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Food delivery apps – a boon or a bane?

Nowadays, with a fast-paced life, it has become difficult to find time to cook at home! In today’s digitally connected world, food delivery at home is one of the most convenient services you can take advantage of. Food delivery apps are a new rage as they connect restaurants, cafes, sweet shops or any producer of ready-to-eat foods to the app owners to deliver food at their doorstep in a short time. In short, these apps act as a collaboration platform between the food hubs and the customers. As a dietician, I would like to share with you the pros and cons of ordering outside food so that you can make wise decisions.

ADVANTAGES:

Convenience

At present, a food delivery app is one of the most convenient services for everyone. Due to technology, with just a few clicks away on your phone, you can have a delicious hot meal delivered right at your house or office in an hour. Ordering food is great for busy people who may not have time to prepare a fully home-cooked meal. You don’t need to worry about what you’re going to eat next or if you have time to cook it and ensures that you won’t go hungry and will enjoy what you eat.

Saves Time

You don’t want to spend time shopping at the grocery store and buying the ingredients for your favourite meal, and then preparing and cooking at home. Instead, you can just call up your favourite restaurant and have your delicious food at home.

Choices are Endless

With endless varieties on the menu, you have a wide spectrum of food to choose from. This is especially true if you live in a city because the options are infinite. It also gives you a chance to try foods from different cultures. When cooking at home, we tend to stick to the local cuisine or the dishes we are comfortable making. When ordering food, you just have to order a dish that you like and satisfy your taste buds!!!

Coupons

Some restaurants and also certain apps offer rewards for ordering frequently, so they provide coupons for further upcoming orders. You don’t have to pay full price and can use these coupons and offers in future orders. This will save you some money while ordering your favourite food.

DISADVANTAGES:

On the contrary, the habit of ordering outside food can be addictive and dangerous to your health. Food poisoning, indigestion, acidity and food-borne infections in the short term and obesity, cholesterol problems, diabetes, hypertension, heart problems and other chronic disorders in the long term are the health hazards of this habit. Cancer is also known to occur due to the use of artificial flavouring and unhygienic cooking.

Expensive:

It’s undeniable that eating at home is much less expensive than ordering food or eating out. When you eat at home the labour cost is comparatively less to make your meal, you save on sales taxes and tips but if you order the food, you have to pay for everything. Just think of how much money you could save by making your own meal!

Consuming More Calories

When you order pizza, cheese loaded burgers or pastas, briyani or Indian sweets on a regular basis; you are consuming a diet high in calories and unhealthy fat. Even an order of salad or sandwich may be packed with hundreds of calories. When you order food, you probably have an idea of ingredients that are used to make your meal, but you can never be 100% sure. For instance, Chefs often use butter when frying something in a pan. But you might be unaware that 1 tablespoon of butter contains around 100calories. That’s a lot indeed! If you are looking to eat a healthy diet, then ordering food is definitely not an option.

Unaware of Restaurant’s Cleanliness

Another disadvantage is that you have no idea about the restaurant’s hygiene, cleanliness, and food processing and preparation conditions. Consuming unhygienic ally prepared food is sure to land you in illness. It’s always better to go with homemade food rather than eating food from a substandard place.

Cooking for Yourself

If you depend on outside food, then you will never successfully learn how to cook. Cooking is a skill that will benefit you throughout your life, so it doesn’t hurt to start early! When you grow older and have a family, you’ll like to cook at home as it is cheaper and also safe to administer, since you know the dark side. During holidays and celebrations, you’ll love to cook food for your guests too, rather than ordering it which may not impress them. When you stop ordering food and start to cook those recipes, and teach yourself how to cook some of your favourite meals, it will result in healthier eating habits and an improvement in overall health. Dedicating some time to cooking for yourself, you will definitely see a great change in your health and also in your bank account!

THE FINAL VERDICT:

Is It Worth It?

We know that ordering food is extremely convenient and will save you a lot of time especially if you are a bachelor, working out of town or new to the place. However, the money you spend on these can really add up to much higher than just cooking them at home. There is no clarity on what you’re eating and you might probably be consuming more calories than recommended or required. Additionally, the health hazards of eating outside food are numerous.

When you cook for yourself, you’ll save money and learn an essential lifelong skill. Taking a couple of  hours at the beginning of the week to prepare your food or making easy recipes on a daily basis are some tips to eat healthy home cooked food, save money and live a happy life without disease.

So the final verdict is it might be alright to have these apps on your phone and use them occasionally when home cooking is out of the question but making a habit out of this is definitely a NO-NO!