Better pay the cook than the doctor

This maxim is very popular among the persons who care for their health. Any person desirous of keeping fit must follow this maxim. Those who do not know what to cook and how to cook, they spoil their health. Then they visit the doctors with complaints about their ill digestion. Other complications can also be caused by taking ill cooked foods.

This saying has a very important message. A person who lives a healthy life from the early years of life will be less sick and suffer from diseases. Various diseases like heart disease, diabetes, obesity and many types of cancer are due to unhealthy diet. 

Everyone knows that health is wealth. One should do one's best to maintain good health. The literal meaning of this proverb is that we should not mind paying a cook who will cook for us healthy food, rather than falling ill because of consuming unhealthy food and spending for medical bills. There is a sarcastic view in this proverb which states that cooks are cheap to employ, but a Doctor's bill is a burden on our pockets. One should pay the cook who is noble enough to prepare nutritious dishes for you. If you take nutritious foods, you will never fall ill. If you never fall ill, you will never have to visit the doctors. To avoid doctors one should have nutritious diet and it can be provided only by the good cooks. That's why better pay the cook than the doctor. Only the cook knows what is better for one's health, in our daily life we see many people hesitate to spend money on milk, fruits and other nutritious foods but they do not hesitate to pay the doctors the amount they ask for. That's why this proverb is very valuable and it reminds that if one wants to keep oneself healthy, wealthy and wise one should spend on nutritious food instead of paying the doctors when one gets ill by having ill foods. So one should always take care of one's health.

Though the phrase directly emphasis on the health of a person, there is a hidden message, which implies that for any opportunity that comes by we should capture the same at the right time, later on there is no point in crying over the lost opportunity. Later on regretting on the lost opportunity is of no use. This proverb also advises us that it is better to be cautious from the beginning instead of repenting later in life.