{"id":9993,"date":"2026-05-07T12:36:35","date_gmt":"2026-05-07T02:36:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/onthecoastpublications.com.au\/onthecoastfamilies\/?p=9993"},"modified":"2026-04-25T12:37:51","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T02:37:51","slug":"benefits-of-home-cooked-meals-nutrition-guide","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/onthecoastpublications.com.au\/onthecoastfamilies\/benefits-of-home-cooked-meals-nutrition-guide\/","title":{"rendered":"\ud83e\udd57 Why Home Cooked is Always Best: A Dietitian\u2019s Guide for Busy Families"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Carin Clegg, Accredited Practising Dietitian<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a Dietitian, people are always asking me what the best food is to eat. Is this food better than that? Usually, the answer is to eat a variety of foods from the five food groups and eat in moderation. This translates to meaning keeping \u2018everyday\u2019 foods as your usual daily eating habit, and having the option of \u2018sometimes\u2019 or \u2018discretionary\u2019 foods in small amounts and very infrequently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When asked what the best kind of food is to eat, I will often say food that is home cooked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Home cooked meals used to be the norm in my grandparent\u2019s generation where 3 meals: breakfast, lunch and dinner, were home cooked daily for the family. Cooking a meal is a gesture of love, using nutritious foods and eating together was assumed normal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nowadays, with busy families, with different work and activity schedules, cooking in bulk and having leftovers, eating out, ordering takeaway or using ready meals is common. Cooking is now often thought of as a chore especially when there can be a shortcut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Home cooked meals are a very important part of eating a healthy balanced diet that meets your individual needs to keep you healthy for a variety of reasons:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Home cooked foods often have less added sugars, fats and salt<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Foods processed at a large scale often loses its natural flavour. So, food companies add ingredients to manage this such as extra sugar, fats, salt, spices and other \u2018flavours\u2019 to bring out more flavour or even to disguise the flavour of older meat. This can also make these foods questionable as to whether they are \u2018everyday\u2019 foods or \u2018sometimes foods\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eating more energy, sugar, fat and salt than your body needs increases your risk of developing dental caries, diabetes, cardiovascular disease (hypertension\/high cholesterol), some cancers, fatty liver and a range of other health conditions. When cooking at home you can control how much salt, spices, sugar and fat as well as the types of fats and carbohydrates you eat depending on your body\u2019s nutrition requirements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Home cooking gives you control over your food portions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you make home cooked meals or even desserts, you can portion out the serving size to meet your body\u2019s needs and not the one the food manufacturer decides. For example, if you have done a big workout, you may need a meal with more carbohydrate and\/or protein that what you might usually choose. If you have been quite sedentary you may need less carbohydrates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Home cooking gives you more control of where the food you eat is grown and where your money goes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Home cooked meals mean you have control of purchasing locally grown ingredients, supporting local farmers and your community. Often buying pre\u2013prepared foods or meals means you do not know where the ingredients come from, often from various places all over the world, meaning huge food miles and funding big international food corporations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Home cooking helps us connect with our bodies and the people around us<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we eat a home cooked meal at the table together, we truly appreciate the effort put in and the food tastes better as the ingredients have been cooked fresh. We often wait for the food to be served, giving our bodies time to take in all the sensory information of the food and prepare our body for digesting it. In conversation we can often eat slower giving our body time to send out satiety signals to prevent over\u2013eating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Studies have shown that kids learn to eat a wider range of foods to meet their body\u2019s need, and older people at risk of malnourishment, eat better when eating together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cooking is an essential life skill. With our multicultural influences and foodie culture, we tend to think we need to be Master Chefs and cook a huge range of culturally varied meals in a week. However, this need not be the case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simple home cooked meals can be a:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n