ARTICLE AT A GLANCE
A meal delivery service is a fabulous option for people wanting to eat healthier without the hassle of prepping, cooking, and cleaning up. However, some lingering preconceived notions might have you wondering if a meal delivery service is right for you. This blog busts the following myths and misconceptions:
Most of us want to eat healthy, but meal planning, grocery shopping, cooking, and cleaning up is hard work. A healthy meal delivery service like ours can take all of that off your to-do list, freeing up literally hours of your time every week. No wonder they’ve become so popular, contributing to a $400 million market that’s projected to increase tenfold in the next five years.
As the popularity of meal delivery services increases, so do misconceptions. Many people think ready-made meals must be full of unhealthy preservatives, are no better than standard TV dinners, or have diminished nutrition thanks to microwaving. If you’re one of those people, read on and let us ease your mind by debunking some myths:
1. MYTH: Prepared meals are full of preservatives and sodium.
This may be true for other brands, but not at Metabolic Meals. Our meals are made fresh each week with no additives or preservatives, packaged in a temperature-controlled box and sealed in insulated packaging. This allows the meals to be kept at the highest standard of safety and quality during transit, plus they stay fresh in the refrigerator for up to seven days after you receive them without the need for preservatives.
Ready-made dinners often have high sodium levels because manufacturers use various forms of sodium as preservatives. Consuming high amounts of sodium can raise your blood pressure, increasing your risk for both heart disease and strokes. The only sodium in our meals comes from sea salt to enhance flavor, and from naturally-occurring sodium in the whole foods we use as ingredients. Our Fit portions average 400 to 600mg of total sodium per meal. If you eat three Metabolic Meals per day, you’d come out well below the maximum Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) of 2300mg.
Ginger Chicken Stir-Fry
2. MYTH: Metabolic Meals are just “fancy TV dinners.”
When it comes to the heating methods, our meals are similar to TV dinners… but that’s where the similarities end. There’s simply no comparison between quality. For example, when you look at the ingredients in a typical beef TV dinner, you might see something like this:
Beef, Water, Soy Flour, Soybean Oil, Textured Vegetable Protein, Caramel Coloring, and Sodium Phosphate.
In our meals, you’ll find one ingredient: Grass-Fed Beef. That’s it.
Here’s another questionable list of TV dinner ingredients that may look familiar:
Reconstituted Potatoes, Mono and Diglycerides, Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Beta Carotene for Coloring.
We use only the cleanest ingredients in all our meals with absolutely nothing artificial. Our meals also contain an average of 25 to 30g of high-quality protein, something you’re not likely to find in a traditional TV dinner.
3. MYTH: Microwaves are harmful to you.
Heating food in a microwave oven is simple, fast, and convenient – in other words, a total cooking game changer. But ever since its introduction into the American lexicon of kitchen appliances in the 1960s, people have wondered how safe it really is to eat food from the microwave. When you understand how they work, you understand that they are perfectly safe when used correctly.
Inside the microwave is a device called a magnetron that turns electricity into microwaves, a form of electromagnetic radiation similar to radio waves. The microwaves reflect off the metal interior of the oven and cause the water molecules in food to vibrate. This vibration results in friction between molecules, which heats the food – like how rubbing your hands together warms them up.
Microwaves produce non-ionizing radiation, similar to the radiation produced by cellular phones. Non-ionizing radiation doesn’t carry the same risks as x-rays or other types of ionizing radiation. Microwave energy will not leak from a microwave in good condition; in fact, the FDA has strict standards to ensure this is the case with every microwave sold in the United States.
4. MYTH: Nutrition is lost when food is microwaved.
Nutrients are best retained when food is cooked quickly in the least amount of time and liquid as possible. A microwave checks all those boxes. Since microwaving food takes a short amount of time, it does a better job of preserving nutrients that break down when heated. A study on 20 different vegetables noted that microwaving and baking were the best methods for preserving nutrients, while pressure cooking and boiling were the worst. Using the microwave with a small amount of water essentially steams food from the inside out. That cooking method retains more vitamins and minerals than almost any other, proving that microwaved food can indeed be healthy for you.
5. MYTH: Taste and quality must be sacrificed for convenience.
When you think of food that’s both healthy and convenient, you might also expect it to be bland and boring – and sometimes that’s true. Have you ever prepped meals for the week by spending your Sunday cooking pounds and pounds of chicken and broccoli? By the time Wednesday comes, you’re already tired of eating it. Likewise, you might think “convenience” means fast food or processed snacks.
It doesn’t have to be that way. When it comes to quality, variety, and the convenience factor, Metabolic Meals encompasses it all.
Chicken Provencal with Lemon Roasted Broccoli
First, food quality is our highest priority. Our meals are made fresh with grass-fed proteins and organic produce, and never contain any artificial ingredients.
Second, we offer a huge variety of delicious dishes that also happen to be healthy. Choose new meals from a weekly-rotating menu of over 150 items, all carefully developed by a team of formally-trained chefs, professional nutritionists and health coaches.
Steakhouse Shredded Grass-Fed Beef with Cheesy Stuffed Twice Baked Potato
And third, there’s no planning, shopping, cooking or cleanup required. Every meal we make arrives at your door fresh, fully cooked, and ready to heat and eat in two minutes. Meals are packaged in portable, reusable trays that are easy to carry with you to work, the gym, or anywhere else you want instant access to healthy food. It doesn’t get more convenient than that.
Everything But The Bagel Scramble
If you’re looking to eat healthier and skip the rigmarole of meal prep, a meal delivery service like ours is an excellent solution. Yes, there are some preconceived notions about meal delivery services, but this is no myth: we make healthy eating easy.
Zac Bell is a Nutritional Health Coach at Metabolic Meals, supporting customers with their nutrition and fitness goals. Zac has a bachelor’s degree in Exercise Science.
