One of the best ways to improve your diet is to eat more home cooked meals. Even when you select the healthy option at a restaurant, you usually won’t beat what you can do at home.
Restaurant Food Tastes Better For A Reason
Restaurants very often use more salt, fat, and sugar in their meals than you would at home.1 Even more problematic, the customer often can’t easily tell. Vegetable sides that sound great may have been cooked with large amounts of oil, butter, or salt and lean meats may have been treated the same, or brined.
You Will Eat More At A Restaurant
In a restaurant you are faced with more food to resist, taxing your willpower. There will be bread on the table, seductive appetizers to choose from, and a long list of alcoholic beverages.
Further, eating out is often done with others. Being with a group changes your behavior, a phenomenon known as social facilitation.2 This makes you more likely to eat larger quanitities, to drink several glasses of wine, to order appetizers and desserts, and to nibble on bread at the table. You are also likely to stay longer, which gives you more time to take in calories.3
Cook At Home Most Of The Time
This is not to say that you should never eat out. On the contrary, eating at a restaurant is one of life’s pleasures and you should enjoy it. Just remember that it shouldn’t be the norm. You should eat in the majority of the time because then, you are fully in control. You know exactly what goes into your meal and you have the say in what extras end up on the table. That makes it much easier for you to maintain a healthy eating pattern – you just have to keep your shopping in order.