Is "Homemade" Food Really Healthier Than Restaurant Food?

Image by Dimitrios Dalagiorgos via Flickr

I guess the answer is "yes", if you have a wonderful mother or partner who can cook "professionally", or, if you are a good cook yourself. If not, I think sticking on your own food might do more harm than good to your health.

In my experience, getting take-out foods from restaurants really is one of reasons that helped me tremendously on my health recovering. The reason is simple: since I can only be that much "creative" by myself, eating my own boring food everyday really could not supply all nutrition my body needs.

Recalling my past years, my diet had been never good but "Ok" until 2009, when I stopped almost completely eating outside of my house (because that's the time I started working at home). Back then I learned a "scientific" common sense that eating at home was always better than the junk foods from restaurant. So I started cooking myself everyday. However the truth turned out just opposite: after I mentally completely settled in peace, my physical health which was supposed to be on progress just went down, all the way down to the bottom. Finally, after my last serious relapse, which was summer 2010, I "woke up" from my false "belief" on some sort of healthy diet structure, and gradually realized that my own foods were the primary reason of my illness. So while I improved my "homemade" foods, I also started getting take-out foods from restaurant regularly, just give myself some alternatives on the taste and nutrition. Since then, my health started climbing up, from 20-30% of energy level to now, over 90% everyday.

Food, or diet, really is the last piece of the puzzle of my chronic health problem. I knew food was important many years ago but I did not really know what's exactly I missed until a little over a year ago. What I really learned? 1: listen to my body instead of listen to "professional". But of course, I do not mean "absolutely"; 2: diversity. Never stick on just one type of foods for too long; 3, health care is a personal thing, so is diet. It is up to everybody him/herself to find out what's the best.