what makes eating out /fast food more bad than cooking at home?

Question

i mean i gotta also use oil and such to cook here aswell.

Answer 1

You can't control portion size when you go out to eat.

The quality of the ingredients, unless you go to a NICE restaurant, are severely lacking, and what you have at home is probably better (low grade beef is often used, for instance)

And finally, a lot of the stuff you get from fast food restaurants is full of grease and/or has been deep-fried.

Get one of those little books that tells you the calorie count of some of these foods - you'll be surprised.

Answer 2

You lose control over ingredients and portion sizes. When YOU cook, you can substitute artificial sweetener, skim milk, low fat cheese, olive oil, or whatever. When you eat fast food, you eat whatever they make for you. Even if you say "no salt on the fries," they're going to come up out of the fryer and get dumped into a bin that has been salted all day. Also, the size of a portion has been geratly inflated. In the movie, Supersize Me," the filmmaker talks about how what now is called a medium coke used to be a large, but with people pushing the limits upwards with Big Gulps and Super Big Gulps, all of the sizes under those got bigger and bigger. A portion of meat should be about the size of your fist, not 2/3 of a pound of beef with 3 slices of bacon, 4 slices of cheese, and a bun!

Answer 3

The biggest advantage for cooking at home Vs. eating out, especially fast food, it the fact that you know exactly what is going into your food, what size serving you want, and the freshness of the ingredients. Even like you said, you gotta use oil, but when you care cooking you can control what sort of oil you are using, and some are a lot better for you than others. That and there is the aspect of not having to worry about them adding their own "special" spices, say floor spice, to your food when you piss off the waitress for whatever reason.

Answer 4

I don't believe just because you eat out it has to be fast food. It's not very cost effective to eat at home all the time if it's just you or you and another person. There are so many restaurants that are not you garden variety fast food restaurants. I don't mean necessarily the chains either, I mean your local restaurants that serve good food at reasonable prices. A single person could probably spend $100.00 a week on groceries for 3 meals a day. You can buy fruits, vegetables and a breakfast food like cereal (cold or hot. Buy your juices and still eat out every night for $10.00 or less. It's okay to splurge every once and a while but watch what you eat and what you spend, I think you come out ahead. You're a grown up, you can watch your portions and you still have plenty left over for lunch the next day. No extra on your electrical bill and no clean up.

Answer 5

The kinds of oils that the fast food restaraunt is not good for you. A lot of times they use lard. You could use a better oil at home such as olive oil, or Canola. Those are much better for you. Plus you could control the amounts of oil you use.

Answer 6

At home you have choices about how to cook your food. All you really need is a tablespoon of oil for most things, the natural juices help to keep the food from sticking. You can choose to bake (I prefer to broil) your potatoes instead of deep frying them in oil. The glory that is a convection oven makes things so much healthier for you. You can also use other spices and seasonings in your food to give it more flavor.

The Big Mac has:
540 calories, 260 calories from fat,
29 grams of fat,
75 mg of cholesterol,
1,040 mg of sodium, plus an assortment of other fats and 45 grams of carbs.

Meanwhile a hamburger prepared at home with mayo, mustard, lettuce and tomato has:
279 calories, 121 calories from fat,
13.5 grams of fat,
26 mg of cholesterol,
504 mg of sodium, 27 grams of carbs.

While it takes a little bit more time to prepare the meal, you're saving money, the environment and helping keep your heart healthier than if you were eating out at the top 5 fast food places every night.

Answer 7

If all you cook is unhealthy fried food at home and serve oversized portions, then eating out at fast food places isn't worse for you than eating at home.

Learn to cook healthier food if you're concerned about your family's health! There are other ways to prepare food besides frying it in a bunch of oil!

Answer 8

Eating out usually seems to always taste better because of the amount of oil/fat/grease/salts they use in their food. Consuming too much is unhealthy. People these days should only need oils, fats, and salts sparingly. Don't forget the monosodium glutamate (MSG) and other chemicals/ingredients that are used that aren't traditionally used in home kitchens.

Plus, making sure the food on your plate is fresh is the best.

Answer 9

I think it is worser to eat out because like the 1st answer said you can't control the portion size but at home you can.You can make as much or as little as you want,at fast food resturants it only comes in 1 basic size for a cheap price (i.e McDonalds.) And when you go to eat fastfood all the fats & presevatives they put in it,you do that at home also but not as much. Less is better for you then more anyday :)

Answer 10

The ease of the drive through. Why bother cooking and having to food shop, cook it, wash the dishes. You can just drive up and eat in the car and then drive by the garbage can and throw the containers away.

Eating out isn't bad. It's what you eat out.

Some fast foods have salads for only one dollar and fruit and yogurt for only one dollar.

Many restaurants have great healthy selections, broiled meats, salads, low fat desserts.