It is heartening to read stories like the one in yesterday’s New York Times about steps some businesses are taking to educate employees about healthy eating as a way of reducing health insurance costs. The article covers a line of healthy food products called Full Yield that Safeway, Stonyfield Farm and others have embraced to take the guesswork out of what constitutes a healthy diet. Sadly, this approach also eliminates the need for cooking, “which so many workers say they have no time for,” according to the article.

The objective of building a healthier workforce should be applauded on many fronts, but I’d like to see cooking education included in this program. It takes no more than 30 minutes to cook a simple, healthy meal. One just has to understand basic cooking techniques and have a rudimentary knowledge about what foods are healthy. I’d like to see Safeway and Stonyfield Farm add this educational component to their employee health programs.