Food For Thought

         "What’s for dinner?” I can’t begin to count the number of times I asked this question when I was a child; wishing that the meal my mom had cooked would be one of my favorites. My mom cooked for a family of six every night of the week; although on a tight budget, she prepared healthy, well-balanced meals for our family. Now the more prominent question seems to be, “Where are we going out to eat tonight?” With so many fast food places available to our fast-paced society, home-cooked meals are becoming obsolete. Memories throughout my childhood revolve around the kitchen table; meals in my home led to conversations, debates, laughter, and even a few life-lessons. I can smell my favorite home-cooked meal by just thinking about it; lemon-pepper baked chicken, mash potatoes and green beans. Home-cooking doesn’t get better than that.

         Although home prepared meals are less expensive than fast-food ones, restaurant spending continues to rise. For a family of four to eat out once a day it will cost between $20-$30 per meal; eating out once a day each day of the week would add up to $140- $210 dollars per week. That would only cover one meal a day; multiply that by three meals per day and you have groceries for a family of four for two months. More mothers work outside the home while continuing to raise their families; it’s faster to take the easy way out and get dinner through a drive-in window. Commercials temptingly lead consumers to these places in showing their meals to be ‘like home-cooked.’ Ironically, they realize what consumers want, and it’s working - the consumer goes through the drive-in to pick up what he or she believes to be a ‘home-cooked meal.’

         We have less control over the nutritional content of our meals when we eat food prepared by a restaurant or a supermarket rather than a home cooked meal. It would be nice if fast-food or packaged meals lived up to our expectations about nutrition and health. Restaurant chefs generally add more fats and salt to their recipes than a home cook would; while restaurant meal portions are often over sized or ‘super-sized.’ Home cooked meals are usually more sanitary than fast-food meals; stories of purposely contaminated fast-food meals are becoming a trend in the media. Eating out may be good for our nation's economy but it isn't good for our waistlines or our overall health. Rises in obesity, heart disease and diabetes are prevalent. Americans are portrayed as the ‘obese population’ in related media articles. Home cooked meals allow us to have more choices of when, where and what to eat. The home cook can regulate the amount of fats and salt a meal contains while preparing exactly what someone wants to eat.

         I think that although there always will be a time and place for convenience foods, home-cooking is better for us. I hope Americans will come to realize that the kitchen is the heart and soul of their homes and their families. Home cooking wins over fast food every time.