Page 225 - How to Be a Conscious Eater - Making Food Choices That Are Good for You

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MEAL KITS: THINKING

INSIDE THE BOX

he first time I used a meal kit delivery service, I was
mortified. Not by how the meal turned out. Not by my
Tignorance of some of the spices involved. But by the pile
of packaging that had been required to get all the ingredients
to my house. As a San Francisco Bay Area resident, I waited
till dark to take it all out to the garbage bin so my neighbors
wouldn’t see.
Anyone who has used a meal kit—we’re talking Blue Apron,
Plated, HelloFresh, Sun Basket, and countless others—has likely
faced a similar conundrum: I feel good about the choice I’m making
from a health perspective, but bad about it from an environmental
perspective. Between the pre-portioned baggies of paprika and
the plastic-wrapped leaves of basil, along with the heavy-duty
cooler packs and insulated bubble liners, the eco-guilt can be
crippling. It can feel like you’re solving one problem in your life
while creating a new one.
To determine what to make of meal kits and whether to
incorporate them into your weekly routine, let’s compare them
to other plausible avenues to dinner and see which road might
be the most conscious.

ROUND 1: MEAL KIT VS. EATING AT A RESTAURANT
Most often what we order away from home isn’t nearly as
good for us as what we might eat when preparing a meal
ourselves. A meal kit wins for health because it’s undoubtedly a
more reasonable portion of food, it more likely has a purer set

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