Who doesn't appreciate a good home-cooked meal? Aside from being delicious and comforting, cooking at home also makes it easier to eat healthy. Taking time to prepare food at home contributes to the health of your family, the planet, your community and your finances. Here are 12 amazing health benefits of home-cooked meals.
Even with the amazing benefits of cooking at home, it is not too common. In 2010, less than 33% of households shared meals more than twice per week and about 50% of American meals that year were eaten outside the home. In comparison, in 1900, only 2% of meals were eaten out and most families had dinner together.
It’s a sad state of affairs, especially when you consider the many benefits of cooking at home. Here are 12 amazing health benefits of home cooked meals.
1. You Can Control Portions
Restaurants — especially fast food restaurants — often try to offer the appearance of value by offering large portions. In addition, buffet-style restaurants present many options that urge people to overeat. At home, however, it may be easier to control the amount of food you consume. There is no pressure to eat everything on your plate because you have paid for it. You can always put it away for later. This can make it easier to eat healthy amounts of food.
2. You Control Value and Cost
Eating at restaurants doesn't only affect your physical health. It can also take a sizeable bite out of your wallet. When you buy your own food and prepare meals at home, you set your food budget and control your food expenses more fully. You can locate the best price on ingredients, shop seasonally and locally, or go to the local farmers' market to save more.
3. You Can Choose the Quality
When you order at a restaurant, you receive the quality the chef prepares. When you cook at home, however, you enjoy the quality you feel you and your family deserve. If you want to buy organic products, free-range meats or reduce the amount of preservatives you eat, it is easier to do so because you choose the ingredients.
4. You Can Maintain Nutrition
At home, you can decide how your food will be prepared to preserve maximum nutrition. For example, you can avoid overcooking your food so it retains more of its nutritional content. You can choose to steam or grill rather than fry foods, helping you reduce fat and preserve more of the nutritional value of the food you eat.
5. You Decide How to Prepare Your Food
You can also choose to cook your food in healthy cookware when you cook at home. For example, choosing high-temperature Xtrema ceramic cookware products ensures your food doesn't come into contact with Teflon and other substances that can harm your health.
With some traditional cookware, non-stick coatings and metals can wear down over time and leach into your food as it cooks. This is not an issue with Xtrema ceramic cookware products. Our handcrafted ceramic cookware and bakeware are crafted with natural materials that are non-reactive and durable. Xtrema ceramic cookware and bakeware contain PTFE, or PFAS and do not leach lead or cadmium.
6. You Can Control Hygiene and Food Safety
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that 48 million people get sick from a foodborne illness each year. While restaurants and other dining establishments must pass health food inspections, people fall ill at restaurants all the time. In fact, there have been many high-profile cases of food poisoning at restaurants and fast-food chains over the years. Sometimes, mistakes happen in the kitchen.
When you cook at home, you can better control cleanliness, food safety and hygiene. You can use paper towels, for example, to prevent cross-contamination and to reduce the risk of salmonella. In addition, you can check your food with a food thermometer to ensure your meat is cooked to a safe temperature. You can also ensure you wash your hands carefully before preparing and serving meals, so you and your family can stay safe. Heating foods to high temperatures can also help you reduce your risk of food poisoning.
7. You Learn More About Food
When you cook at home, you learn more about nutrition and food. Reading recipes, cookbooks and magazines about food or meal preparation gives you insights into how food is prepared, what nutrients it contains and more.
Visiting a local farmers market and talking to the producers of your food can help you appreciate the different flavors, health benefits and varieties of food available to you. As you learn more about food, you may find yourself naturally making healthier decisions about what to eat. For example, when you learn about the wide world of fresh vegetables and fruits, you may choose to eat more of them over time.
8. Your Entire Family Can Be Involved in Food and Nutrition Choices
If you have children, you're teaching them eating habits — even if you don't realize it. Your children will imitate your eating habits and possibly form lifelong habits related to their own nutrition and health. When you eat together as a family, you can control what your children eat more fully. You can also start conversations about food and nutrition choices, so they learn how to make better decisions for themselves.
9. You Can Control Allergens More Carefully
If someone in your family has a peanut allergy or other serious allergy, you need to be very careful about food preparation. When you cook in your own kitchen, you can exert a lot of control over the ingredients and the preparation of your food. You can ban a particular ingredient from your home if you choose, ensuring there's no risk of allergic reaction. Many food allergies are life-threatening, so maintaining a tight level of control can help you avoid a trip to the emergency room.
10. You Can Improve Your Family's Mental Health
Everyone eats alone sometimes, and some people even enjoy eating alone every once in a while. However, eating together can help promote mental health — especially for children. Studies show that frequent family meals can help prevent issues related to eating disorders, substance use, depression and stress. It may also help improve a child's self-esteem.
Eating meals together is about much more than nutrition. It allows you to build a relationship, work on communication and ensure your family stays together as a unit. This can help with mental health and can make everyone feel a little less lonely.
Cooking at home is healthy for the body, as well as the mind!
11. Cooking at Home Is Healthier for the Planet
Restaurants use utilities and may order foods from far away, resulting in emissions. Most dining establishments waste food because they need to keep a stock of all ingredients for the menu and will need to dispose of any unused food if demand does not meet expectations.
At home, you can minimize waste and spoilage by shopping carefully and only buying what you will eat. You can also shop locally to reduce the impact of your grocery bill on carbon emissions around the world. Promoting better health for the planet, of course, can keep you healthier by keeping pollutants out of the air.
Shopping locally and eating at home can be good for your community. You support local farmers and local food producers, as well as local grocery stores and farmers’ markets. Eating at home can be good for your community’s health!
11. Cooking at Home Is Healthier for the Planet
Restaurants use utilities and may order foods from far away, resulting in emissions. Most dining establishments waste food because they need to keep a stock of all ingredients for the menu and will need to dispose of any unused food if demand does not meet expectations.
At home, you can minimize waste and spoilage by shopping carefully and only buying what you will eat. You can also shop locally to reduce the impact of your grocery bill on carbon emissions around the world. Promoting better health for the planet, of course, can keep you healthier by keeping pollutants out of the air.
Shopping locally and eating at home can also be good for your community. You support local farmers and local food producers, as well as local grocery stores and farmers' markets. Eating at home can be good for your community's health!
12. You Enjoy Healthier Food
One of the biggest ways eating at home can help promote your health, of course, is because you can choose healthier options than what you might see in a restaurant. You can also control exactly how much salt, fat, sugar and additives you add to your food.
Take sodium as an example. The CDC estimates that most of the sodium in our diet comes from processed and restaurant foods. When you prepare meals at home, you can choose healthier preparation options and smaller amounts of salt. You can add flavor with spices, juices, broths and other low-sodium options instead.
It may be easier to make healthy choices at home, too. When you go out to eat, you may encounter many tempting and high-calorie meal options that are hard to resist. When you cook at home, however, you have the option of limiting highly processed foods from your home. When you start to prepare meals, you'll have healthy options to choose from, which can make it possible to make better choices.
Home Cooking vs. Fast Food Takeout
While it may be tempting to order food with a few taps instead of cooking your own meals, there are some significant trade-offs for this shortcut. When you prepare your own meals, you control your ingredients to meet your nutritional needs.
Let's dish out the biggest differences between home-cooked meals and takeout options.
Hunger Cues
When you eat out, you may feel like you have to finish your entire plate, or you might choose calorie-dense options that are not very filling. Cooking at home teaches you to honor your hunger cues, as you have to pay attention to how hungry you are and what nutrients you're craving.
For example, at a fast food restaurant, you might quickly choose the first thing on the menu that looks tasty. Cooking at home takes more preparation. Do you want whole grains or vegetables? Does your body need more protein or healthy fats? How hungry are you?
Sodium Levels
People in the U.S. consume 3,400 milligrams of salt per day, which is much higher than the 2,300 milligrams recommended for the general population. There are various negative effects of excessive salt intake, including high blood pressure and water retention. This may damage an individual's kidneys, heart, brain and blood vessels.
Restaurants and fast food outlets use a lot of salt to enhance flavors and prolong an item's shelf life, leading people who eat out frequently to consume excess salt. The benefit of cooking at home is that you can decide how much salt goes into your food. You can use low-sodium alternatives, season food lightly with salt and get creative with spices rather than relying too heavily on salt.
Calorie Intake
Another difference between home-cooked food and restaurant takeout is the amount of calories present in one meal. At some restaurants, one meal can equal the amount of calories one should consume throughout the entire day.
Healthy home-cooked meals are an excellent alternative — especially if you are trying to lose weight — because they usually include fewer calories. If you're trying to lose weight or improve your diet, a good goal is to slowly swap your trips to the drive-thru for home-cooked food. You may start cooking at home one day per week and increase your home-cooked meals until you're cooking at home most of the time.
Cooking Time
While grabbing food from a restaurant is usually regarded as the ultimate convenience, you can sometimes save time by eating a meal at home. For example, you may be able to make a simple, quick and filling meal at home and eat it in less time than it would take to drive to a restaurant, order and wait for your meal before you can eat it or take it home. The same goes for delivery services. In some cases, these may take more time to arrive than if you were to make your own meal.
How to Reap the Benefits of Cooking at Home
If you'd like to enjoy making meals at home, there are several things you can do to make the journey easier:
Find Great Places to Shop
Check out local grocery stores, ethnic food stores, bulk food stores and farmers markets. Get excited about trying fresh new products, new flavors and foods you haven't previously explored. When you get to know the places you shop, you may start to anticipate making your own meals.
If time is a factor, consider a grocery delivery service or local food box delivery programs. Often organized by food producers or collectives, box programs deliver boxes of local, seasonal food to drop-off locations. They can be an economical and exciting way to try new foods your community is growing.
Try Recipes That Excite You
Browse online and look at cookbooks, cooking shows and other sources for recipes to cook at home. Start a recipe file, keeping track of interesting meal ideas. Healthy can be very exciting when you take the time to explore delicious and healthful options for you and your family. Having interesting recipes to try on file can keep you on track and can encourage you to cook at home.
Purchase What You Need to Cook Healthy Meals
Cooking will seem much more approachable if you have all the tools you need. Luckily, you don't need to make a huge investment. You need some plates and cutlery for serving, some pots and pans for cooking, some containers for storage, and some cooking utensils for stirring while you cook.
You can make the process even easier by buying items to do double duty. For example, Xtrema ceramic cookware and bakeware are flexible enough to go on the stovetop and in the oven, fridge, dishwasher, broiler, microwave and freezer.
You can use Xtrema ceramic cookware and bakeware to serve, store and cook foods. You don't have to purchase separate items for every function, which saves you money and kitchen space. In addition, Xtrema ceramic cookware and bakeware come with a 50-year warranty against scratching, so you can trust that it is designed to last.
Plan Your Meals
You'll find it easy to prepare your own food if you plan ahead. It takes only a few minutes to decide what you will eat for the week ahead and jot down the ingredients you will need. This allows you to complete grocery shopping in one trip, so you have everything on hand to prepare delicious meals all week.
Prepare Your Own Meals and Freeze Them
There are plenty of simple ways to save time and enjoy home-cooked meals even on the most hectic days. One secret is to make meals ahead and freeze them. Lasagnas, soups, roasts and plenty of other dishes freeze beautifully. You can even use Xtrema ceramic cookware and bakeware to cook and freeze items, so you don't have to worry about making a mess in the kitchen.
Try Xtrema Ceramic Cookware and Bakeware
Are you ready to start reaping the rewards of home cooking? Check out Xtrema ceramic cookware and bakeware. Designed to last a lifetime and made from 100% ceramic, eco-friendly materials, Xtrema cookware is the perfect companion to your commitment to healthy eating. Browse our selection of versatile cookware to get started on your home cooking journey today.
