Most nutritionists and nutritionists agree that you can occasionally indulge in your diet.
But is it better to make these indulgent foods at home instead of buying boxed or factory-processed options?
This includes everything from home with flour and eggs (cutting out any unwanted ingredients) to baking cakes from scratch instead of using a boxed cake mixture.
Research says simple dietary changes can reduce your risk of colon cancer.
Bryan Hitchcock, chief science and technology officer at the Chicago Institute of Food Technicians (IFT), shared his thoughts in an interview with Fox News Digital.
“While food companies bring forward food solutions that meet the needs of modern life, whether it’s pasta sauce prepared for edible or mold-free bread, more and more people are getting healthier,” he said.
Baking cakes from scratch is healthier than boxed options thanks to personal control over individual ingredients. (iStock)
For those who can cook from scratch at home, Hitchcock emphasizes understanding how to create and consume foods that are low in sodium, added sugar and unhealthy fat while “spreading the flavor” and ensuring food safety.
“It can be a challenge, and that's why consumers need to make informed decisions based on clear, concise, scientifically based information,” he said.
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He said both at home and in making food can promote a healthy lifestyle.
Recent research supports this, finding that homemade food is no “better or safer in nutrition” than industrially produced foods.
New research finds that homemade food and industrially produced foods are “better or safer in nutrition.” (iStock)
The 2024 study, published in the journal Food Science, compares the nutritional value and harmful compounds in processed and homemade foods, such as fish sticks, tomato sauce, plum cakes and cereal sticks, similar recipes without ingredients and techniques, and not at home.
The results of the study show that, by contrast, homemade food “does not necessarily provide excellent nutritional quality or low harmful compounds.”
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Hitchcock said food processing is just a large-scale version of tools and technologies consumers use at home, such as cutting, cooking, washing, washing, frying and grilling, which allows for tighter temperature control to reduce harmful chemicals and prevent nutrient losses unless factory or industrial processing is processed. ”
“It provides stricter hygiene in terms of storing ingredients, processing and packaging,” he added.
At-home food preparation allows consumers to control their food experience in terms of ingredient quality, choice and food preparation. (iStock)
But at-home food preparation also allows consumers to control their food experience in terms of ingredient quality, choice and food preparation, Hitchcock notes.
“For consumers, whether they are preparing at home or outside of the home, they must monitor the key nutritional parameters of the food consumed,” he said.
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Chicago-based health nutrition coach and cancer recovery expert Michelle Patidar supports the idea of making food from whole food at home.
“The more we get rid of packaging or super processed food, the better our health will be,” she told Fox News Digital.
A nutrition coach says it’s best to get rid of super processed food. (iStock)
Patidar reminds consumers that there are healthy alternatives to their “fingertips”.
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“And you can be happy with real whole foods that are not contaminated and do not have gums, emulsifiers and food dyes, because we want to avoid this as much as possible,” she said.
