Home-cooked meals ‘slash risk of type 2 diabetes by 15%’

Eating in could keep you slim and cut your risk of diabetes. Research shows that people who normally have their dinner at home are thinner than their counterparts who like to dine out. And their risk of diabetes is cut by up to 15 per cent. Nipping home for lunch is also good for health, the study found.

The researchers, from the Harvard School of Public Health, United States (U.S.), said that home-cooked meals are likely to be healthier than those eaten out. Plus, people consume more sugary fizzy drinks in restaurants than at home.

The research published in the journal PLOS Medicine comes amid mounting concern about rising rates of type 2 diabetes.

The condition, which is fuelled by obesity, eats up a tenth of the NHS’s budget and leads to disabling and life-threatening complications from stroke and heart attacks, to blindness and circulatory problems that lead to limbs being amputated.

Researcher Geng Zong tracked the health of almost 100,000 middle-aged men and women for up to 26 years.

The volunteers were quizzed on their diet and lifestyle as well as where they ate their meals.

All were free of diabetes at the start of the study but, by the end, more than 9,000 had developed the condition.

Analysis the revealed the more meals a person had a home, the lower their risk.

Dinners in were particularly good for health, with those who had their evening meal at home five to seven times a week 15 per cent less likely to develop diabetes than those who only ate in up twice a week.

However, having lunch at home was also beneficial, with those who had most of their midday meals at home nine per cent less likely to develop diabetes.

People who ate at home also put on less weight over the years, the journal PLOS Medicine reports.

They also ate more fruit and veg and whole grains but consumed fewer fizzy drinks.

Interestingly, the women who tended to eat in exercised more than others.

But men who dined at home were less active and ate more fry-ups.

The study didn’t look at whether those who ate at home were doing their own cooking or simply preparing meals from processed ingredients, such as jars of pasta sauce.

However, Zong said: “Cooking from scratch should be a better option, and highly encouraged.”

He added that fast food lovers cannot bend the rules by eating takeaways, as these are classified as meals out, despite being eaten at home.

The researchers concluded: “Dining out has become increasingly popular in many countries.

“Meals prepared out of the home are usually high in energy and fat but low in micronutrients such as calcium, vitamin C and iron.

“From a public health perspective, actions are needed to encourage cooking meals at home, and to improve the quality of meals prepared out of the home, to facilitate diabetes prevention.”

But bad cooks needn’t be too disheartened because an earlier study concluded the longer we spend preparing a meal, the less healthy we are.

The researchers, from Rush University in Chicago, said that home chefs may be extra generous with unhealthy ingredients such as butter and salt.

Frequent taste tests, coupled with a feeling that they have to eat more because of the effort that went into preparation, could also be to blame.