- Eating healthily is all about balance
and having a bit of everything you fancy in moderation.
However, getting regular takeaways
isn't generally associated with nourishing your body.
But does this need to be the case?
I love fitness, and I love healthy food,
but I also love getting meals delivered
to my door and enjoying them on the sofa.
So I've decided to see whether it's possible
to eat healthily ordering all my meals
from delivery apps for a week:
Just Eat, Uber Eats, and Deliveroo, and I won't allow myself
to order the same dish twice.
For breakfast, I'm just gonna have
a simple bowl of porridge every day,
and then I'm setting myself a budget
of £30 per day for lunch and dinner.
I think it might actually be quite tricky
to know what's really healthy
because the delivery apps don't tend to share
any nutritional info, and you just don't know
how things are cooked and whether there's been loads of oil,
but I'm really looking forward to giving it a try
and taking a break from cooking.
The first day starts really well.
This looks pretty good.
The meal feels like a good healthy start,
and it's speedy delivery from Deliveroo.
Unfortunately, the same can't be said
for my dinner from Just Eat that evening.
With Just Eat, you can't track the driver.
So my dinner's finally arrived, only half an hour late.
It turns out it's cold, and it's come with instructions
saying I can either cook it in the microwave for six minutes
or the oven, and I just don't have time for that,
so I'm gonna have to eat it cold.
The end result seems to be quite a healthy meal,
but when I check the ingredients list,
I realize it's pretty high in sugar.
I've also spent £29 today, eek!
It's Tuesday, and I've ordered myself
a protein-packed lunch.
Feeling good.
It looks pretty good, and they say it's 400 calories.
That's quite a lot of food for 400 calories.
All the nutritional info is available, which helps,
and it really fills me up.
Now I know most people don't usually think
of Nando's when you think about eating healthily,
however, you can actually get some really healthy stuff.
Eating well certainly doesn't mean cutting out carbs.
This pita bread is delicious.
Also, one thing I'm noticing about Deliveroo
is that I can often find the nutritional info
on the restaurant's websites even if it's not on the app.
But on Wednesday, things start to go somewhat off track.
I used the nutrition calculator
on the salad bar's website, and I'm shocked
by how high-calorie my choices are.
The food's delicious, but I realize it's not
as light a lunch as I thought.
My dinner is super tasty, and it's a lot of food
for just over 500 calories, which I certainly enjoy.
However, I do end up feeling super bloated afterwards,
which is less enjoyable.
On Thursday, I end up regretting my food choices.
This was almost unbearably spicy for me,
and I was promised a whole cauliflower,
which I certainly do not receive.
I think I actually ordered some really random stuff
that doesn't actually go together
mainly just because I was trying to make healthy choices.
And then for dinner.
There's just so much food, and it's all quite greasy.
The chicken has loads of skin and not much meat,
and there are no veggies in the meal either.
It also arrives early while I'm still in the shower
because you can't track the driver.
To be honest, I basically totally failed tonight
in my quest to have a healthy dinner,
probably both through the food I've ordered
and the quantity I've ordered.
One silver lining, this is the fourth day
that I've come in under budget
having ordered two large portions a day.
Going into the final day, I'm feeling pretty positive
ordering from Deliveroo, but I'm also shocked
by the amount of packaging that I've accrued this week.
Seriously, so many of the restaurants
have included unnecessary packaging,
flyers, and extra bits of paper.
I basically have got a fajita but minus the wrap
with, like, extra chicken for extra gains.
I finished the week on a high with this delectable dinner.
This smells amazing.
Delicious, and Deliveroo pulled through with the order,
and I'm within budget again.
So at the end of the week, what have we learned?
Well, if I had to rank the apps in terms of
healthy food options and overall delivery experience,
I'd put Deliveroo at the top,
and it would have to be Just Eat at the bottom.
There were a few restaurants that were available
on multiple apps, but generally the best-quality
food options were on Deliveroo.
Is it possible to eat healthily using delivery apps?
I would say yes, but you just need to know
where to look, and there are pitfalls.
Making healthy choices involves doing a lot of research,
looking up nutritional info online,
and scrolling through the apps for ages,
and it was pretty time-consuming.
And the whole process certainly isn't cheap.
I barely managed to get a good filling lunch
and dinner for £30 a day,
and imagine if you did that all year round.
You'd spend over £7,000.
What's more, I managed to accrue a terrible
amount of plastic packaging.
So is it possible to eat healthily
ordering all your food from delivery apps?
Yes, but it won't do your wallet or the planet any favors.