Eating healthy always seems so hard to maintain. It takes so much planning - searching for recipes, finding the ingredients, and prepping and cooking meals every day.
After a week you find yourself going back to your old ways, putting a pizza in the oven one night and ordering takeout the next.
Turns out, healthy meal delivery services are an easy solution to eating a healthy diet while maintaining convenience. Let's face it, not all of us have the time to prep all our meals.
Two top dogs in the healthy meal delivery service industry are Thistle and Sakara Life. Our editors decided to try them both out to see which one is the best. Here's what we found:
Key Similarities:
- Both Thistle and Sakara Life meals are curated by chefs
- Both deliver directly to your doorstep
- Both are subscriptions you can skip, pause, or cancel at any time
- Both require zero to minimal prep
- Both are dairy-free and gluten-free.
Key Differences:
- Sakara Life is purely plant-based
- Thistle is plant-focused with the option to add meat or fish
- Thistle starts at just $42 for 3 lunches a week
- Sakara starts at $54 for just 2 breakfasts
- Sakara Life offers a set menu every week
- Thistle has the option to customize your meals
Thistle Overview
Signing up for Thistleis easy. We got to choose from a menu of globally inspired recipes, crafted by chefs to pack both nutrients and amazing flavor.
The first thing to say about Thistle is it has variety. It has both vegan and omnivore plans. We went with the 6 days a week, breakfast, lunch, and dinner plan for $207 - which is just $11.50 a meal.
Our delivery arrived the next week and all that needed to be done was place them in the fridge until we were ready to eat. The meals can be eaten cold or heated in a skillet for 2-3 minutes, perfect for a quick lunch or dinner.
It's super convenient having the meals for the week ready. When it comes to lunchtime on weekdays, it's easy to cave and get takeout, but not with Thistle.
Our first meal was the Chunky Monkey Smoothie topped with Granola, which was sweet, crunchy, chocolatey, creamy, and the perfect way to start the day. Not to mention all the vitamins and minerals it contained, which kept my energy up all morning.
The rest of the meals I had throughout my week with Thistlewere no different - tasty, satisfying, and nutritious. The Roasted Apple & Squash Chipotle Chili, and The Southwest Sweet Potato Taco Salad were some of my favorites of the week.
Thistle
Locally Sourced Fresh Meals
Delivered To Your Door
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Sakara Life Overview
Sakara Life has a pleasant site to navigate. Immediately, it's clear that they cater to people who are trying to lose weight with messaging like "shed excess weight", "reduce bloating", and "improve digestion."
Sakara Life only offers plant-based meals. When signing up, you don't get to choose your meals as it's a set menu. To give it a fair comparison, we went with the 5-day breakfast, lunch, and dinner plan, which cost $349 altogether - that's over $23 per meal. For that price, we were expecting a lot.
Our delivery arrived and we didn't know what would be in our box, but when we opened the box the meals looked super tasty.
We started with the Classic Superfood Granola the next day. It was nice, but not as satisfying as the breakfasts we'd had with Thistle. By lunchtime, we were definitely hungry. We had the Wild Rice + Miso Salad for lunch which was super healthy but again, a little unsatisfactory.
Dinner was by far our favorite meal, which was the
Protein Power Plate - curried green lentils, roasted cauliflower + rainbow carrot, cooling coconut yogurt and turmeric flatbread.
The rest of our week was much the same, some tasty and healthy meals that weren't substantial enough to curb our cravings. Before our week with Sakara Life was out, we ended up caving and getting takeout. We couldn't resist!
Final Thoughts
Out of these two services, our favorite is Thistle. Both are extremely nutritious and healthy, and all meals from both services contain a long list of superfood ingredients.
In the end, it came down to the service whose meals we preferred, and that was Thistle's by far. Roasted Veggie & Romesco Pasta and the Peanut Butter Ganache Bar to name a few of the yummy meals they offer. The fact that Thistle allows you to customize your menu ensures that you will enjoy your meals. Sakara doesn't give you a choice. Thistle also has a bigger variety of plan options - for both meat-eaters and vegans.
Another major thing is cost. Paying $23 for a meal with Sakara Life that you don't get to choose yourself is a pretty big gamble. Thistle's plans are much more affordable - starting at just $11.50 a meal.
Considering how expensive Sakara Life is, we expected to be satisfied all day with our meals, but we weren't. We were much more satisfied with our Thistle meals. We can actually see ourselves maintaining a healthy lifestyle now thanks to Thistle!
If you're looking for an easy way to eat healthy, try Thistle. You won't regret it!