They Say: Cooking At Home Saves Money, Makes You Fat

You know how the first thing to go in this recession was dining out? And really, what was the sacrifice? You would be saving money AND creating a whole new healthy-eating lifestyle for you and the fam. Plus, you’d score the “time at the dinner table” points, which will apparently bring you one step closer to God or the Obamas or both.

So you picked up a copy of The Joy of Cooking (the standard when you were growing up!) and fired up the oven and, wait, what’s this? A larger ass? More jiggly thighs? An extra chin?

Here’s the problem: The Joy of Cooking? Those recipes have 40 percent more calories than in the past. FORTY PERCENT!

Now, it’s not that they suddenly called for an extra cup of Crisco on every page. Rather, the portion sizes — as with all American portion sizes — went up dramatically. A pan of brownies that used to serve 30 now serves 15 — even though the ingredients and pan size didn’t change.

Now, researchers weren’t picking on that classic icon just to be mean. It’s because it’s been around so long that they have edition 1 to 7 to note the changes.

I suppose the moral of the story is the moral of every story: smaller portions. Where’s the joy in that?