Many friends warn me that compared to home cooking, commercial cooking uses far inferior ingredients, i.e. wrong nutrition. ( uncooked food is “safest” by comparison) Yet, for my BMI, my cardio risk, biggest problem is availability — wrong time and wrong quantity, not wrong nutrition.

This revelation and the tips below makes this blogpost one of the most valuable self-discovery in recent years because I was baffled for more than a decade why home cooking represents such a massive derailer to my diet regime over my entire adult life

— updates:

Critical thinking .. home cooking is better nutrition, but why my experience proved that my BMI was always better when living alone without home cooking? I would say quantity outweighs quality.

quality of commercial food .. nowadays I buy more raw foods, less affected by inferior nutritional quality of commercial cooking.
fast food .. is known for poor nutritional quality, but I seldom eat fast food when living alone.
home food still involves commercial cooked foods such as bakeries, ice creams
nuts .. as a group is never home-cooked. If I eat at home, the nuts in the home stash become unexpected and hazardous.
fish and meat .. perhaps home cooking is better quality, but by how many percent?
vegetables.. perhaps home cooking is better quality. Nowadays I tend to eat raw.
starch at home .. tend to be too enticing. The home stash has lots of outside starch food
starch bought outside .. tend to have more fiber, and stored in a stash under control
soymilk .. home-made is better, and I don’t overeat.
milkshake .. home-made is better.

— buying a small ice cream ^ home cooked meal

• The Ice cream is usually a conscious buy, less likely wrong-time and rarely wrong qty.
• home cooked food — frequently wrong time and wrong qty. In the grand scheme of things, the quality factor is smaller.

— ice cream in home fridge ^ single ice cream in BurgerKing

Wrong-qty temptation is clearly worse at home

— hawker mixed veg rice ^ home cooked meal

• hawker food is a conscious selection (Nowadays I ask for less rice and often more veg) — rarely wrong time/qty
• home food — more likely wrong time/qty. In the grand scheme of things, the quality factor is smaller.

— healthy fish cooked at home:

I am still struggling with this challenge. I think it’s important to avoid starch completely if I were to eat home-cooked fish.

— grandma’s 饼 ^ similar food from MRT station 山东大包

Wrong-time temptation? Well, in this case the time of eating is the same.

I sometimes choose to get out of the house and eat the commercial food ! I have reason to believe grandma’s cooking uses more healthy ingredients, possibly less oily. However, ,,

Wrong-qty temptation? With commercial food, I somehow have the self-control to buy and eat just one piece. At home, I typically eat twice as much. Sometimes I can restrict myself to one piece, but it takes a huge effort as a lot more is left on the table or in the fridge.