2018 was truly the year of R&D for Metabolic Meals. Our team spent a lot of time communicating with customers, analyzing ordering trends and collaborating to add more variety to our menus than ever before.
This past year we offered over 200 different entrées in total, expanded our gluten-free baked good line and also gave customers some new portion sizes to choose from. People are now valuing their time as one of the most precious commodities and the desire for ingredient transparency and convenience are in high demand.
Not surprisingly, we are seeing customers continue to use our ready-to-eat meals as a bigger part of their weekly grocery shopping as we add menu items that fit their dietary needs, taste preferences and family dynamic.
Four Customer Trends We Saw This Year
1. Increases in demand for wild game such as bison and yak
Most discussions around improving body composition will eventually shine a spotlight on meat. This is because animal proteins provide a superior nutrient profile per calorie, which becomes extremely beneficial whether your goal is to lose body fat, add muscle or both. Of course, not all meat is created equal. Factory farmed meats are fed mixtures of genetically modified grains and regularly administered hormones to get them bigger, as well as antibiotics to keep them healthier while eating an unnatural diet.
Wild game on the other hand lives on a natural diet and is rich in a number of valuable micronutrients such as omega-3s, CLA, glutathione and Vitamin K to name a few. These (and all proteins we serve) are low in inflammatory omega-6 fats and show very convincing evidence that they help prevent diabetes, cancer and heart disease.
2. The rise of family style entrées
For a growing number of people, meal time is now about finding the intersection of fast and “better for you.” In the 1940s , the average home cooked meal took 150 minutes to prepare!
Today’s home cooked meal averages around 45-50 minutes and may or may not have included a trip to the grocery store. On the flip side, the average time spent inside one of the 14,000 McDonald’s nationwide was 11 minutes.
Our family style entrées include either full meals for four, individual 1-lb. packs of fully-cooked proteins, or a pound of our most popular side dishes. These family style packs are delivered fresh, ready-to-eat and give customers a lot of their time back. Dinner no longer has to be the same for everyone in the family, but it can always be made-from-scratch and healthy!
3. A preference for more “allergy-friendly” foods
The prevalence of food allergies continues to rise and may be contributing to other health issues such as digestive problems, fatigue, cognitive function, joint pain, depression, headaches and weight gain. Some of the more common food allergies include: gluten, soy, dairy, eggs, shellfish, tree nuts and peanuts.
If you are dealing with one or more of these food allergies/sensitivities then you know just how tough it can be to eat out or get food delivered. If you’re willing to “chance it,” then you probably also get frustrated with the lack of variety available for you to choose from.
We’ve seen a huge increase in customers looking for a service that can accommodate these restrictions, especially for people with celiac disease, autoimmune diseases or people following a paleo diet.
At Metabolic Meals, all of our meals are gluten-free and soy-free. Other allergies can also easily be filtered out as you select your meals on our website with plenty of options to choose from. Food safety and ingredient transparency are a top priority for our team as we continue to develop solutions that help our customers eat better!
4. Ketogenic diet meals that aren’t boring
The ketogenic diet has definitely risen in popularity over the last year and for good reason.
Health improvements associated with ketogenic eating have included: weight loss, better blood sugar management, PCOS symptom improvement, increased cognitive function and less inflammation. The ketogenic diet is even being researched by top medical schools as nutritional support for cancer, Alzheimer’s, seizures and Parkinson’s disease.
We knew that it was important to offer “ketogenic options” for our customers who were interested, but feared that a lack of variety may not live up to our standards. Also, since a ketogenic meal would essentially be up to 70% fat, we suspected that the presentation to the customer would not look very appetizing by the time it arrived.
With that in mind, we created multiple keto-friendly options for our customers, designed to keep a keto meal plan interesting. We opted to create a hybrid meal kit where the proteins would arrive fully cooked, with all of the healthy fats and snacks needed for either 5 or 7 days of “keto eating.”
Along with that, our team created a full recipe ebook that shows you how to assemble your meals in under 15 minutes! It turned out to be very successful as a tool to educate someone new to keto or for the busy “keto pro” who just needed a week off of meal prep.
Outside of ketogenic meal options, our menu also featured a variety of keto-friendly snacks and treats, including multiple flavors of low-carb keto cookies and a high-fat keto “bomb.”
And without further ado, we bring you our most popular meals of 2018…
Top 10 Most Popular Meals of 2018!
10. Organic Free-Range Turkey Bolognese over Spiraled Zucchini Noodles
9. Paleo Chocolate Chip Muffin
8. Grilled Grass-Fed Top Steak and Scrambled Free-Range Eggs
7. Organic Supergrain Pasta with Pistachio Pesto and Blackened Chicken
6. Family Style Yak Meatballs
5. AB & J Oatmeal with Free-Range Turkey Breakfast Sausage
4. Wild-Caught Salmon Sushi Bowl
3. Kung Pao Chicken with Jasmine Rice
2. Grass-Fed Beef Mighty Meatloaf with Garlic Mashed Cauliflower
1. Italian Lasagna
Healthy, Chef-Prepared Meals Delivered
If you are one of the 83% of Americans that are either considering or already purchasing fresh, prepared meals online, you’ll be hard pressed to find a better solution than Metabolic Meals. Our culinary and nutrition teams continuously strive to bring you the best experience possible, both in terms of the foods we offer and customer support provided along the way.
We invite you to try our meals without the fears of long-term commitments or shady contracts. Simply order what you want, when you want and let us handle the cooking!
