Meal Delivery Service: Where to get the Healthiest Prepared Meals in St. Louis
If you're like many of our customers here in St. Louis, you've tried meal kit delivery services like Hello Fresh and Blue Apron with the best of intentions...only to have those boxes end up going unused and taking over your refrigerator. Whether you live near us in St. Louis - or across the country - and you’re wondering which meal delivery service is the healthiest for prepared meals, this article can help you cut through the noise and find local prepared meals that are as healthy as they are convenient.
A large number of our customers at Pure Plates choose our service because we are truly a one-stop-shop. We are obsessed with health and we plan all of our meals around pairing the healthiest foods with the most delicious flavor profiles. We plan the meals -- and research shows that the more planning that goes into a diet, the healthier the diet is. We shop for the ingredients. We prep them. We cook them to perfection….and then we deliver them right to you.
So, if you want way more than frozen diet meals from the supermarket, and your freetime is better spent outside of the kitchen (or you just don’t have free time), a one-stop shop meal delivery service like ours may fit your needs. Before you sign on with the first meal delivery service you come across, proceed with caution. Not all meal delivery services are equal. 
If You’re Concerned About Health, Choose a Meal Deliver Service That Walks the Walk
There are many St. Louis prepared delivery services that claim they offer ‘healthy’ and ‘fit’ prepared meals. Don’t just take them at their word: look under the hood and find out how they define ‘health’ and ‘nutrition’. While we’re not going to call out specific St. Louis meal delivery services out by name, we will tell you this: buyer, beware.
Here’s a trick for decoding how healthy food actually is, despite its claims: is it made with canola oil? If it is, that’s a problem (click here to see why). Another question to ask: what percentage of the ingredients are organic and/or locally sourced? Many companies will claim it’s impossible to make a profit while providing affordable and organic meals: that’s simply not true. Our company, Pure Plates, is living proof that it’s completely possible to put our customers’ health first by providing them with the highest quality ingredients AND still make a profit.
The quality of ingredients used in prepping your meals directly correlates with the quality of your food...and the health benefits. You wouldn’t go to the grocery store and spend money on sub-par ingredients if your goal is to get or stay healthy: don’t end up spending money on a meal delivery service that gives you meals prepared with sub-par ingredients. 
Know What to Look For
While we’re not going to dissect every other meal delivery service in St. Louis’s practices, we will tell you that we believe our company, Pure Plates, is actually walking the walk and providing healthy prepared meals to the greater St. Louis area.
We do what we do because we’re passionate about health: our health, your health, and your family’s health. We suggest you find a company that has similar practices:
Safe Meals
We offer pre-portioned, nutritionally balanced meals in convenient grab-and-go, BPA free and microwave-safe containers.
Easy Meals
We take the guesswork out of healthy eating: every single meal we prepare is clearly labeled -- with full nutritional information and ingredients.
Gluten Free Meals
We are 100% Gluten Free.
Healthy Meals
Every single meal we prepare is 100% Gluten Free, under 600 calories, low-sodium and low-glycemic.
Local & Organic Meals
We go the extra mile to try and bring you the best, cleanest ingredients possible based on availability and season. We utilize mostly organic produce (local to St. Louis when in season from organic farm co-ops).
Clean Meals
When it comes to clean eating, we take no prisoners. We use all non-GMO grains, clean meats free from steroids, antibiotics and hormones; our salmon and shrimp are wild caught. Our tilapia is clean: it’s farm-raised in a lake with modern sustainable practices and vegetarian-fed.
We prepare our meals with healthy cooking oils such as organic extra virgin olive oil and organic coconut oil. We use Himalayan Crystal salt and Sea salt for our cooking salts.
If You’re on a Special Diet, Choose a Meal Delivery Service That Gets It
We’ve established ourselves as the leading healthy fast food destination here in St. Louis -- we get it. Different people have different dietary needs. We’re here to meet our customers where they’re at -- not to convert them to one way of eating. Whatever you meals you need prepared in accordance with your diet, we do it: we offer Paleo, Keto, Diabetic, Vegetarian & Vegan (plant-based), and Gluten Free.
Whatever type of meal you need prepared, we do it: healthy breakfast, healthy lunch, healthy snack, and healthy dinner options.
If You Want Healthy, Choose a Meal Delivery Service That’s Truly Fresh
If you’re not local to us in St. Louis, you may be thinking about using a national meal delivery service. Freshly is a national company that has a similar business model to ours -- with one big catch. They ship their food in the mail. If you’re not in St. Louis, or in an area with a healthy meal delivery service like ours, this may be your best option. That being said, the catch with Freshly is that ship the food in the mail.
No matter how much companies like Freshly play up the fact that they can deliver your meals in less than 24 hours, the truth is this: SHIPPING food will always remove a certain degree of freshness from any meal. You can’t really compare meals that are sourced and prepared locally (within just a few hours between our kitchen and your kitchen) to meals that are delivered through the mail. 
Bottomline? We know that by doing what we do, we’re giving people access to truly healthy food -- and we’re also giving them complete transparency about the ingredients and nutritional content in those meals.
If you’re in St. Louis and want to save time, the stress of shopping, cooking, and planning with truly healthy prepared meals -- our meal delivery service may be what you need to reach your health goals. If you’re not local to St. Louis, try and find a meal delivery service that truly takes the hassle out of healthy eating, walks the walk, and can provide meals that cater to your special diet.