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The Coronavirus pandemic, its lockdowns, its heightened safety concerns and its numerous constraints have put the spotlight back on home-cooked food – and that’s actually a positive development. When you cook at home, you can ensure that the food is healthier and more nutritive.
For starters, you can use fresh ingredients that are handpicked. When you eat out or order in, you have no control over the quality of the ingredients, their freshness or the hygienic standards with which they have been handled.
More importantly, with home-cooked food you can control the cooking medium. When food is cooked outside, there’s no way for you to find out what oil it is cooked in, nor can you be sure of the quality of that oil. For all you know, the restaurant or eatery may have reheated and reused the oil several times – an unhealthy practice that may result in the release of trans-fats or worse still, the formation of dangerous toxins.
When you cook at home, you can choose only those cooking oils that are known to be healthy – for example, cold-pressed Mustard Oil, cold-pressed sesame (Til) oil or Desi Ghee. Your choice of cooking oil is a very important decision. It is an item that involves a regular intake on a daily basis – across breakfast, lunch, teatime snacks and dinner. That’s why you need to be careful.
And last but not the least, there is a philosophical benefit offered by home-cooked food. Many cultures across the world believe that the love and care with which a parent, grandparent or homemaker cooks the food is an important part of its nutritional value. When you eat outside food, you have no control over the mood, frame of mind or sensitivities of the cook. He may have cooked your food in anger… or in a disturbed state-of-mind. All this negativity gets into the food – and when you eat it, it could make you ill.
On the other hand, home-cooked meals are personalized… created with a gentle, loving touch. Make them an important part of your daily life.
