Paleo Pros and Cons
The Pros
You don’t look like a caveman, you don’t behave like a caveman, so why should you eat like one? Well, there are many benefits to a paleo diet, especially when you’ve got one of the best paleo meal delivery services looking after it for you. The more important advantages include:
1. Potassium is great for maintaining your muscle and kidney functions and keeping your blood pressure healthy. Paleo home delivery meals contain lots of potassium because they include plenty of squash, sweet potato and other vegetables and fruits high with a high content of this vital mineral.
2. Healthy fats are an important facet of a primal diet, keeping your cholesterol levels under control. By following a paleo diet, you’ll exclude saturated fats and stick with the beneficial ones found in things like avocado, olive oil, and nuts.
3. Protein helps your body grow but not in a negative way! Eating lean beef, pork loin and other sources of lean protein will aid the growth of bone, cartilage, and muscle, giving you a healthy body composition.
The Cons
1. Calcium is rather limited as dairy products are rarely included in paleo home delivery meals. As a result, some people may develop low tooth and bone density. While gnawing a bone may help combat the problem, calcium supplements might be a more appealing approach.
2. Whole grains are one of the ways most people get their correct daily intake of fiber. As this is greatly reduced in a paleo diet, some people may experience weight gain while the risk of heart disease could increase in others.
3. Legumes like, lentils, peas and beans weren’t really available in the Paleolithic period so they’re banned from a paleo diet. Unfortunately, these ingredients contain lots of magnesium, selenium, and manganese which are essential to maintain your body’s normal functions and support the immune system.
Paleo vs Keto
With so many diets and recommended eating regimes out there, it can be difficult to decide which will be best for you. Not only do you want to have a healthier diet and, possibly lose weight, but you also want a diet that suits your lifestyle. Both paleo and keto diets have their restrictions which can make them difficult to stick to, especially if you eat out a lot. However, if you opt for one of the best meal delivery services, it will be a lot easier to control your daily food intake as the meals are pre-ordered and pre-prepared.
So, when it comes to the crunch, which is better, paleo or keto? At the end of the day, it really depends on what you want to get out of your diet. If you’re looking for an efficient way to lose weight, then the keto diet is probably the best. On the downside, you have to be in a state of ketosis for this diet to work effectively which means you have to test regularly to see what state your body is in which isn’t always very pleasant!
The first indication that you’ve achieved ketosis is that your breath smells different – some describe it as “fruity” and others as “metallic” and still others as, quite simply, bad breath. Fortunately, this goes away after a few weeks, after which you can test for ketosis using either urine or blood samples so, if you don’t like the idea of regular testing or if the notion of taking blood turns your stomach, keto probably isn’t for you.
Most people adopt a keto diet only until they’ve achieved their desired weight target so if you’re looking for a long-term diet change, then paleo is probably your best option, although it will prove quite a challenge for those who love their dairy products.
If you really can’t decide which diet is best for you, you could try a combination of both, following these basic guidelines:
- Eliminate all dairy products except grass-fed ghee or butter
- Replace sugar with a natural sweetener like stevia
- Opt for grass-fed animal products
At the end of the day, if you’re looking to lose weight and don’t mind adapting your lifestyle to incorporate dietary restrictions, then the keto diet is the best for you. If, on the other hand, you want to adopt a new, long-term eating regime that will boost your health and help you lose weight over a period of time, a paleo diet meal delivery service is the one you should be investigating.
Where to Get the Best Paleo Home Delivery Meals
#1 Sun Basket
Sun Basket offers a range of different meal plans aimed at those wanting to adopt a specific diet. Alongside their Paleo meal plan, Sun Basket also provide carb-conscious, gluten-free and Mediterranean meal plans. With top-quality ingredients, organic fresh produce, and sustainably sourced meats and seafood, Sun Basket makes sure their customers get the best of everything. Healthy ingredients, free of hormones, gluten, and antibiotics are complemented by Sun Basket’s signature sauces to create delicious yet healthy meals.
Sun Basket’s organic paleo meal delivery plan consists of meals that are rich in good fats, high in protein and fiber but low in calories, with each dish containing less than 800 calories. Each week, you can order up to three different paleo home delivery meals or mix and match by throwing in a couple of vegan or Mediterranean choices to keep it interesting.
Sun Basket’s paleo meal plan delivery service includes meat-based dishes such as sheet pan chicken and sweet potato with dates and pistachios. Seafood is also on the menu with enticing options like colorful and tasty Brazilian shrimp moqueca with cauliflower mash. You can add to your weekly dinners with a five-minute salad that will give you a great midday energy boost and help you dodge the donut urge later in the day.
Despite the carefully selected organic and sustainable ingredients, Sun Basket remains surprisingly affordable with meals starting at $11.99 per serving. Sun Basket delivers all over the nation with the exception of Alaska, Hawaii, Montana, and parts of New Mexico and is currently offering free shipping with the first order.
Although slightly pricier than Hello Fresh or Home Chef, the fact that all the ingredients are 100% organic as well as sustainable makes this paleo meal kit delivery service excellent value for money.
#2 Green Chef
Paleo dishes are of the highest quality and amazing taste when you subscribe to Green Chef. With the option of individual meals as well as family size dinners, you can up the quantity to four if your in-laws are coming next week. Who said you weren’t a genius in the kitchen? If you’re heading out of town that is also not a problem because you have the option of pausing your meal deliveries. Paleo meals come at $12.99 which is up there when it comes to cost, but the quality of your food is second to none.
The most important thing, other than the health benefits is the quality of the food, and Green Chef really delivers in that regard. Using quality ingredients from responsible and ethical farmers you can be sure that your meal is free from GMOs, toxic pesticides, sewage sludge, antibiotics, growth hormones, and steroids. When delivered, the ingredients are color-coded which means that creating your dishes will not be a problem.
On top of all of that, the taste is amazing. The recipes are created by professionally trained chefs with your meal plan in mind. Paleo dishes range from: Italian chicken sausage patties, pork tenderloins with balsamic fig sauce, cod with creamy dijon sauce, steak frites, Cuban-spiced steak salad, and sage pesto baked cod.
#3 Pete’s Paleo
Way back in the Paleo era, our ancestors were mainly hunter-gatherers rather than farmers and relied on seasonal produce, allowing their diet to naturally adapt between summer and winter. While meat was probably available all year round to some degree, our ancestors would have feasted on fruit and berries in the spring, nuts, and seeds in the autumn.
Pete’s Paleo remains faithful to this concept and changes its weekly selection of paleo home delivery meals according to the season. In fact, Pete’s Paleo works so closely with its suppliers and farmers that the week’s menu is designed around the produce they’re harvesting that week.
Unfortunately, this level of quality and freshness comes at a price and five single servings will set you back $123, working out over twice as expensive as Sun Basket. The more meals you order, the cheaper they become, so five paleo home delivery meals for a family of four cost just $16,20 per serving which is still at the high end for meal delivery services.
Pete’s Paleo’s website isn’t as easy to navigate as, for example, Home Chef and it took a while to track down the weekly menu. Unlike most meal delivery services, Pete’s Paleo doesn’t present its weekly menu with colorful and mouth-watering images, opting instead for a YouTube video. Unfortunately, this doesn’t present the meals at their best and several looked decidedly uninviting which detracts a little from the appeal, especially if you’re shelling out over $20 per serving.
Despite what the images may look like, Pete’s Paleo home delivery meals are both flavorful and full of nutrition, in fact, you’re basically getting restaurant-quality meals delivered to your home each week. Obviously, you’re going to have to have a hand in the preparation of the meals which you wouldn’t at a restaurant but that simply means you’ll develop some new culinary skills along the way.
#4 Paleo On the Go
With Paleo on the Go, you won’t have to spend more than a few minutes in the kitchen each evening. Unlike the two meal kit delivery services discussed above, Paleo on the Go send you complete meals rather than fresh ingredients, so all you have to do is reheat and enjoy.
The meals produced by Paleo On the Go are much more than just your basic paleo dishes and the variety of meal plans gives customers the freedom to select individual meals, meal bundles and a variety of add-ons, including meats, soups, sauces, and desserts. The monthly meal bundles are all autoimmune protocol compliant and consist of 10 meals, mouthwatering Snickerdoodles, and two soups. These bundles are extremely popular so you need to make sure you get your order in early to avoid disappointment.
Paleo On the Go’s paleo prepared meal delivery service offers an AIP menu which is designed to remove foods commonly associated with digestive discomfort and inflammation, replacing these with a nutrient-dense diet that will facilitate the body’s healing process. Alternatively, you could opt for a sugar detox which will not only help you lose weight but also boost your natural energy levels.
Although Paleo On the Go requires a minimum $99 order, as their meals keep for five days in the fridge or up to six months frozen, you can order in bulk quite easily. Additionally, with individual ingredients like organic, sugar-free bacon and homemade pot pies available, you can mix and match to create a range of different meal.
While Paleo on the Go certainly isn’t cheap, with soups starting at over $5, if you’re looking to make a serious commitment to your health and a more mindful approach to your diet, it is a great way to at least get started, even if you opt for a cheaper, non-paleo specific meal delivery service like Home Chef further on down the line.
Conclusion
There are many benefits to adopting a paleo diet, not all of which are physical, although those are often the reasons people opt for a paleo prepared meal delivery service. Many people experience a lot less bloating when on a paleo diet as well as suffering less from food allergies. In addition to sustained weight loss, the best paleo meal delivery options can improve your mood, enrich your quality of sleep, boost muscle growth, combat symptoms of diabetes and reduce the risk of diabetes developing, reduce symptoms of respiratory problems like asthma.
The paleo diet isn’t just about losing weight, it’s about changing your attitude towards food and providing your body with a balance of minerals and vitamins through the consumption of vegetables, nuts, and fruit instead of nutrient-void processed foods and carbohydrate-heavy meals. Although restrictive, the paleo diet allows for a greater variety of foods than other diets, like the keto, making it more sustainable and more appealing as a long-term health option.
With a number of high-quality organic paleo meal delivery services available, it’s easier to stick to a primal diet now than ever before. The best paleo meal delivery companies will drop delicious, paleo prepared meals off once a week, enabling you to focus on other important aspects of your life, while knowing your nutritional needs are taken care of. Services like Pete’s Paleo and Paleo on the Go give you the option of buying pre-prepared bulk items or complete paleo meals so you can opt to cook for yourself or take advantage of the wide range of paleo home delivery meals on offer.
Even if you’re still not convinced this is the right diet for you, why not give it a whirl with one of our recommended paleo home delivery meals? You can always opt out after a week or two if it’s not working out for you and, not only will you have experienced a paleo diet, you’ll also have been introduced to the wonderful world of meal delivery services.