More and more people are opting for ready-made food instead of freshly cooked food. Do this development has more advantages over disadvantages?

Lacking time to cook at home, people consume ready-made food more frequently these days. Although this might be a fast and easy way, numerous drawbacks are associated with it, which I believe are more than its benefits, and will be discussed further in this essay. Firstly, over-consumption of takeaways leads to serious health issues. Using low-quality ingredients to lower the cost, most restaurants serve unhealthy dishes, in which extra sugar, salt, and oil are added to enhance the taste. Thus frequent diners, having low level of essential nutrients and high amount of dangerous substances in their diet, have a higher risk of cardiovascular diseases, fatty liver, and obesity, as fatal issues if not being dealt with. The World Health Organization’s (WHO) recent studies show that American people, with the highest percentage of fast-food consumption in the world, have gained weight at an alarming rate during the last decade. Secondly, ready-made foods threaten children’s mental development. High level of vitamins and trace minerals, mainly found in fruits and vegetables, are necessary nutrients for brain cell growth in childhood. Unfortunately, most ready meals do not contain fresh greens, and as a result, the learning ability of students eating schools’ self-service lunch, has lowered in recent years. As a solution, in many countries, schools have set kitchens to serve fresh meals to the students. For example, in 2019 above 50% of primary schools in Turkey provided home-made meals to their pupils. In conclusion, Even though having ready-made dishes may be convenient, its demerits, which are serious health-related problems as well as lower brain development of children, are more than the merits.