How often do you find yourself sitting down to eat at a restaurant? Or maybe even taking a detour to your favourite fast food drive-thru? If your answer is along the lines of, “more often than I’d like to admit”, then it’s time for some serious reflection. A recent study led by lead investigator, Wei Bao, from the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Iowa linked frequent consumption of away-from-home meals to an increased risk of all-cause death.
Eating Out – How Often and Why (adapted image). Source: Statistics Canada
The downside of dining out
It should come as no surprise that the dietary quality of meals from restaurants and fast food chains fall below home-cooked meals. You may have noticed that serving sizes at restaurants are quite large. Due to this, people have no way of controlling their calorie intake and the risk factor for obesity increases as well. In addition, fast food meals are usually high in sugar and sodium. Meals with added sugar are not only addictive but low in nutrition. It’s quite evident how addictive McDonald’s fries are and that may be due to them being coated in dextrose, a form of sugar. Meals high in sodium cause water retention which in turn can make you feel bloated and can also elevate blood pressure which puts stress on your heart. Most fast food meals also contain a large amount of carbohydrates. The video below called “How do carbohydrates impact your health?”, by the TED-Ed Youtube channel, explains what carbohydrates are and the downside of eating too many.
It gets worse
The dietary quality of food away from home is not exactly top tier but the problem does not end there. Recent evidence has also linked this poor dietary quality to an early death. Lead investigator Wei Bao’s study is one of the first to put in numbers the connection between eating out and mortality. The findings from this study built on previous knowledge, similar to what was discussed above, of how eating out often has negative impacts on our health. There were 35, 084 participants from this study that reported their dietary habits, such as how often they were dining out, in a questionnaire. During the follow-up with these participants, 2,781 deaths occurred. From this number, 511 deaths occurred from cardiovascular disease and 638 deaths occurred from cancer.
Sharpen those culinary skills
The fact that dining out frequently is not only unhealthy but is now linked to an early death should be a wake-up call for those of us that rarely eat home-cooked meals. The best recommendation for avoiding severe health problems would be to reduce the amount of meals we eat prepared away from home and instead sharpen our own cooking skills to prepare meals at home. Additionally, restaurants should practice portion control and reduce the serving sizes of their meals as another study has proposed. Hopefully, with this information, you’ll listen to your parents when they say “there’s food at home”.
– Ramdeep Dosanjh
