Why you should cook and eat at home – Follow my Rule of 3! By Sabrina Almeida

We don’t need a study or nutritional expert to tell us the benefits of cooking and eating at home. It is just that it lies buried under layers of restaurant meals, cheap takeout and pop-in-the-oven frozen stuff that invites you to take the easy way out.

Assuming you need a bit of a nudge back to fresh and healthy, here’s what a new study conducted in the US found. That home-cooked meals tend to have a lower calorie intake. Ta da! Here’s the big attention getter- WEIGHT LOSS!
Study author Julia Wolfson from the Johns Hopkins University says, “When people cook most of their meals at home, they consume fewer carbohydrates, less sugar and less fat than those who cook less or not at all – even if they are not trying to lose weight.” Now that hits you at the very core, doesn’t it?
Let’s examine some of the very basic, and most commonsensical benefits of cooking and eating at home. As a great believer in the power and efficacy of the Rule of 3, I will restrict myself to that magic number.

If you like being in the driver’s seat, I’d suggest you take the wheel in the kitchen and put the brakes on any meal that enters through your front door. Don’t cheat yourself of the real eating experience by stuffing a pre-prepared meal into your oven either! The assumption here is that once you’re in the kitchen, chances are you won’t choose a recipe calling for artificial colour, flavour, texturizers, preservatives, or packaging. (All the stuff that goes into making your readymade meals appealing and unhealthy!) You will discover and fall back in love with the real flavour that herbs and spices can bring. Healthcare professionals are quick to point out that in recent decades our taste buds have been corrupted through the use of cheap chemicals and corn syrup to fill that role.
Free yourself and your family! Think of cooking at home like using cash rather than a credit card. It forces you to be smart and responsible rather than taking short cuts and having to pay the unaffordable price, your health!

I’ve always followed the monkey-see-monkey-do Kids learn from your actions and not just your words. They’re smart so it’s about time that you wised up too! approach. You can’t preach a certain thing and do the opposite.
Involve them in the cooking experience. It might take a bit longer but it is absolutely worth it. Not only will you get some help, but they will take pride in what they are doing… and are likely to be more open to those veggies you’ve been so desperately trying to get them to eat.

Cooking together also creates a dialogue. Ask them what they like, pay attention to what they don’t. There is more than one way to cook a dish and improvisation is the name of the game. Let them puttogether a simple breakfast or a lunch sandwich.

It’s not that easy, but hey it’s a great start! My son in university is doing a lot of his own cooking this year. He told me that the most frustrating part was the fact that meals didn’t taste the same as mine even though he’s spent so much time around me in the kitchen. It made me laugh and cry at the same time. It was amazing just to know how much he had absorbed without me even having to teach.

As families get busier one of the best ways to set aside some family time is at meals. I believe afamily that eats together stays together. Family meal times are precious and refreshing. The conversations at the dinner table are some of the most interesting and revealing. You will get to know much more about what is happening in each other’s lives than from conducting a Spanish inquisition. Just try it! If you have more than one kid and boys, like I do. One at least, will clam up when you question. So why not just slip it in to a spoonful of some delicious homemade lasagne.

A recent article I read in the Independent on McDonald’s failed attempt to make bubble-gum flavoured broccoli for kids (the product was pulled before it reached the market) had me really worried. How much are we willing to sacrifice the taste and nutritional benefits of real food for a bit of free time? You could end up with loads of it while in hospital, no! However cheap and convenient, the question here is, is it really worth it?

Source: http://www.canindia.com/2ajt2

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