Eating out is one of the most popular activities in the United States. In fact, according to a study by the National Restaurant Association, Americans will spend more than $860 billion eating out this year. Along with a large amount of money spent on meals and snacks away from home each year, there are also several reasons why you should not eat out. This article will give you a list of reasons why it’s better to eat at home.
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Eat Healthier
If you go out to eat, you won’t have much control over what goes into your food. For one, restaurants don’t list nutritional information for their meals and snacks on their menus, so it’s hard to know what kind of ingredients they’re putting into your meal. Also, restaurant portions are huge! If you order a salad at a restaurant, you might find yourself eating 3 or 4 times as much salad as you normally would. And all the while, you won’t know what kind of fat or oil they’re using to cook your food.
Learn To Cook
If you never eat out, you’ll learn to cook various dishes for yourself. It can be difficult to find the time or energy to cook for yourself when so many other things are going on in your life. However, if you don’t eat out, you’ll learn to cook full meals for yourself and your family. If the whole family starts eating at home more often, then everyone will contribute their own recipes and cooking tips to the mix. You might even save a few bucks by learning how to prepare food on your own!
More Environmentally Friendly
Eating out is not very environmentally friendly. It takes a lot of resources to produce meals at restaurants across the country. Not only do you have to consider all of the fuel it took for them to ship your food from some far-off location, but also all of the energy the restaurant itself uses. If everyone ate at home instead, it could cut down on the cost of producing food and use less energy and reduce the carbon footprint by a few steps.
More Control Over What Your Food Taste Like
Even if you don’t mind eating out because of convenience, there are still several reasons why eating at a restaurant is bad. Besides not controlling what goes into your food when you eat out, you also lose the ability to customize it as much as you want. For example, if you want to add a little something extra to your order, but the restaurant doesn’t have it in stock, there’s not much you can do about it. In addition, if you don’t like one particular ingredient in your food, you won’t be able to pick it out and eat the rest of your dish separately.
Know You Cooked Your Food Correctly
Even if you’ve been to the same restaurant multiple times, there’s no way to know for sure if your food was cooked properly or not. You might trust them, but even the best chefs can make mistakes. With home cooking, you have complete control over everything that goes into your meals, so you won’t have to worry about whether or not your food was prepared correctly. There is also less worry of food-borne illnesses from cross-contamination or undercooked food.
Save Money
As noted earlier, people spend a ton of money on eating out. The average American household spends more than $2,000 a year on food outside their home. If you eat out regularly, those costs will add up quickly, and you’ll be poorer for it. If you cook all your food at home, then you’ll save around $200 or more per month on average. Just think about all the things you could do with that extra money!
Conclusion
Going out to eat is fun. It allows you to try new foods, enjoy good company, and make memories with family and friends. However, it’s not always worth the money you spend on food that may be sub-par in taste or too expensive for what you’re getting. When an occasion arises where people want to eat out together, it can be worth it! However, you should think twice before making it a daily or weekly habit.
