With its great meal options, Epicured shows us that food doesn't have to be restrictive even if you are on a strict diet. Featuring plenty of low FODMAP and gluten-free recipes, this meal delivery company employs licensed health professionals and chefs to oversee and prepare fresh, flavorful, and tasty dishes, especially suited for those who need them.
Seattle Sutton has been proudly serving food for the last 30 years, and it's a specially designed program for weight loss. Founded by the registered nurse Seattle Sutton, this service offers nutritious and freshly prepared recipes, ideal for maintaining a healthy body weight that aim to limit calorie intake.
Epicured
Seattle Sutton’s Healthy Eating
Epicured
Seattle Sutton
Epicured
Seattle Sutton
We already mentioned that the Epicured menu is rather pricey, featuring roughly 30 ready-made entries, four soups, eight salads, and more than 20 vegetable, grain, and protein sides. You can also order a wide selection of desserts, drinks, snacks, and breakfast. Every meal is gluten-free and low FODMAP compliant.
Even though the menu remains mostly the same, you get a chance to go through common allergens and adjust servings according to your taste and health condition. Customers can choose between a la carte menu and bundles.
When it comes to SSHE, their menu offers 150 freshly prepared recipes, which rotate every five weeks. This food company has three dietitian-approved meal plans, while they follow strict American Heart Association and American Diabetes Association guidelines.
Unfortunately, you can't customize the ingredients, but plans are based on the calorie intake and feature two traditional 1200 and 2000 calorie plans and one 1500 vegetarian calorie plan.
Need more info? See our complete guide for best low fodmap meal delivery services.
Given the restrictions, we didn't expect much of Epicured in terms of texture and flavor. Even though we weren't blown away by the stuff we tried, we were pleasantly surprised by the ingredient quality, along with freshness and taste.
Every meal we ordered was well-balanced, seasoned, and tasty. We also enjoyed the quality of vegetables; they crisp without any visible issues. While their ingredients aren't 100% organic, they try to go organic whenever it's possible.
Protein is sourced from local farms, and Epicured offers antibiotic-free turkey and chicken.
SSHE tries to maintain a certain level of freshness and quality. Of course, some recipes performed better than others; still, their meat tasted good and had a good texture, while veggies didn't end up too soft. We loved the idea of using plant-based and whole grains proteins, which aren't only great for your health but respond well to shipping and reheating.
Unfortunately, there is a lack of information about the ingredients. You won't be able to find where Seattle Sutton sources its protein, fruits, and vegetables.
Epicured really stresses about nutritional value considering they offer low FODMAP and gluten-free service, specially designed for various gut disorders like celiac disease, colitis, IBS, Chron's, and others.
That's why this company pays attention to every detail when composing meals. Each of their recipes contains allergen info Monash disclosures, showing how many grams of particular ingredients will affect its FODMAP status.
Epicured features pescatarian, vegetarian, and vegan options, while their menu contains items low in protein, sodium, cholesterol, and saturated fat.
Learn more: Best Vegetarian Meal Deliveries Reviewed
SSHE tends to combine multiple diets into one plan! Their dishes are heart-healthy, low in sodium and cholesterol, carb-controlled, ideal for diabetes, and without any added sugars, regardless of the meal plan you pick.
If you want to learn more about ingredients, allergens, and meals themselves, you won't be able to find it on their website because nothing is listed. However, all the details come printed on the packaging, or you can email them to receive nutrition info. Seattle Sutton's dishes contain popular allergens, but they are shellfish-free.
Epicured comes with plenty of meal choices, but what people seem to like most about this service is their a la carte menu, which means you can choose as many meals as you like. A lot of recipes feature organic ingredients and farm-sourced chicken and turkey. On top of that, Epicured has a menu of omnivore, pescatarian, vegetarian, vegan dishes.
Seattle Sutton has more than 105 recipes with a rotating menu. You can't choose recipes, like with the previous service, but they do contain meal plans that limit calorie intake and are specially designed for people who want to lose weight. Seattle Sutton only has traditional and vegetarian meal choices.
Epicured ships their meals in recyclable cardboard boxes, with plenty of bubble wrap and ice packs to maintain optimal freshness of ingredients. But, keep in mind that individual meals aren't vacuumed, meaning they can only stay fresh for five days.
This food company delivers food to the continental United States. And, you can expect free shipping for orders over $100.
All shipping materials SSHE uses are fully recyclable, while meals are packed in recyclable plastic containers. We should mention these containers are free of BPA. They also ship to the continental US, and the shipping fee depends on your location but usually doesn't exceed $10.
Epicured
Seattle Sutton
Both of these companies offer specialized services designed to target particular health conditions. Meals from Epicured are tailored to people who suffer from gut sensitivities, while Seattle Sutton's main focus is calorie balance.
Given all the categories, neither service provided us with perfection in terms of taste and texture, but we have a feeling Epicured did better. Also, a slight advantage goes to this company because a customer can actually choose what they want to eat, which isn't the case with SSHE.
Of course, since both companies target specific health conditions, so we can't expect them to provide meals you will devour in one attempt, but we were pleasantly surprised by their choice.