Just about every nutrition expert will say that eating whole foods is one of the best ways to maintain good health, though they’re not always the most convenient foods to cook after a long day’s work.
Registered dietitian and nutrition expert Kelly Burgess has tried to find a way for her clients to balance eating whole foods and not spending hours in the kitchen, but she’s struggled to find a worthwhile solution.
That was until she found LeafSide, a plant-based meal delivery service that offers fully-prepped meals, soups, and smoothies that can be eaten on their own, or customized with other ingredients in your pantry.
“So for people who may feel that, you know, they don't have the time, or legitimately don't have the time, they don't want to have to think about putting a meal together,” Burgess, founder of To Better Health, says. “This is a great way for them to do that, because here's your base and now all of a sudden you're just doing customizations of that base and it's very easy for you.”
Beyond the convenience, Burgess says she’s more likely to use and recommend LeafSide over other meal delivery services because of its nutritional composition.
“There are some family members, friends who can't cook, don't know how to cook, unable to cook because they're ill,” she says, “and trying to find any kind of meal delivery for them that doesn't have the ultra-processed ingredients, it's not loaded up with sodium, doesn't have all the sugars, doesn't have, you know, so much fat in it that you feel bloated after you eat it, it’s so hard to find. So when I saw Leafside, I'm like, my gosh, this is the Holy Grail.”
Another reason she prefers it is the variety of flavors offered, and adds that the curries and Broccoli Cashew Alfredo are personal standouts.
“I would actually eat all of it,” she says. “For me, this is a type of product that brings me back to childhood because of the flavors and all of the different mixtures that they have.”
Although the prepared meals are plant-based, Burgess says that couldn’t stop anyone from adding animal proteins.
“Nothing against having chicken or fish or something else in there, but at least the base is a base of plants,” she says. “And then it can be customized any way that somebody would want to customize it with any animal protein that they would want to put in, or leave it just the way it is, or add more beans to it, more legumes.”
Her introduction to LeafSide came while she was scrolling social media.
“Because it's not available in any kind of retail outlet whatsoever,” she says.
The key thing that piqued her interest was that, compared to other meal prep delivery services, LeafSide contains whole foods and minimal ingredients.
“What attracted me to them is the fact that it's a 100% whole food product,” she says. “I think the only ingredient that's considered an additive, the only additive in there, is salt. That's it. And you can even get some of the preparations without any salt whatsoever.”
Additionally, she says it’s hard to find a reliable and high-quality plant-based meal delivery service.
“There have been some others in the past, but unfortunately the marketplace doesn't support a lot of these companies and they end up disappearing,” she says. “And I'm so sad when that happens. So when I do find a company, I want to broadcast that to the universe and let them know that this is available.”
