Home cooking may not only stir warm and cozy memories of familiar foods coming from the kitchen – it could also be healthier for you than the modern trend of takeout, fast food and restaurant meals. New research presented at the annual conference of the American Heart Association shows a link between frequency of home-prepared lunches and dinners and risk of type 2 diabetes. People who ate 11-14 lunches or dinners prepared at home per week were 13% less likely to develop diabetes during eight years of follow-up. Home cooking was also associated with less weight gain and incidence of obesity, which researchers said could explain the difference in diabetes risk.
The research used data from two large studies of health professionals totaling nearly 100,000 men and women. There was not enough data to include breakfast habits.