Cooking at home can help you eat healthier, and save you money

Cooking at home is a simple way to improve your health, and save money in the process according to new research.

Carried out by a team of researchers from Oregon State University and the University of Washington, US, the research included more than 400 adults.

The team surveyed participants on their cooking and eating habits during a one-week period.

Participants provided various types of sociodemographic information to the researchers.

Then, their weekly food intake was scored from 0 to 100 using the Healthy Eating Index (HEI).

Higher scores on the HEI indicate a better diet quality.

• Over 81 indicates a “good” diet
• 51 to 80 means “needs improvement”
• 50 or less is “poor.”

The team found that those who cooked at home three times per week showed an average score of around 67 on the Healthy Eating Index, and increasing cooking at home to six times per week also increased the average score to around 74.

The results also suggested that regularly eating home-cooked dinners were associated with diets lower in calories, sugar and fat.

Eating at home also means eating lower calories and fat.

Saves money too

Usually the more money someone has, meaning someone with a good socioeconomic status, would have better health.

“That’s the trend. This research goes against that; it shows a resilience to that trend,” says study author Arpita Tiwari.

“It’s not spending more but how you spend that’s important. What you eat is important. Cooking at home reduces that expenditure, and our research empirically quantifies that when we regularly eat dinner at home, our nutrition intake is better.”

However, Tiwari acknowledged that cooking at home is not always easy, commenting that, “A mother who has two jobs and four children, even if she knows the value of home-cooked dinners, doesn’t have time to cook.”

Tiwari suggests that governments need to make policies that are mindful to these issues. There should also be programmes that help people achieve their nutritional goals.

Americans are cooking at home less

The study also pointed out that in the US, 80% of its people fail to meet dietary guidelines of the country.

Also, half the money spent on food is used to buy food not cooked at home.

The percentage of home-cooked calories consumed has fallen from 82% to 68% between the 70s to the late 90s.

The findings can be found published in the American Journal Of Preventive Medicine. 

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