You should spend about 40 minutes on this task. More and more people are buying food that is ready to eat rather than choosing to eat home-cooked food. Do you think the advantages of this development outweigh the disadvantages?

To start, sharing meal
time
has always been paramount to maintaining the family united. While ready to eat meals are becoming more popular amongst the population, there are the ones who defend that cooking at
home
is a moment of sharing and happiness. Despite understanding the reasons why some people prefer to eat pre-prepared food, I believe that there are several benefits of
home
-cooked dishes,
such
as being nutritionally richer and healthier. Taking the
first
point of view into consideration, it is undoubted that the number of people who opts to go to the supermarket and buy food which is already prepared is increasing. what is more, it can be justified by the convenience of those services, which are available in almost every place, at any
time
, by an affordable amount of money. The fact is,
for example
, in current days, employees tend to work overtime which means less
time
available to think about cooking or even go shopping. Altogether, it seems totally fair that these people prefer to arrive at their dwellings and seat on the sofa, relaxing or resting,
instead
of having to think about which kind of meal they are going to prepare or even spend
time
with that activity.
On the other hand
, there are others who feel the contrary. For many families, the
time
spent while cooking and eating is a moment of sharing concerns, emotions and the news of the day. While a family sits together eating a homemade meal,
for instance
, they might feel that that moment is special and bonds are strengthened between couples and their children. A
further
interesting point is that cooking at
home
may be the only path to make the family customs, regarding cuisine, passing into other generations. What is more, a person cannot question the fact that cooking at
home
has more health benefits, since the ingredients are natural and there are fewer preservatives used on food, which may be detrimental for our health.
Furthermore
, its nutritional richness is a positive point. Who is cooking is responsible for mixing the ingredients and choosing the correct proportions to create a balanced nutritional meal. In conclusion and taking the aforementioned points together, I believe that the positive aspects of cooking at
home
clearly outweigh the disadvantages. In spite of eating packaged meals might be beneficial for those who work more hours and have a lack of free
time
, it is obvious that cooking a homemade dish is more pleasant, as well as nutritionally healthier.
Submitted by raquelpconceicao on

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Word Count

IELTS says that you should write a minimum of 250 words in writing task 2. If you go under word count you will lose marks in task response.

A very long essay will not give you a higher band score.

Aim for between 260 to 290 words in writing task 2. This will ensure a concise essay and will be realistic in terms of time management. You have only 40 minutes to write the essay and you need around 10 minutes of planning time, so you will not be able to write a long essay in 30 minutes.

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