Americans Eat Out More often and Less Healthfully Although food cooked at home is far more healthful than meals eaten at restaurants, Americans are dining out more than ever, the U.S. Agriculture Department said Tuesday.Restaurant food accounted for([在数量，比例方面] 占) 39 percent of U.S. meals bought in 1996, up from 26 percent in 1970, the department said in a report, ``Away-From-Home Foods Increasingly Important to Quality of American Diet.'' ``While(尽管)the nutritional quality(营养质量)of foods consumed by Americans has improved overall, foods prepared at home are generally much more healthful than away-from-home foods,'' the department said. ``Despite nutritional gains at home, Americans will find it difficult to improve their diets because they purchase so many meals outside the home,'' the study said. While (尽管)the nutritional content of food prepared both at home and in restaurants has improved in recent years, food eaten out contains more of the nutrients Americans typically(一般地；通常)eat too much of, including fat and saturated fat(饱和脂肪), and less of what is lacking from most diets, such as calcium, fiber and iron. The department recommended nutrition education programs should place more emphasis on teaching U.S. consumers about how to order healthful meals when dining out. Improved diets have been found to prevent risk of heart disease, stroke(中风), cancer, diabetes(糖尿病), osteoporosis-related hip fractures(与骨质疏松症有关的髋关节骨折) and neural tube birth defects(神经管先天缺损). Osteoporosis-related hip fractures cost up to ＄10.6 billion each year in the United States in medical care expenses, missed work and premature deaths(早亡), the department said.