A study by researchers at Emory University suggests that Americans eat fewer than 70 percent of their meals at home. And of those meals eating at home, how many are “microwave” dinners as compared to fresh, whole foods from real ingredients?
One way to boost your health and have more control over what food you’re eating is to cook your own foods more often. From choosing your ingredients, to preparing and cooking for nutrient preservation, home cooking allows you to have complete control over what goes into your body. Cooking at home also allows you the ability to manage food allergies and sensitivities, as well as portion sizes. Furthermore, regularly preparing and eating healthy home cooked meals will help train your palate to enjoy healthier fare, while improving your creative cooking skills.
BUT…who has the time!? This is one of the biggest concerns many people have about making from-scratch, whole-food, nutritious meals. With the demands of work, school, home, and life in general, few people have the time to spend 2 hours chopping vegetables and making meals by hand.
Thankfully there are creative solutions that are popping up every day for ways to still eat fresh food while maintaining a practical schedule.
One of the more popular ideas right now are the “Meal-in-a-Box” meal kit delivery companies like Hello Fresh, Blue Apron, Sunbasket… a new one seems to appear every week. While it’s a good idea in theory, many people find that the cost per meal is still more than if they had purchased the ingredients locally. But if it helps you and is what it takes to get your family cooking and eating healthy meals, then go for it!