Meal Plan Delivery: Don’t Be Fooled, Locally Prepared Matters

In St. Louis, and across America, so many of us work more and we work harder than ever before. How do we find time to deliver at work, in our personal lives...and prepare healthy meals?

Meal Plan Delivery 101

As a result of all of this work, we just don’t have as much time as we once did. Time which, in the past, may have been devoted to meal planning, shopping, preparation, and clean-up (not to mention deal-hunting and coupon-ing) now goes to the workplace. And….we’re more overbooked with extracurricular commitments than ever before.

It’s an interesting paradox about living in the modern world:at the same time as we have less time, we are more informed than ever before about what is healthy to eat and what is not (thanks to innovations such as the Internet, improved access to healthcare, and expanding scientific research).



The dilemma facing so many of us today? How do we find time to eat healthy when we have less time to devote to it?

Services that offer meal plan delivery can be a lifesaver and help people transform their health, outlook, lifestyle, and bodies -- and they are rising in popularity.  Packaged Facts estimated that in 2016 alone, meal kit delivery services generated $1.5 billion dollars in sales and that the market will grow into the multi-billions over the subsequent five years. Because meal plan delivery services are in such high demand, there are now many options for customers to choose from -- from local, St. Louis-based meal plans such as Pure Plates to national meal plan delivery options such as Freshly.

Are these meal plan delivery services actually healthy?

The short answer is: it depends and that it’s most likely healthier than take-out or fast food. If you are interested in meals that deliver optimum mixes of nutrition and clean, pure ingredients, be sure to look closely at both national and local meal plan delivery options before you choose the right prepared meal delivery for you (and your health goals).

Is Meal Plan Delivery from a National Provider a Healthy Choice?

By now, you probably have already have heard of, or maybe you’ve already tried, one or more of the different meal plan delivery services that deliver across the country. The obvious plus to these types of meal plan delivery services is that with a subscription like this, you are more likely to eat at home when you don’t have time or energy to cook (and not resort to take-out or fast food). Your food choices are more likely to be deliberate than choosing from whatever restaurant is nearby or still open -- and as a result, you are more likely to eat meals that have more nutrients and less bad fats.

Beyond just helping us eat at home more and reaping the benefits of that...are these meal plan delivery choices offered by companies that deliver across the nation truly ‘healthy’?

How far the food needs to travel -- from the farm/source to the company that prepares the food to your table -- takes a toll on a meal’s nutritional value. Studies have demonstrated that the longer it takes for food to get from the farm to the table, the more nutrients are lost. Freshness matters.

Let’s face it: shipping food leads to more processing of food...and processed food doesn’t typically support health goals of all sizes. The food supply chain in the United States today is a long and convoluted one with various methods used for preserving foods and transporting them from one place to the next.

As you may already know, all of us here at Pure Plates are fairly obsessed with the healing power of micro (and macro) nutrients, so to us -- these lost nutrients due to travel time is kind of a big deal.

Further, there is growing research and speculation that eating produce that is in season locally can help you stay healthier: if you are using a national meal plan delivery provider for your meals, you don’t get to access the benefits of eating produce that is in-season.

Is Meal Plan Delivery from a Local Provider a Healthy Choice?

If you live in St. Louis, you know we have a vibrant foodie movement -- particularly when it comes to eating healthy. Our company, Pure Plates (based right here in St. Louis), crafts healthy meals that taste as great as they are for your body. We bring them right to your door, in ready-to-eat containers (or you can pick them up in person at one of our many locations around the St. Louis metro area).

As a local meal plan delivery vendor, we admit: we’re pretty passionate about the benefits of eating local. To that end, we source our produce locally and organic whenever it is at all possible for us to do so. We want customers like you to be able to enjoy all of the health benefits we can possibly pack into our delicious meals.

We don’t process our foods: we don’t freeze meals or its components, we don’t rely on excess amounts of sugar, we don’t use preservatives, and we don’t compromise your health for our profits.


We believe locally grown foods, and meals prepared using locally grown foods, just taste better: local crops are picked at the peak because they don’t have to travel far distances before they are consumed (or thrown away).

Not only do local crops tend to taste better because they’ve been picked at their peak, they tend to pack more nutrients in. Why is that?

Scientific research has found that crops picked when they are at their peak, rather than before (commonly done when crops need to travel a great distance), retain the max amounts of both taste and nutrients.

Not only does choosing a local meal plan delivery provider such as St. Louis’s Pure Plates help you optimize flavor and nutrition, it also helps the community. Local produce supports local farms (and jobs). Local farms and jobs support open land (keeping the environment around us full of greenery, wildlife, and less urban sprawl). And, finally, local produce helps keep everyone’s taxes down because farms actually more in taxes than they require in services (tomatoes don’t go to school or have medical emergencies, for example).

Bottomline? The ‘eat local’ movement is legit -- especially when it comes to improving and safeguarding your health. Whether you love produce...or you’re learning to love it, you want to make sure you’re getting the most nutrients you possibly can from the food you pay for and eat -- for your health’s sake.