Food could be a major expense and one which will vary wildly from month to month. You may be very mindful about your spending one month, always visiting the foodstuff and discovering generic items or only items that are on sale and you finish up spending around $400 that month. Then the subsequent month, you move out to eat for each meal, have food delivered, and devour travel orders on your way home and you finish up spending upwards of $1000 or more (and this may not even be factoring in that daily Starbucks purchase!)
There’s a never-ending debate about whether going bent on gnawing at restaurants is better than cooking your meals at home. Some swear by cooking everything themselves while others would not be seized dead in the kitchen. For the solution to the current age-old question, let’s break it down.
The Bureau of Labor reported that a family of 4 can spend between $550 to $1,300 a month that breaking all the way down to between $138 and $325 per week on food as somebody with a group of three. It is quite evident that is a wide spread on spend. $550 to $1,300 is largely what we spend without delay a month. Add another month and that’ll go up a lot. And that’s not even taking into consideration living in a more affluent area where the cost of living is higher.
Regardless, the typical meal at a restaurant costs roughly $15, and if you extrapolate that over the course of a 30-day month, you’ll pay $1,350 to feed one person and $5,400 to feed a family of 4. That’s a lot of dough.
Studies have shown that individuals who cook at home do consume fewer calories, carbs, fats, and sugars than those that dine out which makes cooking your meals healthier, on average, than eating out. This makes a good deal of sense because you’re on top of things of the ingredients once you cook at home. You decide on whether to cook your meal with butter or vegetable oil. You’ll be able to like better to keep company with a leaner cut of meat that is healthier for you. You’re ready to choose a sugar-free option for dessert instead of rolling the dice at the Italian restaurant on that delicious sounding cannoli.
The main drawback to eating at home is how time-consuming it is. The more you cook, the faster you’ll be ready to adapt, but it still takes up lots of your time. You have got to go shopping for all of the ingredients, prep them, then cook the meal, and then clean up. If you’re just cooking for yourself, you’ll be able to probably escape by cooking a meal in 30–45 minutes, with about 10 minutes of clean-up. If you are cooking for your family, you are not doing it in less than 60 minutes.
Eating out does not only count as sitting down at a restaurant. It also includes reading an order to travel on your way home, having DoorDash or Uber Eats to deliver food, and swinging through a drive-thru at a quick food joint. All of those options are technically “eating out”. While they’re different, what they do share is convenience. A (hopefully) skilled professional will be making your food and they are also doing it at an A level that you just won’t be capable of on the fly.
Not everyone is a classically trained chef, or good at cooking for that matter. I do know some of those that struggle to use a microwave and can’t make one meal without burning something. However, once you venture out to eat, you’re able to experience food and flavors that you simply would have otherwise never tasted. You’ll even have a carefree conversation with your friends, family, or colleagues without having to stress about juggling the addition of cooking to your daily routine.
The biggest disadvantage to eating out is the price. You’ll be able to spend on one meal what people spend for a complete week or month’s worth of groceries. And if you extrapolate that over the course of a month, you’ll find yourself spending thousands of dollars on food when it could be hundreds.
The bottom line is that cooking your meals at home is significantly less expensive than eating out, and it affords you control over how to monitor your calories, macronutrients, and even vitamins and minerals. With some training and research, you can cook the identical dish at home that you’d get at a restaurant for a fraction of the value and still have leftovers for afterward within the week. If you’re looking to chop down on your expenses, maybe put a bit extra into your bank account monthly, it is worth it to invest the time into cooking meals at home.
However, if you aren’t strapped for cash, you’re pressed for time, or you have a demanding job, then eating out may be a more robust solution for your lifestyle.
Ultimately, one isn’t completely better than the opposite. Yes, eating home is cheaper, but ordering a takeaway is incredibly convenient and fast. Heck, you can’t really make the argument that eating home is healthier than eating out if you do your homework and eat out at those healthier, high-end, well-sourced restaurants. If you like to cook with butter, certain oils, or certain ingredients there are plenty of restaurants that have carefully crafted their menu to own healthy – and delicious – options for the health-conscious. Accordingly, meal portions at traditional restaurants are steadily returning to sane sizes rather than super-size-me portions.
If we glance at it from a value and health perspective, eating at home is healthier. If we glance at it from a convenience and variety perspective, eating out is the stronger alternative. What it boils all the way down to is what works best for you and your lifestyle.
Seattle took home gold as the most expensive city to take out. At a lifetime cost of about $ 8,000 more than the second-largest city, Seattle residents have to pay a hefty bill to facilitate delivery.
Interestingly, Seattle takes on average only $ 11 more per month than Pittsburgh for takeoff, but for a lifetime, that extra $11 really does increase.
At the other end of the spectrum, the city with the cheapest takeout habits is Detroit. For just $142 a month to take out, this is the city where your takeout habits will put the least pressure on your wallet.
Of course, we know we have to provide proof of how much you can save on home cooking, so we did just that. In each city, people order food at the grocery store, and based on the increase in the number of meals they have to prepare themselves, a research study was conducted to demonstrate the annual potential savings from home cooking.
Here’s what the by-the-city numbers show, in a nutshell: Seattle offers the most savings for home cooking instead of ordering. Just behind Seattle is Pittsburgh, followed by San Francisco and Miami. San Jose and Virginia Beach were also top cities for home cooking savings.
Takeout is a great option for those days when you are working late or in a pinch, but the cost of these slow nights increases exponentially, and in general, the options you are reaching are less healthy, leaving you less happy! In this way, last night’s pizza wishes didn’t stop you from fulfilling your New Year’s resolutions!
Cooking at home is a great first step if you want to meet the New Year’s resolution to spend less and eat better, and if you want to go one step further, you must know how your body processes food and exercise so that you can customize your food preparation for a diet that works with your body.
If you are one of those who loves to eat at home, or if you have the funds to order the very detailed home delivery meal preps that are controlled down to the calorie, then you ultimately do have the ability to control more of what you put into your body at a granular level.
An additional benefit of this control is getting informed about what works for your body so you’re not putting pointless calories and macros into it, no matter if you’re eating at home or dining out. HealthCodes DNA offers a macronutrient ratio as part of its introductory genetic test for health and wellness that really helps you trim the fat, so to speak, so you aren’t wasting your time and effort on wasted calories and nutrition your body doesn’t need. No matter your dining preference of dining in versus eating out, a more informed lifestyle tailored to your body’s needs will benefit you tremendously in the long run and keep you sticking to your routines.
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These “privacy highlights” provide an overview of some core components of our data handling practices. Please be sure to readour full privacy statement below.
By agreeing to our Privacy Statement and Terms of Service, you consent to sensitive information, such as information about your health, Genetic Information, and Self-Reported Information such as racial and ethnic origin and sexual orientation (where you provide it) being used by us to:
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This privacy statement applies to all websites owned and operated by HealthCodes DNA, LLC (“HealthCodes DNA”), including healthcodesdna.com and register.healthcodesdna.com Our Privacy Statement is designed to help you better understand how we collect, use, store, process, and transfer your information when operating our website, mobile apps, products, software and other services (collectively “Service” or “Services“).
The following are our core privacy principles:
Please review this Privacy Policy and our Terms of Service. By using our Services, you agree to all of the policies and procedures described in the foregoing documents. HealthCodes DNA, LLC is referred to herein as HealthCodes DNA (or “we,” “us,” “our”) and includes all of our commonly owned companies.
Web Behavior Information. We and our third-party partners use cookies and similar technologies (such as web beacons, tags, scripts and device identifiers) to help us recognize you, customize and improve your experience, provide security, analyze usage of our Services (such as to analyze your interactions with the results, reports, and other features of the Service), gather demographic information about our user base, to offer our products and services to you, to monitor the success of marketing programs, and to serve targeted advertising on our site and on other sites around the Internet. We and our third-party partners do not use your sensitive information, such as Genetic Information and Self-Reported Information for targeted advertising. We may receive reports based on the use of these technologies by these companies on an individual as well as aggregated basis. Users can control the use of cookies at the individual browser level. If you reject cookies, you may still use our site, but your ability to use some features or areas of our site may be limited.
As is true of most websites, we gather certain information automatically and store it in log files. This information may include internet protocol (IP) addresses, browser type, internet service provider (ISP), referring/exit pages, operating system, date/time stamp, and/or clickstream data. We may combine this automatically collected log information with other information we collect about you, such as your user profile ID or order number. We do this to improve services we offer you, and to improve marketing, analytics, and site functionality.
When you access our Service by or through a mobile device, we may receive or collect and store a unique identification numbers associated with your device or our mobile application (including, for example, a UDID, Unique ID for Advertisers (“IDFA”), Google Ad ID, or Windows Advertising ID), mobile carrier, device type, model and manufacturer, mobile device operating system brand and model, phone number, and, depending on your mobile device settings, your geographical location data, including GPS coordinates (e.g. latitude and/or longitude) or similar information regarding the location of your mobile device.
Because HealthCodes DNA relies on third-party ad networks who may track you across websites over time for advertising purposes, we are not able to respond to your selection of the “Do Not Track” option provided by your browser. We cannot advise on whether your selection of “Do Not Track” option will have any effect on the collection of cookie information by the third-parties who collect such cookie information on our site.
Third-parties with whom we partner to provide certain features on our site or to display advertising based upon your Web browsing activity use Flash Cookies (Local Shared Objects) to collect and store information. To learn how to manage privacy and storage settings for Flash cookies click here.
Google Analytics. Google Analytics is used to perform some of the tasks listed above. We use the User-ID feature of Google Analytics to combine behavioral information across devices and sessions (including authenticated and unauthenticated sessions). We have enabled the following Google Analytics Advertising features: Remarketing, Google Display Network Impression Reporting, Google Analytics Demographics and Interest Reporting, and DoubleClick Campaign Manager integration. We do not merge information collected through any Google advertising product with individual-level information collected elsewhere by our service. Learn more about how Google collects and uses data here. To opt out of Google Analytics Advertising Features please use Google Ad Settings or the links provided in section 2.b.c.ii (“Targeted advertising” service providers). To opt out of Google Analytics entirely please use this link.
We are always working to enhance our Services with new products, applications and features that may result in the collection of new and different types of information. We will update our privacy statement, as needed.
HealthCodes DNA will use and share your personal information with third-parties only in the ways that are described in this privacy statement.
We use the information described above in Section 3 to operate, provide, analyze and improve our Services. These activities may include, among other things, using your information in a manner consistent with other commitments in this privacy statement, to:
You may be able to opt-in, opt-out or otherwise adjust your preferences of having your information used for certain of these activities. Please see below to learn more.
We use mobile analytics software to allow us to better understand the functionality of our Mobile Software on your phone. This software may record information such as how often you use the application, the events that occur within the application, aggregated usage, performance data, and where the application was downloaded from. We do not link the information we store within the analytics software to any personally identifiable information you submit within the mobile application.
You have the choice to participate in HealthCodes DNA Research by providing your consent. “HealthCodes DNA Research” refers to research aimed at publication in peer-reviewed journals and other research funded by the federal government (such as the National Institutes of Health – NIH) conducted by HealthCodes DNA. HealthCodes DNA Research may be sponsored by, conducted on behalf of, or in collaboration with third-parties, such as non-profit foundations, academic institutions or pharmaceutical companies. HealthCodes DNA Research may study a specific group or population, identify potential areas or targets for therapeutics development, conduct or support the development of drugs, diagnostics or devices to diagnose, predict or treat medical or other health conditions, work with public, private and/or non-profit entities on genetic research initiatives, or otherwise create, commercialize, and apply this new knowledge to improve health care. HealthCodes DNA Research uses your aggregate or individual-level Genetic Information and Self-Reported Information as specified in the Terms of Service.
Consent process for research. Your Genetic Information and Self-Reported Information may be used for HealthCodes DNA Research only if you have consented to this use by completing a Research Initiatives Consent Document. If you have completed a Research Initiatives Consent Document:
Academic institutions, healthcare organizations, and other groups are always conducting interesting new research projects. We want to make you aware of these opportunities. While we do not share individual-level Genetic Information or Self-Reported Information with third-parties without your consent, from time to time we may inform you of third-party research opportunities for which you may be eligible. For example, if a university tells us about a new cancer research project, we may send an email to HealthCodes DNA members who potentially fit the relevant eligibility criteria based on their Self-Reported Information to make them aware of the research project and provide a link to participate with the research organization conducting the study.
NOTE: Our service providers act on HealthCodes DNA’s behalf. While we implement procedures and contractual terms to protect the confidentiality and security of your information, we cannot guarantee the confidentiality and security of your information due to the inherent risks associated with storing and transmitting data electronically.
When you purchase a testing kit and report from HealthCodes DNA, you are instructed to send a saliva sample to our third-party laboratory with a unique barcode label. The unique barcode identifies you to us but not to the laboratory. We may also be required to provide to the laboratory, your sex and date of birth or age pursuant to clinical laboratory requirements such as the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA). No other Registration Information such as your name, address, email, phone number or other contact information) is required or provided to the laboratory. The receiving personnel at the laboratory will remove and discard your “sender information” from the packaging (e.g., name, address) before testing personnel receive the samples for processing. Receiving personnel do not perform testing, and testing personnel handle saliva samples that are labeled only with the unique barcode. DNA and saliva samples are destroyed after the laboratory completes its work, provided that laboratory legal and regulatory requirements no longer require the actual samples to be maintained. A de-identified copy of genotyping data may be kept in accordance with CLIA. The laboratory securely sends the resulting Genetic Information to our third party reporting company along with your unique barcode. Genetic Information is stored securely on our servers; the laboratory also stores your Genetic Information, but again, labeled only with the barcode.
If you wish to not have this information used for the purpose of serving you targeted ads, you may be able to opt-out of many advertising networks by visiting here and here (if you are located in Canada, click here; or if you are located in the European Union click here). Please note this does not mean that you have opted-out of being served advertising. You will continue to receive generic ads.
Under certain circumstances your information may be subject to disclosure pursuant to judicial or other government subpoenas, warrants, or orders, or in coordination with regulatory authorities, we may be required to disclose personal data in response to lawful requests by public authorities, including to meet national security or law enforcement requirements. HealthCodes DNA will preserve and disclose any and all information to law enforcement agencies or others if required to do so by law or in the good faith belief that such preservation or disclosure is reasonably necessary to: (a) comply with legal or regulatory process (such as a judicial proceeding, court order, or government inquiry) or obligations that HealthCodes DNA may owe pursuant to ethical and other professional rules, laws, and regulations; (b) enforce the HealthCodes DNA Terms of Service and other policies; (c) respond to claims that any content violates the rights of third-parties; or (d) protect the rights, property, or personal safety of HealthCodes DNA, its employees, its users, its clients, and the public.
NOTE: If you are participating in HealthCodes DNA Research, HealthCodes DNA will withhold disclosure of your personal information involved in such research in response to judicial or other government subpoenas, warrants or orders in accordance with any applicable Certificate of Confidentiality that HealthCodes DNA and/or any of its third party providers has obtained from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). There are limits to what the Certificate of Confidentiality covers so please visit the Certificates of Confidentiality Kiosk ( https://grants.nih.gov/grants/policy/coc/index.htm).
If your Registration Information changes, you may access, correct or update most of it from your Account page. You may also modify and delete certain of your information. Please note that you may not be able to delete User Content that has been shared with others through the Service and that you may not be able to delete information that has been shared with third-parties, though we can work with you to prohibit your data from being shared with third-parties in the future. We will respond to your request to access within 30 days.
By registering for an account, you are agreeing that we may send you promotional emails about our Services. You can opt-out of such emails by clicking the “unsubscribe” button at the bottom of any of our or third-party promotional email communications. Please note that you may not opt-out of receiving non-promotional messages regarding your account, such as technical notices, purchase confirmations, or Service-related emails.
You may decide to disclose your personal information to friends and/or family members, doctors or other health care professionals, and/or other individuals outside of our Services, including through third-party services such as social networks and third-party apps that connect to our website and mobile apps through our application programming interface (“API”). These third-parties may use your personal information differently than we do under this Privacy Statement. Please make such choices carefully and review the privacy policies of all other third-parties involved in the transaction. For example, if you have enabled a HealthCodes DNA sharing feature with another person who downloads a third-party app that uses our API, your information may also be obtained by that third-party app developer and, potentially, by other users of that third-party app.
In general, personal information, once shared or disclosed, can be difficult to contain or retrieve. HealthCodes DNA will have no responsibility or liability for any consequences that may result because you have released or shared personal information with others.
If you no longer wish to participate in our Services or no longer wish to have your personal information be used, you may close your account by sending a request to support@healthcodesdna.com. When closing an account, we remove all Genetic Information within your account (or profile) within thirty (30) days of our receipt of your request. As stated in any applicable Consent Document, however, Genetic Information and/or Self-Reported Information that you have previously provided and for which you have given consent to use in HealthCodes DNA Research cannot be removed from ongoing or completed studies that use the information. Our contracted genotyping laboratory may also retain your Genetic Information as required by local law and we may retain backup copies for a limited period of time pursuant to our data protection policies. In addition, we retain limited Registration Information related to your order history (e.g., name, contact, and transaction data) as long as your account is active or as needed to provide you services, as well as for accounting, audit and compliance purposes.
HealthCodes DNA takes seriously the trust you place in us. To prevent unauthorized access or disclosure, to maintain data accuracy, and to ensure the appropriate use of information, HealthCodes DNA uses a range of physical, technical, and administrative measures to safeguard your Personal Information. In particular, all connections to and from our website and mobile application are encrypted using Extended Validation Secure Socket Layer (EV SSL) technology.
Please recognize that protecting your Personal Information is also your responsibility. We ask you to be responsible for safeguarding your password, secret questions and answers, and other authentication information you use to access our Services. You should not disclose your authentication information to any third-party and should immediately notify HealthCodes DNA of any unauthorized use of your password. HealthCodes DNA cannot secure Personal Information that you release on your own or that you request us to release.
Your information collected through the Service may be stored and processed in the United States or any other country in which HealthCodes DNA or its subsidiaries, affiliates or service providers maintain facilities and, therefore, your information may be subject to the laws of those other jurisdictions which may be different from the laws of your country of residence.
In the event that HealthCodes DNA goes through a business transition such as a merger, acquisition by another company, or sale of all or a portion of its assets, your information will likely be among the assets transferred. In such a case, your information would remain subject to the promises made in any pre-existing Privacy Statement.
HealthCodes DNA provides links to third-party websites operated by organizations not affiliated with HealthCodes DNA. HealthCodes DNA does not disclose your information to organizations operating such linked third-party websites. HealthCodes DNA does not review or endorse, and is not responsible for, the privacy practices of these organizations. We encourage you to read the privacy statements of each and every website that you visit. This Privacy Statement applies solely to information collected by HealthCodes DNA.
HealthCodes DNA is committed to protecting the privacy of children as well as adults. Neither HealthCodes DNA nor any of its Services are designed for, intended to attract, or directed toward children under the age of 18. A parent or guardian, however, may collect a saliva sample from, create an account for, and provide information related to, his or her child. The parent or guardian assumes full responsibility for ensuring that the information that he/she provides to HealthCodes DNA about his or her child is kept secure and that the information submitted is accurate.
Whenever this Privacy Statement is changed in a material way, a notice will be posted as part of this Privacy Statement and on our customers’ account login pages for 30 days. After 30 days the changes will become effective. In addition, all customers will receive an email with notification of the changes prior to the change becoming effective.
If you have questions about this Privacy Statement, please email HealthCodes DNA at info@HealthCodesDNA.com.
