Cooking At Home VS Eating Out

Portion sizes at our favourite restaurants, cafes and fast food restaurants have increased enormously over the decades, even doubled or tripled compared to twenty years ago. These increased sizes have created confusion around meals that have translated to increasing our portions at home, not to mention acting as a major factor contributing to our current epidemic of obesity and weight related health conditions. By creating our own meals at home, and serving our own portion sizes, we are able to avoid over eating and are more likely to eat only what we need.

By cooking meals at home and getting your children involved in the process, such as cutting up or peeling vegetables, you not only act as a healthy role model for your children, but by sitting down to eat the meal you have prepared together, you can bond as a family.

A range of fast foods and foods in restaurants and cafes have hidden fats, sugars and salts. Meals may seem healthy but in fact have a range of additives and preservatives. Meals may also be perceived as cooked on site, especially in restaurants you expect the meal to be made from scratch, but in fact a range of restaurants buy in frozen pre-made produce, that is simply heated up upon order.

The obvious incentive to cook at home is budget, it is certainly a fact that by doing a weekly shop and creating your own meals at home you can save. One meal could cost up to $70 for two people in a restaurant, when you could make the same meal at home to last you a week at the same price.

For example, you can buy a boneless chicken banquet from KFC for $24.95, this includes 12 pieces of chicken and 2 large chips, serving 4 people. You can purchase a whole roast chicken for around $5-6/kg from your local supermarket, and some sweet potato for around $5/kg.  You can easily whip up a roast chicken and sweet potato wedges for dinner with little preparation, and cooking time of around 1 hour depending on your chicken size. Why not spend a few more dollars and get a range of seasonal veggies, which you can steam in under 15 minutes. This home made meal can cost you around half the price of a take out from KFC, is easy to prepare, and will leave you with leftovers that will last you the week.  Not to mention a healthy meal that is rich in vitamins and minerals and high in protein and starch to encourage a healthy weight, compared to a KFC meal that full of salt, fat and sugars, potentially leading to increases in your risk of chronic disease.

KFC V’s Home Roast Chicken
	KFC Banquet	Home Roast Chicken
Cost	$24 .95	$21
Time	15 minutes	2 hours prep and cooking time
Portion	12 x pieces of boneless fried chicken 2 x large chips	2kg x whole roast chicken 1kg x sweet potato wedges 1 kg x greens and veg
Serves	4 x serves	10 x serves

Sarah Campbell
Naed Nutrition - Currambine

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