Look at how much fun this is!

Good news for those of us who like to make messes in the kitchen on a regular basis: a new study published in a Cambridge University journal found that people who cook up to five times a week are 47 percent more likely to still be alive after 47 years.

According to an article on Huffington Post, the study was based on a group of 1,888 men and women over the age of 65. Each participant was interviewed about a variety of lifestyle factors, including cooking habits. Ten years later, the researchers followed up to see how many of the participants had died, and they matched lifestyle answers to the 1,193 participants who remained alive. Frequent cooking was linked to survival, as was grocery shopping, taking public transportation, not smoking, and being a woman. So basically, I’m all set.

We all know by now that fast food is bad for us, pre-packaged foods are filled with sodium, and dining out on the regular is expensive. So do I believe this news will actually change anyone’s habits if they think cooking at home’s too much of a pain in the ass? Nope. Do I feel some level of obnoxious self-satisfaction upon reading this news? Indeed.

I choose to believe in the results of this study, just as I choose to only believe studies about the health benefits of drinking red wine. The ones that say it’s bad for you? Totally unreliable.