Home Cooked
We have all heard that home cooked meals are better for you than eating out! A statement that so many Americans tend to push to the side due to the rush of our society. Drive thru’s and pre made frozen dinners are the “norm” for many families, multiple times a week. The average American household eats “out” 4 out of the 7 nights a week! That’s just dinner! Who knows how many other meals and snacks are eaten outside the home? So why is this such a big deal? How can we actually control our own health? Why are we allowing the food industry to control what goes inside our bodies? And, what can we, as families, do about it? So many questions, but these major ones are the ones we need to ask ourselves before we decide to eat out, yet again.
The Stats
Eating home cooked meals, and snacks, should be part of every households weekly practice. Families that eat home cooked meals 4 days a week lower the risk of family members developing chronic illnesses by 60%. Eating at home 5 days a week lowers the risk by 70%, 6 days a week by 80%, and 7 days a week by 90%. So when I say we have a choice in our health…I truly do mean that.
I know I sound like a broken record, but in our society today, our kids have a lower life expectancy, on top of a higher risk of developing mental disorders. To top that, a large percentage of our own generation is raising the statistics of higher risk in developing neurological diseases (not just chronic illnesses). Type 2 Diabetes and Fatty Liver Disease are no longer reserved for those over 55 or alcoholic. Kids as young as 7 are being diagnosed with these diseases. With the amount of ingredients that our kids are exposed to everyday, it is not a surprise that these numbers are getting higher every year. Any, and all food dyes, cause cancers and behavioral disorders; massive sugar consumption causes so many more health complications than just diabetes; and unhealthy fat overload, can lead to under developed mental cognition. (The brain is mainly made of fat…it is important to consume fat, but make it healthy fats!) These statistics may be a bit unnerving, but there is something we can all do to reverse these stats, and help the younger generations live long and healthy lives!
What Is Home Cooked
Eating home cooked meals requires a bit of knowledge in the kitchen. The absolute basics should be practiced by each individual …even the little ones. (Yes, 4 year olds can learn the basics!) If you are a parent that is nervous about your 4 year old using the oven, stove, or knives, let me shock you into teaching them about kitchen safety. Imagine your teenager, that loves to show off, now has a huge kitchen knife, that they have never learned any safety around, swinging it around in the kitchen…whoops! As with anything, the earlier they learn safety and proper use of things, the more responsible they will be when they grow up! (Plus, perhaps one day they will surprise you by making dinner for you!) So, getting back to the original thought: Basic fundamentals in the kitchen are so important in every individuals health, young and old! Cooking, baking, sautéing, steaming, and roasting. That’s where it all begins…then sharpen the tools along the way.
Now, when I say home cooked, pre made frozen meals and foods don’t count. But, frozen veggies and fruits are great ways to get nutrient dense foods into the home. Frozen meals like lasagna, full on dinners, and foods loaded with preservatives are just as bad as driving to the local drive thru. Whole foods (ya know, the food that doesn’t require a food label to tell you what it is) should be a majority of what the family eats! I know sometimes it doesn’t work out that way, and that is ok! But, learn how to read labels. More than five…you won’t survive. (Ingredients that is.) Keep the labeled foods under five ingredients, and make sure you understand the ingredients in it! If it sounds like it came from a lab…chances are it did! And, since we are not created in a lab, then the food we eat should not come from a lab. (Odd when you think of it like that eh?)
Cooking at home is not only nutrient dense, but it is a fantastic way to bond with the family. The kitchen is the heart of the home for so many reasons! It becomes a classroom, a nourishing environment, and the place where traditions are born and kept. Home cooking does the body and soul good.
Benefits Of Home Cooking
It doesn’t matter if you barbecue, roast, bake, or sauté, cooking from home is always a healthier choice than eating out. At home we control what goes in our food. This results in dishes that are made with lower sugar, lower sodium, healthier fats, no additives, and no cancerous dyes or fillers. Cooking at home is better for every family members overall health. It creates more family time, builds more independent kids, assists family members in developing physically and mentally faster and stronger (as opposed to the reverse when eating out all the time), it also builds more confidence in individual knowledge of self health, leading to healthier lifestyle choices throughout ones life. It is actually proven (in studies, and just by observation) that kids that learn how to cook at home when they are young, make healthier choices as adults.
Home cooking is a good old fashion way to keep the doctor away. (Forget about the apple! The entire meal is what we are aiming for.) Want to lower cholesterol? How about lose some weight? Get the kids behavioral issues under control? Reverse the diabetes diagnosis? Look no farther than your own home pharmacy: The Kitchen!
Becoming Bold
It may seem stressful to shift the fast pace of the home, to a slowing crawl in order to make the healthier choice, but it actually balances out to the same amount of time and stress as hitting up the drive thru. In fact, you SAVE time by meal prepping and cooking at home. And, you save even more of your personal time, and sanity, by staying away from doctor and hospital visits down the road. Food should be consumed for our survival, not to accommodate cravings! However, that is exactly what the food industry has done to our food! The ingredients found in a majority of highly processed foods, are meant to cause you to crave them over and over again. (How else would they make money?) The scariest part of the big food industry in America, is how they are ALLOWED to market to children! In America, it is illegal to sell narcotics (and most parents educate their kids that drugs are bad) but, it is completely ok to market harmful ingredients (that cause cancer, chronic illnesses, and neurological diseases) to specifically: our kids! Did you know we are one of the very few (and I mean very few) countries that allows marketing to kids? It is banned in almost all other countries. This is the biggest reason why we have the saddest stats pertaining to our kids health. TIger’s, bunny’s, and cool looking birds on cereal boxes, just to name a few! (Anyone can choose to argue…but there are way too many studies that hold that statement true!)
As parents we have the majority of choice. How do we want to raise and lead our families? Do we follow the mainstream of society, or do we make the bold choice in favor of our family? I didn’t write this blog to scare every parent! I write all of my blogs to inform all parents; to give you the knowledge; to give you the options (all of the options) that you have! We can ignore the ads. We can pack a homemade lunch. We can cook from home for dinner. We can meal prep to limit temptations. We can limit, or eliminate, highly processed foods. We can make the healthier choices to improve our home life. We can break the societal “norm” and shatter the climbing negative statistics! It really is our choice!
Time to make the heart of the home come alive again! Let’s be that bold generation of parents that made the bold choice: To take the full control of our families health back into our homes!!
