutrition and healthy eating." 

But cooking is not just about making something delicious for yourself. Food literacy includes being informed about nutrition and making healthy diet choices in general. According to Monique Tello, MD, MPH, cooking at home can improve diet quality, prevent obesity and type 2 diabetes, and help people lose weight in general.

In fact, there has been evidence that cooking classes can help patients with type 2 diabetes manage their condition just as well as medication can. When people learn to cook for themselves, they eat less highly processed food and lower their sodium intake. "Hard to believe it, but time in the kitchen can be as valuable as medication for some people with diabetes," Tello writes.

We all eat – that's true for everyone in one way or another. Food is literally the sustenance of life, yet it can also make us pretty sick if we don't eat the right way. But do people actually know how to eat healthy? People say they want to eat healthily, as they opt for products with labels such as "multigrain," "sugar-free," and "organic."

However, most people seriously overestimate the healthiness of their diet. A 2022 study found that the majority of people (85% of the participants) inaccurately assess the quality of their diet. " It's mostly those who perceive their diet as poor who are able to accurately assess their diet," the study's lead author Jessica Thomson, PhD, said.

For years, the main point of reference for a healthy diet was the food pyramid. I'm a '90s baby, but even I grew up thinking grains were the building block of a healthy and nutritious diet. The USDA food pyramid has actually undergone quite a journey: created in 1992 and updated in 2005 to MyPyramid, now it seems to have disappeared completely.

The problem with the original food pyramid was that it had little nuance. Yes, grains are an essential part of a well-rounded diet, but only if they are whole and unrefined. The same goes for fats; the original pyramid urged people to use it "sparingly" and ignored the benefits of plant-based fats, like eating avocado.

The old food pyramid also didn't differentiate between healthy and unhealthy proteins. Fish, poultry, and beans were grouped together with red meat and processed meat. Dairy was also overemphasized as a healthy food group, whereas now we know it can contribute to heart disease and type 2 diabetes.

The pyramid's upgrade, the MyPyramid project, was too vague, according to Harvard's School of Public Health. They emphasized the importance of physical activity, veggies were almost as important as grains, but oils were still demonized and there were no explanations about wholegrains and dairy.

Today, the USDA food pyramid is actually a plate, similar to a pie chart. The biggest chunks are dedicated to vegetables and grains, with foods and protein taking second place. Dairy is off to the side, emphasizing that it has to be low-fat or fat-free.

Harvard University has its own version of the plate. It's similar to USDA's, but they stress the importance of wholegrains, healthy protein, healthy oils, water, and staying active.

In the end, there's no ultimate guide about healthy eating, as health and science journalist Kristen V. Brown writes for Bloomberg. "The truth is that we are still learning about what makes people lose, gain and maintain weight. And as we learn, the guidelines will probably change, too."