Instead of regulating everyone's sugar intake

[Major Nikon]

243. I make most of my food myself

I do eat out sometimes, but I'm not that fond of it. I figure if I can do better than the restaurant and cheaper (discounting my own labor to zero), then there isn't much incentive to eat out. However I love to cook and understandably most people don't. I get a chuckle out of some people's mortal fear of "processed" foods or scary sounding ingredients. Most industrialized or commercial food is not that much different than what you can do in your own kitchen. The biggest differences are that they tend to use ingredients that are cheaper in bulk because even a few pennies savings per servings translates to big money when you're making millions of servings. They also tend to use preservatives more for obvious reasons. Some of the food that's the worst for you has actually been around for over 100 years and hasn't changed that much.

You are exactly right in that it is a lot easier to monitor your nutrition if you eat out or buy ready to eat food. Chain restaurants report their nutrition information on their web sites if not right on their menus and food labeling laws require all industrial food to detail all the nutritional information one needs to make informed choices. It's a lot harder for me to keep track of those types of things.

Food science is a great thing. It makes food better and/or cheaper. It can also be used quite effectively right in one's own kitchen for the same reasons. I just bought the latest edition of Harold Mcgee's book to replace the older edition I had. I love that book. There's no reason for food science to be scary.