Eating Out vs Home-Cooked Meals and Diet Quality

Whether it's grabbing lunch between meetings, ordering takeaway after a long day, or meeting friends for dinner, eating out has become a normal part of modern life. With countless options ranging from budget-friendly to high-end restaurants, and from fast food outlets to health-focused establishments, people choose to eat out for many reasons, including convenience, variety, social connection, and enjoyment.

At the same time, home-cooked meals are often considered the healthier option. However, as the availability of healthier restaurant and takeaway choices continues to grow, it is reasonable to question whether meals consumed outside the home are necessarily associated with poorer diet quality.

In this article, we will explore what the evidence says about eating out, home cooking, and diet quality.

What does the evidence say?

• A large nationally representative study of US adults and children found that foods obtained from grocery stores consistently had higher diet quality scores than foods obtained from restaurants. Although restaurant food quality improved between 2003 and 2018, restaurants still had the lowest overall diet quality of the major food sources studied. (1)

• A systematic review of 38 observational studies found that more frequent home cooking was generally associated with better dietary quality, including higher fruit and vegetable intake and healthier overall dietary patterns. However, the authors noted that overall evidence was inconsistent and relied on observational research. This means home cooking may be associated with better diet quality, but the review could not show that it directly causes those benefits. (2)

• Analysis of nationally representative US data found that adults in households where dinner was cooked more often at home consumed fewer daily calories, carbohydrates, fat, sugar, and fast-food meals than those in households that cooked less often. The authors concluded that cooking dinner at home more frequently was associated with a healthier diet, regardless of whether someone was trying to lose weight. (3)

• A cross-sectional analysis of nationally representative UK dietary data from 6,364 adults found that home-prepared food was associated with better diet quality, measured by adherence to the DASH dietary pattern (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension). For every 10% increase in energy from home-prepared food, participants were about 20% more likely to have a DASH-accordant diet, even after accounting for several socio-demographic factors. (4)

What does that mean in practice?

• The available evidence suggests that preparing more meals at home is generally associated with better overall diet quality. That does not prove that home cooking is the direct cause, but it does suggest that diets with more home-prepared meals often look better overall than diets relying more heavily on meals prepared outside the home.

• Cooking skills and confidence may still help. A systematic review of cooking-class interventions found that these programmes were associated with better self-efficacy and healthier dietary intake, although they were not clearly linked to significant changes in cardiometabolic risk factors. (5)

• A common perception is that healthy eating is more expensive. However, one study of adults found that more frequent home-cooked dinners were associated with better Healthy Eating Index scores without a significant increase in food spending, while more frequent eating out was linked to higher spending and lower dietary guideline compliance. (6)

• Overall, these findings do not necessarily mean all restaurant or takeaway meals are unhealthy or that every home-cooked meal is nutritious. The overall diet quality depends on the overall eating pattern across the week. Diets with a greater proportion of home-prepared meals tend to be of higher quality, so preparing most meals at home while occasionally eating out may be a practical and sustainable approach.

Key takeaway

Current evidence suggests that diets containing a greater proportion of home-prepared meals are generally associated with higher overall diet quality than diets relying more heavily on meals prepared outside the home. While eating out can certainly be part of a healthy lifestyle, preparing most meals at home may be a practical strategy for improving dietary quality over time.

References:

1. Liu J, Micha R, Li Y, Mozaffarian D. Trends in food sources and diet quality among US children and adults, 2003-2018. JAMA Netw Open. 2021;4(4):e215262. doi:10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.5262.

2. Mills S, White M, Brown H, Wrieden W, Kwasnicka D, Halligan J, et al. Health and social determinants and outcomes of home cooking: a systematic review of observational studies. Appetite. 2017;111:116-34. doi:10.1016/j.appet.2016.12.022.

3. Wolfson JA, Bleich SN. Is cooking at home associated with better diet quality or weight-loss intention? Public Health Nutr. 2015;18(8):1397-406. doi:10.1017/S1368980014001943.

4. Clifford Astbury C, Penney TL, Adams J. Home-prepared food, dietary quality and socio-demographic factors: a cross-sectional analysis of the UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey 2008-16. Int J Behav Nutr Phys Act. 2019;16(1):82. doi:10.1186/s12966-019-0846-x.

5. Hasan B, Thompson WG, Almasri J, Wang Z, Lakis S, Prokop LJ, et al. The effect of culinary interventions (cooking classes) on dietary intake and behavioral change: a systematic review and evidence map. BMC Nutr. 2019;5:29. doi:10.1186/s40795-019-0293-8.

6. Tiwari A, Aggarwal A, Tang W, Drewnowski A. Cooking at home: a strategy to comply with U.S. dietary guidelines at no extra cost. Am J Prev Med. 2017;52(5):616-24. doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2017.01.017.

Disclaimer: This article is for educational purposes only and does not replace medical advice. Individual needs vary, and personalised guidance from a qualified healthcare professional is recommended for tailored support.