get cooking, folks!

Hiro told me cooking is good for the noggin so I dug around and managed to find this research.

The Asahi Shimbun (August 2005)
Cooking, researchers say, is good for the brain. A research team led by Ryuta Kawashima, a professor of medicine at Tohoku University, found that a daily stint in the kitchen improves blood flow to the prefrontal cortex, which controls brain functions such as decision-making and calculations.

Although preparing a bowl of spaghetti may not make you a lot smarter, the study shows that cooking speeds up the process when people have to use their noodle. "Regardless of gender or age, cooking on a daily basis will keep the brain in good condition," Kawashima said. "I hope more people will take up cooking for the health of their brains and bodies."

Using an optical topography device, the team, which included researchers from Osaka Gas Co., first observed the real-time brain functions of 15 women aged between 35 and 55 as they cooked. All of them cooked on a daily basis. The researchers found that the prefrontal cortex was active in all stages of cooking, from thinking up a menu to cutting and frying vegetables, and arranging food on plates.

PICTURED: Hiro made Hokkaido white curry...we saw it on TV ads and could not resist!