When it comes to eating healthy, you probably know that one of the best changes you can make is swapping takeout for home-cooked meals. Still, even then, it can seem like there are a lot of rules. What's off-limits? How do you cook healthy, anyway? Should you go for low-carb or low-fat? But even if the details of whipping up a health meal for yourself have you feeling overwhelmed, there is one big silver lining you should keep in mind: Simply the act of cooking at home will lead to a healthier diet, according to a new study.
New research from Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future (CLF) and the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health crunched data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Health and Nutrition Examination Study and found that those who cook at home frequently consume fewer carbohydrates, calories, sugar, and fat than those who ate out more often. The kicker? This was true even if the people weren't trying to lose weight. Translation: You don't even have to make a huge effort to eat healthfully. Cooking at home in the first place is half the battle. We'll pause so you can breathe a huge sigh of relief.
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To come to this conclusion, researchers looked to data from the 2007-2010 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from more than 9,000 participants aged 20 and older. Participants recorded total calories, grams of fat, sugar and carbohydrates per day, as well as how much fast food and frozen meals they ate. Turns out, the more often participants cooked at home, the fewer calories, grams of fat, and grams of sugar they consumed. To compare: The adults who cooked dinner no more than once a week consumed an average of 2,301 total calories, 84 grams of fat, and 135 grams of sugar per day—whereas those who cooked dinner six to seven times a week consumed 2,164 calories, 81 grams of fat, and 119 grams of sugar on an average day.
Of course, this isn't an excuse to overload on a bunch of homemade nachos or triple-stacked burgers (especially since you can find healthier alternatives to those). But it is heartening to know that one change can still bring results—even if you kind of don't know what you're doing yet. Need a place to start? These healthy dinner ideas are super-easy and good for you.
