Which Healthy Meal Delivery Company Is Worth It?

Which Healthy Meal Delivery Company Is Worth It?
author TopDust Staff

Tried home cooking from scratch? Tried meal kits? Even tried the “healthy” take-out options, but still searching for an affordable way to eat well without sacrificing hours of meal planning, prepping, and cooking?

Well, don’t give up just yet because we found two of the most highly rated healthy meal delivery companies, Thistle and Methodology. We have been testing them out to see if they really live up to what they’re promising and most importantly how they compare to each other.

Key Similarities

  • Both deliver ready-to-eat meals to your doorstep weekly
  • Both are gluten and dairy-free and offer vegan options
  • Both have flexible weekly subscriptions and you can pause, skip or cancel at anytime
  • Both offer meals from breakfast, lunch and dinner along with healthy snacks, smoothies/juices, and sides
  • With both, you can choose your meals each week, and change them up based on your preferences

Key Differences

  • Thistle meals start at $11.50, Methodology meals are $15-$20
  • Thistle meals come fully prepared and packed per meal in one container, Methodology ingredients are fully prepared and cooked but are packaged individually into glass jars so need to be assembled at home and heated on a stove
  • Thistle’s meals offer customization with protein add-ons and protein alternatives, Methodology offers no customization to their meat or plant-based dishes
  • Thistle’s meals have the most variety. They are dairy and gluten-free, plant-forward, and feature meat add-ons and their weekly menu. They also offer 6 different breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack options each week. Methodology only offers 3 breakfast options a week and categorizes lunch and dinner meals as the same.

Thistle Overview

If you’re looking for healthy and locally sourced fresh meals delivered right to your door with seriously zero prep that are also next-level delicious, Thistle is what you need.

Thistle’s breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, wellness shots, and juices are offered on a subscription basis for 3 to 6 days per week. You can customize your whole plan, skip, pause, or easily cancel at any time.

Thistle’s macrobiotically developed menu emphasizes plant-focused, dairy-free, gluten-free, and organic ingredients whenever possible. When ordering your Thistle meals, you can add on protein like chicken, turkey, pork, or shrimp or stick to plant-base with the tofu and bean/pea protein.

The Thistle chefs develop a new globally-inspired menu each week, with a breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snack option for each day. They ensure each meal is perfectly balanced and nutrient-packed with zero refined white sugars, artificial preservatives, artificial additives, and artificial dyes. But don’t worry they pack a lot of flavors too with dishes like Pineapple Pachadi Curry Bowl, Crunchy Thai Peanut Bowl, and Dirty Chai Oatmeal Bowl with Vanilla Cashew Cream, not to mention Milk Chocolate Cake with Mocha Ganache and 24 Carrot Gold Muffin snacks.

Starting at only $42 per week and $11.50 per meal, you can enjoy the benefits of a convenient, healthy diet.

ThistleLocally Sourced Fresh Meals Delivered To Your Door Limited Time: Save $100 Off Your First 4 Weeks Now!

Methodology Overview

Methodology’s focus is to change your life from the inside out using clean food. All their meals are refined sugar, gluten, and dairy-free (except for Ghee). They offer breakfast, lunch, and dinner with juices and snack add-ons. Their meals are calorie-controlled, with standard meals between 300-450 calories and large meals between 600-1000 calories.

They have over 200 items on their rotating menu but each week you are limited to a menu with only 3 breakfast options, 9 meat lunch/dinner options, and 6 plant-based lunch/dinner options.

They offer meals for different diets including vegan, keto, paleo, and pescatarian. However when we clicked on them we realized it wasn’t meals designed specifically for these diets it was just their meals for the week that vaguely fitted into these categories, so very few options.

The meals are small and tasty but not what most people would usually opt for even on a healthy diet. Their Healing Caramelized Claypot Tofu was good but not something we would want to eat every day.

Also, all their ingredients for each meal come delivered in separate glass jars containers so you can mix and match components. The jars don’t come with any instructions which caused a lot of confusion and extra effort making up the meals yourself.

Final Thoughts

Methodology promises clean, ultra-nourishing, meals to achieve optimal wellness so you can feel your best. For such a high price you would be expecting nothing less but in all honesty, we felt more energetic, healthy, and all-around better while eating Thistle.

Methodology was too fussy from beginning to end with too many moving parts between trying to choose prepared meals, mix and match, dessert, and snack options, to their ingredients arriving without instructions in so many individual containers. It was too complicated.

Thistle is simple, delicious, and offers the most unbelievable amount of variety and personalization at such an affordable price. They truly take convenience to a whole new level.

Thistle stays true to its focus on the importance of the quality of food we eat, without all the fake fluff, defined calorie quantities, or macronutrient ratios. They strive to ensure nutritional consistency and all their meals adhere to the same nutritional value that our bodies require to be fueled all day.

Want to give Thistle a try? Our friends at Thistle are extending a limited-time offer to our readers: Follow this link to save $100 off your first four weeks of Thistle Meal Delivery!