As Fast Food chains in the united states become increasingly more popular in the average American persons diet, the Average weight of the American person also increases. Americans feel that they are saving both money and time by stopping at a fast food restaurant to pick up dinner for their family. If we take a deeper look into the prices of fast food and the prices of preparing your own food, we find that most of the time it is a smarter financial decision to eat healthy by preparing your own meals. Some may say that fast food is a lot faster and more accessible for someone who is always on the go which is hard to argue, but meal prepping for the weak ahead of time can save you even more time. Also, even if it is a little bit more effort the food you make yourself always tastes better.

Fast Food seems like the perfect decision for anyone who is in a rush to get home but also needs to feed their family. What many people don’t realize is that in the time it takes them to drive to the restaurant, order the food, pay for the food, then return home. You could have already had a full meal prepared and relaxed and spent quality time with your family while you were waiting on your meal to be finished cooking. Home cooked meals also help bring families together at the table to eat a home cooked meal. Another major thing to take into consideration is the cleanliness of your food, the food that you prepare at home is bound to be much more sanitary that that which you would buy from a fast food restaurant because you never have any idea if where they are preparing your food is clean or dirty.

If you have children, they will benefit greatly from eating a home cooked meal or even helping cook the meal. Children get a sense of accomplishment from helping to cook then eating what they have prepared they will ultimately feel better about themselves. Also getting kids into the habit of eating with the family around the table, letting them talk about their days and what is going on in their lives will bring the family closer together as a whole. Also making them become more comfortable when something comes up in their lives that most kids wouldn’t want to share. Grabbing a meal for the family from a fast food restaurant does not allow you to spend all the time with your family that you get to spend when you cook a meal at home. Although there are circumstances where fast food fits perfectly into the picture, like going on a long road trip and picking up a quick bite to eat.

In the past few years American citizens have begun to get fatter from having fast food diets. Despite the fact people are becoming obese people continue to consume fast food on a regular basis making it their main source of food. Because of the way fast food is prepared with cheap unhealthy ingredients, some of the ingredients are said to be addicting which is why people always go back. People whom constantly eat from fast food restaurants start to have a fast food diet causing them to not obtain the necessary nutrients from food that people with a healthy diet get.

Eating a home cooked meal once a day is very good for peoples health eating a good home cooked meal for breakfast can increase brain function and concentration. It will also give you more energy causing you to be less tired throughout the day. Cooking food at home also allows you to have portion control over what your eating and control exactly what your eating by adding your own ingredients. People who eat more home cooked meals than fast food tend to be happier and healthier since their body’s are getting exactly what they need. The reasons why home cooked meal’s give you all these benefits because you consume less sugar and processed foods that people normally consume at a fast food restaurant. It is even said that eating home cooked meals five or more days a week is linked to a longer life. On top of all the good things home cooked meals do for our bodies they even help our environment by reducing the amount of waste produced from fast food packaging.

A Major argument from people who constantly eat fast food is the price. People claim that fast food is cheaper that its counterpart that you can make at home. I will start by comparing breakfasts. For $8 at HEB you can buy everything you need to make a sausage English muffin which includes eggs which you can buy a dozen for two dollars, the English muffins which you get six for two dollars, sausage patties which you can get 8 for 3 dollars and cheese slices which you can get 16 slices for a dollar. This is compared to a Mc. Donald’s Sausage egg McMuffin which costs only $3. On the surface it looks like buying the breakfast from Mc. Donald’s is the better financial decision but once you realize that for $8 dollars you can make 6 whole sausage egg Mc Muffins Which makes the total for one home cooked sausage egg Mc Muffin only $1.30 making it a much better deal to eat break fast at home than at a fast food restaurant.

Next I Will look into the price comparison of a normal lunch-dinner meal from a fast food restaurant vs. an equal home cooked meal. I will use Burger King and HEB as examples for prices, a whopper meal from burger king will Cost about $6.50 that includes fry’s and a drink and contains 1180 calories, to make the same meal at home would cost about $10 but with the supplies you could make the meal 4 times over making the actual meal cost about $2.50. This tells us that it would be much cheaper if you had the time, also if you were feeding more than one person the price to buy fast food would be outrageous. There are other options from fast food restaurants that may be cheaper than cooking the food on your own, but those meals are much less healthy for you than when you cook the food yourself.

In Conclusion Cooking food from not only makes it taste better it also Costs less, gives you a sense of accomplishment, and gives you more time to spend with your family. Cooking at home also gives you the necessary nutrients that you need to function and maintain a healthy mind and body. Although getting a quick meal on the way to work each day may seem insignificant to your health it can actually began to have a great impact on your health. Even though cooking from home can be tedious and time consuming it is very important for everyone to eat from home at least every once in a while.