Cooking at home is not always a pleasurable experience. You have to stand in front of a hot stove, do mental calculations before adding oil, salt and spices and in the end, if the taste of the food does not meet your expectations, you feel dejected.
But home-cooked meals are and can be so much healthier, if you carefully choose your ingredients and their amounts. I see my friends and family eating out a lot more than they used to 5 or 10 years ago. Dhaka now has more restaurants than any other time in its history, and this can be one reason why people lunch and dine outside so much more frequently than they once used to. But are restaurant meals healthier than home-cooked meals? Most likely not. Yes, lunching or dining outside with friends and family is a wonderful experience, but having several restaurant meals each week is perhaps not. Here are some of the reasons why:
When you cook at home you can control the quality of your food. You know exactly what ingredients in what quantities are going into your food.
Foodborne illnesses are anything but rare in our country. You can prevent these illnesses to a large extent when you cook meals in the safe and clean environment of your home.
Restaurant foods are rich in fat, salt and sugar. But food cooked at home can contain up to several hundred fewer calories, because at home you have the liberty of using oil, butter, salt and sugar in healthy amounts.
If you have children, cooking at home can be a fun activity for them too. It will also teach them about cooking and healthy eating. My daughter is just 2 years old but she spends the entire time in the kitchen when my husband and I cook. She helps us in whatever way she can, and she really enjoys it.
Cooking at home can also save you a lot of money. Why spend extra money on food that add extra pounds to your body? The money spent on restaurant food can be used to pay for a vacation, buy a new piece of furniture for home, help someone in need or increase your savings account balance.
Living in a country infamous for its high obesity rate and unhealthy fast food, I have learned that if I want to live long and healthy, I need to keep an eye on what I eat. Yes, it's difficult to push aside the allure of delicious restaurant food, but it's not impossible.
The choice is yours. Take some time to weigh the pros and cons of both options and then make your choice.
The Daily Star link
Date of publication: Nov. 25, 2014
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