Daily Diet: Blind Study Puts Premade Diet Meals to the Test

 

Now more than ever, people across the globe are focused on healthy eating, nutrition and diet fads. With obesity on the rise, the focus on these topics are more important than ever, and it can be difficult and time-consuming to cull through all the recipes, nutrition advice, and diets—both fad and tried-and-true.

Diet programs such as Nutrisystem, Weight Watchers and The Cookie Diet, and books like, The 'Prevention' Loss Weight Guidebook and The Complete Idiot's Guide to Losing Weight, all provide contradicting information about what an ideal diet is, thus making it difficult for us to pick the diet that works with our lifestyle, health goals and budget.

It’s apparent that any weight loss organization or company believes their recommendations are superior to the others, and will promote themselves in the best light possible, so what better way to know the real truth than reviews from real life people who can give an honest opinion about the effectiveness and pros and cons of these fad diets

HealthNews editors independently review various diet trends and provide in-depth reviews and information to help aid in choosing the right diet for your particular needs. Low carb diets are one of the most popular trends however, many people mistake the diet for being carb-free, when in fact, the diet allows for specific types of starch-resistant carbs, such as sweet potatoes and bananas.

Diet plan reviews not only help when deciding on the best course of action to take while dieting, it also helps to decrease the odds that the diet will be misunderstood and misused.

A good diet review will provide the user within formation on the history, basic steps, what type of foods that will be eaten,accessibility and the cost. The HealthNews review of the Fresh Diet, a meal delivery program, not only provides information about that diet specifically but it also compares it to similar plans, thus, giving the reader knowledge about options that may be more appropriate for them.

NextAdvisor.com conducted a study to determine which diet food delivery service provides the most generally appealing foods. Over a three-week time period, male and female tasters of various ages were given anonymous samples from seven companies’ “standard” meal plans. The testers then rated each meal on a scale from 1 to 10 based on taste and appearance. Each plan ran between 1200-1350 calories per day and were heated in the microwave and prepared based on the instructions for each meal.

The seven companies involved in the study were, Jenny Craig, Bistro MD, Diet-to-Go, The Biggest Loser, Nutrisystem, eDiets and Medifast. Costs per day for the food delivery programs ranged from $7.14 to $28.94/day. Four of the seven programs also had a fitness component. (Full report from NextAdvisor can be found here.)

After the study was completed, points were tallied and it was revealed that the Jenny Craig program received the highest reviews with 5 out of 5 stars for breakfast and dinner food, and 4.5 stars for lunch food. In fact one diner noted that “It didn’t seem like diet food.” High praise indeed.

The company with the lowest rating was MediFast which received only 2 out of 5 stars for breakfast foods, 2.5 stars for lunch food and 3 stars for dinner foods.

Having a review of various food delivery programs such as the one provided by NextAdvisor is essential before investing time and money into a program that may not be a fit.

If home-cooked meals and fresh foods are favored over pre-made delivery meals, HealthNews columnist Susan Brady’s article on the “Top 10 Weight Loss Cookbooks,” narrows down thousands of options when choosing a book to help with healthy meal preparation.