Why Gen Z Is Cooking Less in 2025

Convenience Creates Chaos

With younger generations having complete access to smartphones 24 hours a day, people now have become dependent on restaurants for a majority of their daily meals. This has been occurring ever more since the start of the pandemic a few years ago and now it has become part of the lifestyle of the youth.

Younger people prefer to have food delivered rather than cooking, as only 5% from Baby Boomer generations use phone apps for regular meals compared to 40% of Generation Z consumers.* Cooking can be intimidating to people that have never been spent time with their families preparing food or those that frequently travel and live a normadic lifestyle.

Social media gives viewers the perception that young people are sharing photos of their latest recipes with each other on the major platforms, however the recipes are usually created by younger professionals with culinary art experience. These individuals either spent years beforehand learning how to cook from their home kitchens or studied professionally and use social media as a method to reach a wider audience.

Seeing professionally prepared meals online actually intimidates people, as most people don’t think they have the skills to prepare healthy nutritious meals from their home each night. Children naturally learn from their parents and currently very little cultural knowledge is being passed on to the youth because of all this technology.

If this trend continues, the future generations will become ignorant regarding their cultural heritage and the traditions on how nourishing food was always prepared and consumed from their ancestors. Losing the skillset of cooking will be devastating for society if this convenience lifestyle continues on.

Why Generation Z Is Cooking Less In 2025

In 2024, 20% of Gen Z teens aged 12-19 were diagnosed as clinically obese, which is higher than any generation that proceeded them. This is no surprise as the exposure of unhealthy apps (UberEats, DoorDash, GrubHub) on smartphones has the likelihood to increase overeating by 22% according to a recent study.*

Unhealthy eating habits also stem from the normalization of snacking and snack treats constantly being advertised throughout many healthy communities, including keto, gluten-free, and vegan dieters (see Why Your Diet/Dieting is Irrelevant). Generation Z is known as the snacking and frozen food generation* as they are responsible for the recent uptick in frozen food sales in North America.

Frozen meals obviously isn’t a new concept, as these lab made food products were first introduced in the 1950s* as a futuristic method to prepare food using radiation from microwave technology. The younger generation has bastardized this convenience and regularly heat everything from frozen meals to instant made ultra processed that lack any kind of real nutrients.

Besides less convenience, older generations were encouraged to learn cooking from home as home economics programs were usually part of the public school curriculum in North America. In 1992, 25% of school students took an home economics class, while that number diminished to 5% of students in 2013.*

When students become older adolescents and attend college, it’s common to enroll in a meal plan on campus that typically charges anywhere from $5,000 to $9,000 per tuition year for meals prepared by the cafeteria staff. A majority of these meals are processed meals (chicken nuggets, French fries, pizza, macaroni & cheese, etc.); comfort foods that appeal to children that grew up eating this way.

This explains why working class Generation Z adults are spending their income on food from delivery apps and upholding the value of rising fast food chains (Raising Cane’s, Chic-Fil-A, Starbucks*). These palatable foods are familiar to what they’re used to and it’s even more accessible with today’s technology.

The problem with a majority of convenient food is not only the lack of nutrients that would otherwise keep you satisfied and full, but also the density in calories. Food delivered from apps are often loaded with 1000-1500 calories per meal, making it even easier to overconsume the daily requirement without any exercise. Unless this problem is soon addressed by health experts, this will only continue to get worse.

The Wrap Up

Widespread access to food for everyone in first world countries like North America have been blessing but mostly a curse. The younger generation have a lack of culinary knowledge to prepare their own meals due to a failing education system and older generations that did not see how convenience would impact the children of the future. This not only effects the overall health of society but also the loss of cultural traditions that were passed on by our ancestors.

What else do you want to know?

Why Your Diet Is Irrelevant

How to Prepare A Nutritious Meal

Why Smarter People Are Cooking From Home