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Meal preparation, sometimes calledmeal prep, is the process of planning and preparingmeals while pre-packaging the meals to be eaten throughout the week.
Meal preparation involves preparing meals ahead of time.[1] This practice may occur among people who desire tolose weight, gain muscle mass, or maintain ahealthy lifestyle. Advance preparation can serve to standardize food portions. Prepared meals are fully cooked.[2] Meals may be prepared in small containers such asTupperware, and are sometimes labeled and dated to remain organized.
By preparing meals in advance, there is a limited need for an individual to purchase food from restaurants or bars, which can have an averagemarkup rate of around 300%.[3] According to the 2020 Consumer Expenditures Report from theBureau of Labor Statistics, there was a 32.6 percent decrease in spending offood away from home from 2019 to 2020 and, simultaneously, there was a 6.4 percent increase in spending in food at home (which is defined asfood at grocery stores and other food stores where the final purchaser is the consumer.)[4][5] These trends can be attributed to the rise of theCOVID-19 during this period as consumers were more hesitant to eat out at this time. The rise in spending for food at home and decrease for food away from home means people were preparing more food at home. Which led to the average consumer saving approximately $1151 from eating out less from 2019 to 2020.[6]
By using fresh, healthy ingredients as opposed to eating out or consuming a higher volume of processed foods, meal preparation provides numerous health benefits over eating outside of the home frequently. For example, multiple studies have shown that those who consume meals that were prepared at home more often had a significantly lower risk of acquiringtype 2 diabetes mellitus.[7][8] On the contrary, those who meal prep less and eat out more and consume more processed foods have seen to have a significantly higher risk of getting conditions such ashypertension,dyslipidemia, or cancer.[9] Studies have also shown that individuals who eat more meals out, consume a significantly higher amount of sugar and fat and a significantly lower amount of important micronutrients such as iron, calcium and vitamin C.[10]
If not stored properly, or not timely consumed, pre-cooked meals can become breeding grounds forbacteria.[11] Potentialmental health risks stem from being over-prepared, controlled and structured, with meal prepping creating a degree of rigidity that could conceivably become a fixation or rut.[11] Additionally,degradation ofplasticstorage containers, especially when used formicrowave heating or long-term storage, can releasemicroplastics andnanoplastics into food.[12][13] Containers, even those labeled "microwave-safe",[a] can degrade under heat, plastic lids on glass containers can degrade over time, andfreezing containers can increasebrittleness.[12][15][16]
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