Eating at home is better Essay

In 1900, only 2 percent of meals were eaten outside the home. In 2010, 50 percent were eaten away from home. Most family meals happen about three times a week. Nowadays, living in the 21st century, people are busy. Most people are busy with work, school, sports, and other extra-curricular activities. And along with being so busy,thus, a nearby restaurant usually becomes our dining-place. It cannot be denied that eating out is a more convenient choice. However, eating out everyday can be very expensive. Moreover, the restaurant food is unhealthy, because most of the food are fatty and salty. In addition, the most important thing is, as I have experienced, dining out is not as enjoyable as having a nice home-cooked meal. Therefore, compared with eating in a restaurant, eating at home will be a better choice. First of all, one of the most important fact is that homemade meal is less expensive, which means eating at home is a very good method to save money. Sandy Dawes, a new lawyer, and his husband, Chris, a Ph. D. candidate, used to dine out four times a week. Now they usually eating out once a week, at most, because their budget have been squeezed by the rising prices, student loan bills and car payments,etc. Meat, vegetables and other ingredients from supermarkets or grocery stores are very affordable, and the total cost of a homemade meal is much less than the cost of a meal at a restaurant. For instance, dine at a moderately expensive restaurant, people usually end up spending about $20 to $30 for a meal. In addition, this price is not included the tax and tips. The price people paid to the restaurant is not only for the food, but also for the services provided. However, with the same amount of money, three or four ordinary meals can be prepared at home actually. According to a survey which made by Mintel International, a market research firm, since the economy soured and the prices of food raised, Americans began to spend more time in their kitchen, to cook the lunch and dinner for themselves. From this, it proved that eating at home is a way to save money. Another reason of eating at home is that homemade food is healthier, and it may even enhance our life. Although restaurants are offering more nutritious food options these days, the choices are often limited. Most foods that are served in restaurants contain high amounts of fat and calories, and even some harmful seasoning, such as MSG, which can be detrimental to our health. However, if we prepare our own food by ourselves, we can choose those low-fat and low-calorie and our favorite ingredients to prepare our meals. There will be no any limitation when we are choosing what we want to eat. Another disadvantage of dining out is that we cannot know exactly what we are eating. While we can see the meats and vegetables that are used to prepare our meal, we may not know what ingredients go into the sauces and seasoning. Also, chefs can make mistakes, and they may accidentally add some things that they should not into our food. This is especially important for those who are allergic to certain foods. Therefore,if we prepare our own food at home, we know exactly what we are eating. Besides, the reason of why we should eating at home is not only because of the healthier food, but the length of our life. According to a research which was published in Public Health Nutrition, a Cambridge University journal by a research team, made up of Taiwanese and Australian researchers, eating a home-cooked meal up to five times a week could enhance our life. In addition, according to the research, not only eating at home can live longer, the one who cooked at home about five times a week were 47 percent more likely to still be alive after 10 years. Last but not least, eating at home provides a very good chance to a family to sit together and have a nice conversation. Family member can share their daily life on the dinner table, parents can know more about the life of their children, such as how’s their school life, or whether they have any difficulties on anything or not, eating at home offers an excellent opportunity for family bonding. Moreover, Family dinner can made children become healthier. There was a survey found that those children who ate dinner with their families most frequently ate more fruits and vegetables and less soda and fried foods. When younger kids frequently eat dinner with their families, they are less likely to be overweight than other children. Besides, according to the report of The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA), it shows that children who have regular meals with their parents do better in every way, from better grades, to healthier relationships, to staying out of trouble, and they are less likely to smoke cigarettes and marijuana or drink alcohol. There is no any disadvantage to stay at home, make the home-cooked food at our sweet home with our lovely family members. We can save more money, enjoy healthier and more nutritive food, have a better life style, build a stronger bonds with our family members, our children will be healthier and more clever. Everything will be good if we eating at home, so, eating at home is definitely a better choice when there are two choice in front of us.