I am a plant-based endurance athlete and have no financial relationships with Purple Carrot nor Sun Basket. I recently became vegan by accident. It was as a result of training for an Ironman triathlon. I have since been studying the literature and health benefits of plant-based diets. The secret is out and being vegan has spread like wildfire. Health Care professionals need to know about animal products. This 2016 article in JAMA is just a tiny piece of a mountain of evidence.
Protein bowl: Quinoa, organe, sweet potato, chickpea, broccolini, ginger tahini dressing
The real question most people have is “how do I do it?” I tried it two years ago and failed miserably. It’s hard to reverse 4 decades of habit in the face of a food industry that doesn’t like change. I tried again but this time more slowly. When our daughter was born we tried Sun Basket organic and locally farmed meal deliveries for 2 years. We loved them. However I became less interested in them as I began to convert to a plant-based diet. Last year my family started using Purple Carrot and we could not be happier. Purple Carrot is unique because the recipes were designed from scratch with the intention of making a vegan meal. This is in contrast to a meal with meat and cheese where the meat and cheese was just omitted. That doesn’t work quite as well. I really did not understand that a vegan meal could be exemplary and require no animal products until I started experimenting with Purple Carrot.
It’s really about teaching you something new and taking advantage of something that has been tried and tested and made simple for you to prepare.
These meals cost more and contribute to more waste than buying the food separately. However the kits teach you how to prepare a meal you might never have tried to make. I think this is especially important for vegan meals since it is very hard to make the transition from eating animal products to exclusive plant products. I just had no clue where to start and my well intended diet failed a few times. Once I got familiar with the recipes, I started saving the recipes and I make my favorite meals whenever I want. Anybody can do the same and can quit the service anytime. It’s really about teaching you something new and taking advantage of something that has been tried and tested and made simple for you to prepare. Purple carrot is incredible. The flavors are amazing and even a die-hard meat-eater will enjoy it!
These services are best for busy people who might have time to cook but just don’t shop efficiently. The plant-based services like purple carrot are great for people who want to try something totally different and they don’t know where to start.
People that eat out a lot or are away from home a lot may not benefit from these delivery kits. Some food delivery kits are very fresh and may go bad in a week or two. It’s also not the absolute cheapest way to eat. It’s probably more of a teaching tool or good for people in a tough time like having a baby or otherwise just extremely busy for a limited time.
The biggest problem is that these kits contribute to a lot of waste. The containers, the plastic bags, boxes, and the ice packs are probably the worst part of it and why we should not expect to do this for the long-term. My final problem with these kits is that sometimes there just isn’t enough food. We often like to have leftovers or extra food for guests. These meals are usually for 2-4 people and I have rarely felt that I had enough. I’m almost always wishing there was more of some or all the ingredients.
What do you think? Have you tried meal delivery services? Let me know what you think?