At the end of a hectic workday, it’s natural for busy professionals to seek an easy, comforting dinner. While many chain restaurants are striving to add healthy options to their menus, it’s hard to resist the allure of the high-calorie fare advertised so temptingly. Many people look at time as a new currency: If they don’t enjoy cooking, then the time required to shop for and prep healthful meals makes it likely they’ll look for other options.
One study found that the typical American eats 40 percent of his or her meals outside the home and on average pays $12.50 per meal for fast food; most people surveyed blamed being too busy or impatient to cook at home. And almost half acknowledged that they were overweight or obese.
What these people are actually paying for is convenience. The meals coming from fast food chains are highly processed and offer very little nutritional value. And they almost always carry a high glycemic load, wreaking havoc on blood sugar and leading to weight gain and disease.
In addition, these meals containing subpar meats, refined flours, sugar, and GMO ingredients, the high glycemic load causes blood sugar to spike. When this spike occurs frequently enough, it can lead to insulin resistance. The World Health Organization suggests keeping daily sugar intake to around 25 grams, but just one fast food dish easily exceeds that limit. Even a supposedly healthful option like a Chipotle salad, for example, contains 26.5 grams of sugar. That’s 106 percent of the recommended daily intake.
There’s also the risk of being exposed to antibiotics, hormones, artificial ingredients, and produce that is heavily sprayed with pesticides. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention discovered that those who regularly eat fast food have higher levels of hormone-disrupting chemicals. And fast foods contain alarmingly low levels of the vitamins, minerals, enzymes, amino acids, good fatty acids, and micronutrients the body relies on for immune function, detoxification, and regular body processes.
Thankfully there’s a convenient alternative to suit the on-demand mentality without sacrificing nutrition: having healthy gourmet meals delivered. There’s no waiting in line at the drive-thru or stopping for takeout. Your meals for the week can be in your fridge waiting. This makes it so much easier to eat healthfully, give your body the nutrition it needs, and give you back hours of time.
At Metabolic Meals we allow you to have the ultimate experience by letting you pick from hundreds of made-from-scratch entrees — you can even choose your portion sizes. Most meals are cheaper than the $12.50 you would pay for fast food, and ordering for the week takes three to four minutes on your phone, tablet, or computer.
Forgoing fast food for healthful home-delivered fare brings almost immeasurable health improvements. If you replace the fast food meals you would have eaten with truly healthful meals made from great ingredients, you can expect much more energy, a healthy body composition, much better blood work, a reduced chance of all major diseases, longer life expectancy, and an improved quality of life.
There’s also the time savings. Fast food may be quick if there’s no line, but having meals in the fridge and ready to go is truly on-demand dining.
And finally, there’s the commitment to a healthy lifestyle. Healthy eating is the foundation of a healthy lifestyle. The convenience of having healthful meals ready to eat increases your chances of routinely making healthy choices. This has a snowball effect and usually leads to other healthy habits, such as exercising and getting regular doctor checkups.
For busy professionals who opt to order healthful meal plans, the results will prove to be unbeatable. A leaner body with more energy leads to a higher quality of life, including a decrease in physiological and psychological stress from consuming fewer damaging foods.
Between the health benefits and the time and money savings, it’s clear that opting for healthy home delivery is not just better than the drive-thru, it’s a life-changing decision.
