Healthy eating is one of the ways people with diabetes and prediabetes can manage their conditions. Farm-to-table tailored meal delivery company Nutrition for Longevity (N4L) offers fully prepared home delivered meals tailored for those with prediabetes and diabetes. They also include daily lifestyle support from a personal dietitian and wellness coaches so clients never feel alone in their health journey.
There are two kinds of diabetes: type 1 where the body doesn’t make enough insulin; and type 2 where the body can’t process and use insulin properly.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 37 million Americans have diabetes, which is about 1 in every 10 people; and 96 million adults have prediabetes, which is more than 1 in 3 Americans. The CDC says prediabetics can cut their risk of getting type 2 diabetes in half by losing weight through eating healthy and being more active. Nutrition for Longevity wants to make that mission a lot easier for their clients. “We save people time on planning, shopping, prepping and cooking; we even help with simple active movement classes, so those with a busy lifestyle can eat like a celebrity who has a personal chef to help get them and keep them in good health.” Says Jennifer Maynard, CEO and co-founder of N4L.
“Prediabetes and diabetes are two diseases that are directly impacted by nutrition,” says Jackie Philbin, RDN, LDN, the head of Nutrition & Lifestyle Program Management at N4L, who advises diabetics and prediabetics to talk with their doctor about their A1C and their blood glucose levels before starting a new nutrition program.
Diabetes-friendly meals
N4L meal delivery subscriptions supply macro-balanced, high quality fully prepared meals to your door, making healthy eating easier than ever. All meals are back by the science of the Longevity Diet and go through a rigorous culinary development process, so they taste delicious but meet the requirements of The American Diabetes Association, American Heart Association and USDA. They are high in fiber, healthy gluten free grains, legumes, nuts, and vegetables to help balance blood sugar throughout the day. The diabetes-friendly meal plans are part of N4L’S Real Transformation Diabetes Management Program.
The focus is on providing “stabilized nutrition,” with a consistent, precise calorie and nutrient intake from foods with macro and micro nutrients to support an individual’s overall physical health and help them maintain steady energy.
The N4L Delivered Meal kits for diabetes management, which are specially curated by a team of chefs and registered dietitians, have at least 6 servings of fruits and vegetables, and minimally processed carbohydrates that are from natural sources to nourish the body and provide long-lasting energy. The kits have controlled carbohydrates in every meal to steady blood sugar levels while also delivering sufficient fiber, vitamins, and minerals.
For example, a meal kit includes an early morning nut based bar, followed by a breakfast smoothie with prebiotic fiber, and either a gluten free vegan muffin or ancient grain oats; lunches are plant-based and include a salad or veggie bowl; an afternoon snack, such as dark chocolate; and a plant-forward, poultry or fish-based dinner that can be heated in less than 3 minutes.
Here’s an example of a diabetes-friendly meal from N4L: Start your day with our decaf or regular coffee sachets and a nut and honey bar, then enjoy a blueberry chia seed pudding. Lunch would be a forbidden black rice bowl, and for dinner their pescatarian pozole verde with Nicoyan redfish. All balanced for an optimal diabetes friendly carb and calorie range.
Carb-friendly
N4L’s team of dietitians advises people with diabetes to adopt a diet that’s high in vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and lean protein, but low in added sugar, saturated fat and sodium.
They encourage building healthy, long-term habits too.
“We’re providing foundational education and growing our clients knowledge over a period of 12 weeks to 12 months, depending on the length of the program they choose and the goals they wish to achieve,” says Philbin. “So, we start with a reset which includes resetting all habits that could lead to an unhealthy lifestyle and diet. This might include resetting your pantry, resetting old habits, and resetting a person’s thoughts surrounding food, especially carbs. We not only provide easy to access no effort food choices for our clients, but we teach them the right way to eat for the rest of their life.” The biggest take away from our clients is that this reset doesn’t feel like punishment, they thoroughly enjoy the new habits, lifestyle and diet. One of our clients put it, “The meals do not feel like a diet, but feel like ‘nourishing, homemade food my momma would’ve made – if she was a little bit better in the kitchen, and traveled a bit more”.
We want our clients to feel empowered, to realize they can manage their diabetes, and it can be easier than they think. We have designed this program to transform people’s lives. This is why N4L calls their programs REAL Transformation.
Here is what some of their clients say about their Transformations:
- “I viewed this program as a last resort for my health. Had feelings of defeat, frustration, and felt that if this program didn’t change my habits, the idea of meeting future grandchildren was out of the question. 8 weeks in, 14 pounds down, blood pressure medication is cut in half.”
- “At our family primary care visit, the doctor was blown away by the change in weight loss of the entire family, and even my children’s blood sugar levels”.
- “I wanted the team to know that my A1c prior to the program was 8.4. I went to the dr. last week and it was….. Drum roll…..6.3!”
N4L’s dietitian support and coaching helps clients learn what they should be eating and why. It’s not about deprivation, but about understanding our bodies relationship with food.
“We want to make dietitians more accessible because we are the nutrition experts,” says Philbin, explaining consumers can trust her and other N4L dietitians who are trained in nutrition and many of whom have specialties in diabetes nutrition.
A common misconception among diabetics is that they have to eliminate carbohydrates completely from their diets. But she says carbs are not the enemy and instead wants to help people learn the right carbs to eat.
“Carbs break down into glucose which is our brains preferred energy source,” says Philbin. “So, if you cut out carbs, totally, you’re going to experience potential side effects like brain fog, low energy, and hangry spells.” What is important is to eat the right carbs, at the right times.
Built for longevity
Eating healthy with N4L is both convenient and an effective lifestyle transformation. Designed for longevity — a lifestyle that’s focused on slowing the aging process to to ;ove a long, healthy life — the company takes inspiration from centenarian hot spots around the world where some of the oldest and healthiest people live. Centenarians (people who live past 100 years of age) are known to eat a 95% plant-based diet that’s filled with legumes, vegetables, whole grains and nuts.
The movement started with Dr. Valter Longo, the director of the Longevity Institute at the University of Southern California, who authored the book, “The Longevity Diet.”
His research guides N4L’s work including meal plans that are low in sugars, rich in healthy fats, have high quality protein and rely on pescatarian and plant-based foods. Proper portions ensure “right-sized” daily calorie levels, which can help subscribers control blood sugar, manage their weight and help prevent cardiovascular disease and cancers.
Sustainable farming
The affordable meals feature clean, fresh, and seasonally harvested produce, which are mainly grown on the company’s regenerative New Jersey farm. The farm produces hundreds of varieties of “nutrient-dense, pure and potent food” to nourish the body and support optimal health.
The foods, which get their start with non-GMO, certified organic or all-natural seeds from specialty suppliers, are grown without synthetic chemicals, pesticides, herbicides or fungicides.
N4L has state-of-the-art sustainable farming practices too. Their farm uses aquaponics, which combines conventional aquaculture — the raising of fish in tanks — with hydroponics, the cultivation of plants in water. This practice, which helps N4L grow their food indoors throughout the year long, promotes a 30% increase in rapid plant growth and uses 90% less water than non-hydroponic farms.
Farm-to-fork
Consumers can sign up for a variety of meal plans and program lengths, such as 4 weeks, 12 weeks, or a year.
N4L’s nutrient-dense meals are shipped directly to homes across the continental United States. The shipping boxes have a specially designed thermal liner and contain ice packs, both of which keep the food at the desired temperature during transit so its fresh and tasty when it arrives and as you eat it throughout the week.
N4L is committed to meeting the dietary and personal preferences of its subscribers, including kosher and halal certified meals. The meal kits are free of dairy, eggs, and peanuts. They also offer vegan, gluten-free, flexitarian and pescatarian options. The meals are easy to modify for dietary preferences too, such as food allergies. The top eight allergens of dairy, eggs, fish, peanuts, shellfish, soy, and tree nuts are noted in the nutrition information.
“A lot of people have food sensitivities, or just strong food preferences,” says Philbin. “We want to make it so customized that if someone checks that they don’t want mushrooms and garlic, it’ll remove all the dishes that have mushrooms and garlic and only present the ones that meet their diet preferences.”
Refreshed taste buds
Philbin says feedback from subscribers has been very positive. People say they are surprised that they get so much food and that the meals are not only tasty, but also very satisfying and filling.
She says consumers, including diabetics and prediabetics, will love N4L’s fresh, plant forward food.
“We always say, try it for two weeks, because your taste buds reset entirely every two weeks,” she says. “And with modern day agriculture, preservatives, and sweeteners, you may not even know what a true organically grown, farm fresh tomato tastes like, which is actually really sweet and satisfying. Our diet is very low in added sugar, in fact, we don’t use any white sugar. We use little salt, so you really get to taste the true elements of the food and start to practice mindful eating and grow a healthy relationship with our bodies and the foods we put in it.”