Read it and weep.....
Association Between Frequency of Eating Away-From-Home Meals and Risk of All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality - Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics
https://jandonline.org/article/S2212-2672(21)00059-9/fulltext
Well, that's one more advantage to living so far from any restaurants (the other obvious advantage being the cost savings or lack of temptation, depending on how you look at it).
My dad (91 and, as he always tells us, trying his best to spend away any inheritance we might otherwise have) tells me he hardly bothers to buy groceries anymore. He says he finds with what he ends up throwing away, he'd rather just go to a restaurant. Covid closures were tough on him.
>tough
Yeah, I use restaurants as a crutch for my disabled brother. Besides the meal, the waitresses get to like him (he probably tips well) and that's where he gets some socialization. It has been tough.
Because of my special dietary needs due to dialysis, I've learned to be a pretty good cook over the last 3 years, but in my heart-of-hearts I'd rather eat in restaurants.
I do think the type of restaurant matters too. Although, we got an India resto in our little town just an hour away and we got takeout the other night and, of course, ate way more than we should have. So though I think were ordered stuff that in and of itself was healthy, eating that quantity of food a few times a week would not have a good health outcome.
Besides salt & sugar, restaurants and food processor hose down their foods with phosphorous additives to increase shelf life, flavor, and visual appeal. Even the salad bar gets dosed. This stuff kills kidney patients but it can't be good for Joe Customer. Phosphorous isn't really regulated.
'"Phosphorus is already abundant in naturally-occurring foods," says study co-investigator Srilekha Sayre, M.D., M.S., MetroHealth and Case Western Reserve University. "By adding even more phosphorus to our food supply, we may be exceeding the body's regulatory ability'
Hidden Phosphorus Food Additives Dangerous To Kidney Disease Patients -- ScienceDaily
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090210161912.htm