When it comes to marriage, it takes work to keep things running smoothly. Couples drift apart, grudges are formed, and suddenly, 5, 10, or 15 years in, you look around and don’t even know the person you’re sharing your life with. That’s why Dr. Nandi recommends cooking with your spouse to keep your marriage spicy. When a marriage is happy, the people in it are happy. And when people are happy, they tend to be healthy. That’s how you take control of your life and become your own health hero.

Couples that Cook Together

It’s a fact that when couples share similar interests, they do more things together. When couples do more things together their relationship tends to be stronger. It doesn’t matter how different you two are as a couple, you both must eat, so cooking is an easy thing to do together. You can take a class, subscribe to an online course, or grab a cookbook and jump into doing it together.

It’s a Sensual Art

From the aroma of rich chocolate to the taste of melted butter on crab legs to the way a perfectly cooked cheesecake feels on your lips, food is sensual. And that makes it a perfect option for couples. Engaging all your senses when you cook together, you get to spend time experimenting with how food tastes, feels, smells, and even looks.

When meals are cooked at home, they are often healthier and more likely to be made from real, wholesome foods. That means you’ll naturally be eating healthier than when you were grabbing take out five nights a week. Even if you’re cooking carb-heavy pasta, when you cook together at home you’re still more likely to make informed food choices. If there are children in your family, you and your partner will be role modeling good cooking—and eating—habits.

If you’re looking for a fun way to improve your relationship that won’t add another to-do to your already long list, consider cooking together. You’re already doing it, so why not take the advice from Ask Dr. Nandi and do it together?

Partha’s Rx

• Make cooking together a priority and treat it as such to see the most benefit to your relationship
• Cooking together allows you to improve couple communication and work toward a common goal.
• Mix it up and create favorite, comforting foods as well as new, exciting recipes
• Be receptive to learning from one another, from how to sear meat to the best way to do the dishes
• Remember, it’s not always about cooking the best meal, but intentionally spending quality time together