Eating In Never Felt This Good

The economic downturn may be helping America’s obesity problem. Due to citizens’ budgets decreasing, more and more people are cooking meals at home instead of going out to eat. Meals made at home are generally healthier than those served at restaurants and fast food services because you have control over what ingredients you put into your meal and you tend to eat less when you eat at home. Not only are people eating at home, but they are even making their meals from scratch because it is generally less expensive overall than buying mixes. This adds to the healthy factor.
This phenomenon has been repeated at though out American history during times of economic crises (the Great Depression) as well as times of war (World War II). Not only does it help people save money, but it may be just the thing that America needs to help the rising obesity issue.
While dining at home has a lot of beneficial aspects, dining at home depends on the person who is making the food. Generally, the person making the food is also the person in the household who pays the bills or has access to the bills and therefore, makes changes to meals according to the budget. When the budget decreases, there is the option of making their food; however, there is also the option of eating cheap fast food or buying cheap, unhealthy food to eat. This person, also referred to as the “gatekeeper” makes the choice for their family to benefit or suffer from this situation. While it appears that most people are choosing option one at this point, there are still those who are settling with option two which is only adding to the horrible obesity problem in our country. In order to help this, awareness and help needs to be given to all Americans including easy recipes, easy access to ingredients, and a general knowledge of the benefits of eating healthy. At low points it is so easy to be lazy and eat easy “comfort” food; however, we must realize that this is not helping anyone or any situation.