Weekend Eating-Out Falling Sick Loop Broken by COVID Stay At Home

Weekend! It is a great time between Friday evening to Monday morning when people get time for themselves from their hectic schedule throughout the week.

Everyone waits for the weekend to chill or to relax either with their families or friends. Some like to stay in the home to give time to their family, cook their meal together, cleaning their houses, watch a movie on television, or play with their kids. Some like to go out for a movie, clubs, at a party with friends, for dinner, etc. Some prefer to go on a long drive, whereas some like to sleep. Everyone spends the weekend differently depending upon their mood or interest.

Most of people love outing. Clubs, parties, eating out is their most favorite thing to do on the weekends. The food ordered from a restaurant looks more tempting and delicious than the food prepared at home. It is ok to have outside food once or twice a month, some even have every week once or twice. But weekend eating outside has caused health issues far too often.

As people are staying home and eating mostly at home. They are not getting sick as often as they did earlier.

The food prepared in restaurants contains different types of additives, artificial chemicals that are harmful to our bodies. We don’t know what quality of ingredients they are using in the food. The restaurant business has become very competitive and pricing wars / discounts created by food apps have probably forced or encouraged restaurants to compromise on quality ingredients.  

Many restaurants are dimly lit and have great interiors. However, we don’t know about cleanliness, and the food served by them is hygienic or not.  If the food is only served with visible aesthetics but microbially infected. It is almost impossible to find out.

Driven by the desire to spend family time and give a break from cooking to the family members. Have we compromised our health and discomfort? People are starting to wonder.

There is only one advantage of eating outside that is – Different restaurants provide different recipes, also they have distinct scenery which attracts us and in some places the scenery, the music relaxes our mind. But there are more disadvantages to eating outside. These are:

1. All oils are not the same – oils like palmolein oil are cheap but not healthy. This oil is extensively used in restaurants.
2. Re-used oil or old cooking oil, is not good for health. When the oil is repeatedly heated it loses its viscosity.  Such oils make the food appear very oily and not healthy either.
3. The excess amount of salt and sugar added while preparing sauces and toppings increases the risk of high blood pressure and blood sugar levels.
4. Germs in the stale meat covered up with extra spices may cause frequent sore throats and cold-like symptoms
5. The storing, cooking, and serving of foods can all lead to bacterial and viral infections.
6. The various employees in restaurants could either be ill themselves or their bad hygeine could cause infectious diseases

Eating unhealthy food weakens our immune system and makes us more prone to diseases.

But now the situation has changed. That was the scene before the outbreak of corona. Before Covid-19 people were free to do anything they want. Because of Covid-19, schools and offices are closed. Schools have organized online classes for their students and professionals are doing work from home. Malls, restaurants, hotels are closed. We are stuck in our homes.

Our lifestyle has completely changed now. As tasty food is soo much important, we are now learning to cook those recipes which we used to eat outside. The advantages of having homemade food are:

1. Homemade food is more healthy and nutritious.
2. When prepared by self we used to take good care of the quality of ingredients used in it. The amount of oil, salt, sugar, species goes in it will be less than those in the outside food.
3. While preparing food we take care of hygiene.
4. Home-cooked food is a lot cheaper.

Now we can compare the outside food and homemade food. One can easily tell which one is better health-wise. It is so easy to see that we don’t fall ill as often with homemade food. In our struggle to find the seat in the food court or the busy restaurant – we probably sat in visually clean but germful tables. These situations caused

By preparing food at home we can save or money as well as ourselves from being sick. The loop of going out and having food then facing health difficulties is broken. Now people are learning to enjoy at home. Maybe even after the end of this pandemic, people will continue to follow the same habit for a healthy and better life.