ModifyHealth Review: A Meal Subscription to Solve Your Digestive Woes
This premade meal delivery service with dietician support helps you find the root of your stomach troubles. Here's what I thought of ModifyHealth.
Our Experts
Pros
- Food mostly tasted great
- Easy to order meals and manage your plan
- Free nutrition support is very helpful for identifying food allergies and intolerances
- Tons of menu options and meals for specific eating plans
- Reasonable prices considering the quality
Cons
- Food is somewhat basic
- Breakfast meals were bad
- Website is a little clunky
ModifyHealth is a prepared meal and nutrition support service that takes a clinical approach to diet and how it affects your life. For those with stomach issues including irritable bowel syndrome and celiac disease, ModifyHealth employs tailored meal plan, a food elimination strategy and arms the customer with ongoing guidance from registered dieticians to help root out the causes of your bloating, bellyaches and other symptoms.
The service also offers special meal delivery plans for those with diabetes or looking to improve heart health. And more still for those following the Mediterranean diet or keeping to a low-carb lifestyle.
Here's what I thought of ModifyHealth's diet-friendly meal delivery.
As someone with a nagging aversion to gluten -- not to mention a busy schedule with limited time for cooking -- having healthy, premade gluten-free meals sent to my door was an attractive proposition. But an eating program is only as good as the food tastes. I tried 10 days' worth of ModifyHealth prepared meals including a consultation with one of ModifyHealth's support dieticians. The service turned out tasty meals made with wholesome ingredients and no sketchy stuff, and my 30-minute consultation with a very knowledgeable dietician left me with a better understanding of my condition.
This healthy frozen meal subscription is a great option for someone hoping to solve the puzzle that is IBS and other food-based GI discomfort or simply eat better but cook less.
Here's how the service works and my firsthand review of ModifyHealth meal delivery.
Food delivery designed to address health conditions
For those with specific dietary restrictions, you can choose a plan with low-FODMAP, gluten-free meals or food that's specifically crafted for those who have diabetes or are looking to improve their heart health. There's also a carb-conscious meal plan and another with food that adheres to the Mediterranean Diet.
ModifyHealth's gluten-free menu has over 45 recipes to choose from.
- Low-FODMAP Diet: A low-FODMAP diet can help eliminate symptoms associated with functional abdominal pain and Irritable Bowel Syndrome.
- Mediterranean diet: Endorsed by nutritionists and often voted the best diet, the traditional Mediterranean diet is largely plant-based with an emphasis on vegetables, fresh fruit, beans, nuts, whole grains, olive oil and fresh fish.
- Diabetes-friendly: Diet is crucial for those with diabetes in managing blood sugar levels, maintaining a healthy weight, and reducing the risk of complications associated with the disorder.
- Gluten-free: Engineered for those with celiacs and gluten intolerance, this food is all free from wheat, barley, rye and malt.
- Low-sodium: A low-sodium diet is recommended for those with heart disease, hypertension, kidney disease and osteoporosis.
- Carb-conscious: Low-carb meals for those going full keto or simply trying to limit carb intake.
ModifyHealth starts with a consultation
Schedule a free consultation with someone from ModifyHealth's support team to see if the service can help find those pesky trigger foods.
ModifyHealth meal programs are designed to root out the causes of GI distress, IBS and other adverse food reactions and, to those ends, offer clinical nutrition support. This includes a complimentary consultation before putting in any credit card info or buying a single meal.
To kick off my ModifyHealth subscription, I spoke with registered dietitian and licensed dietitian Christine Lothen-Kline. This very knowledgeable member of the support team dug into my nutrition history and analyzed my symptoms. Christine outlined the three key types of adverse food reactions -- intolerance, allergy and sensitivity -- and speculated that mine was a sensitivity based on what I told her.
I happen to have a good grasp of what foods cause me to have adverse reactions. For someone who is less sure, Christine talked me through how they would use a food elimination program via tailored meal plans along with ModifyHealth's app for logging daily symptoms and adverse reactions to help determine the cause of GI distress.
Even with a healthy base knowledge of my own sensitivity, I took tons of new info from the nearly 30-minute conversation. Christine instructed me to schedule a follow-up chat via email after two weeks of meals to discuss progress and troubleshoot any issues.
What are ModifyHealth meals like?
Most Modify Healthy meals are around 10 ounces of food with lots of protein and very few empty carbs.
ModifyHealth food runs the gamut from super basic to a bit more inventive and most meal plans have over 40 recipes to choose from per week to keep things interesting. There are dozens of plant-based recipes each week as well as a handful of fish and seafood meals to pick from -- salmon being the most popular seafood protein used. You'll find lean, light meals alongside more comfort-style recipes such as chicken dumpling stew. Most ModifyHealth meals clock in between 400 and 500 calories with a relatively high protein count and some healthy vegetable or grain elements. Few contain empty carbs such as white rice or mashed potatoes.
Nutrition information and ingredients for all meals are listed on the packaging.
All the nutrition information for each meal is listed on the website before you select your meals as well as on the packaging's backside once it arrives.
Order as few as six meals a week and cancel whenever
ModifyHealth operates mostly the same as prepared meal services. It's a subscription service but allows you to pause, cancel or skip a week with no penalty. Meals arrive frozen to be thawed and eaten or stored in the freezer. The service will even ship meals to a vacation home or Airbnb if you want to keep your diet on track while sunbathing for a week or two in the Hamptons.
ModifyHealth allows you to order as few as six meals per week which is a fairly low weekly commitment when compared with other services that require larger minimum orders.
ModifyHealth pricing
You can choose as few as six meals per delivery. Pricing is consistent no matter how many or few you order.
ModifyHealth pricing is simple and the price for meals won't change based on how many meals you order, as with most other services. It's a flat $13 for a dinner entree and $10 for breakfast whether you order six meals or 36. Shipping is free.
At $13 with free shipping, Modify Health is about average in the prepared meal delivery category. Not expensive but also not a true budget pick.
This diet-friendly food is simple but tasty
Sliced steak with chimichurri sauce was a hit.
I tried six ModifyHealth meals from the gluten-free plan. I liked most of what I had although one or two meals were a bit basic. The meats were tender and cooked to a proper doneness. The sides weren't overcooked or overseasoned, and most of the vegetables kept their bounce.
Pulled pork and other slow-cooked meats are often a safe choice in meal delivery since they typically stay tender even after reheating.
Most ModifyHealth meals are around 9 or 10 ounces of food. I found the portion sizes to be adequate and the meals never left me feeling hungry. Food is slightly underseasoned by design to avoid excess salt and FODMAPS, so you might want to keep a jar of Lawry's or a bottle of hot sauce handy.
ModifyHealth slightly undercooks the rice so that it's cooked to proper doneness when reheated.
Avoid the breakfast meals
No amount of hot sauce could save this frozen vegetable scramble.
ModifyHealth's breakfast meals were my least favorite of the bunch. Scrambled eggs just weren't made to be reheated, I suppose. I'd probably avoid the breakfast recipes altogether unless you have a very forgiving palate.
How best to heat ModifyHealth meals
A quick spin in a nonstick skillet is the best way to reheat most Modify Health meals.
Most meals have only microwave instructions for heating them but I suggest ignoring those in most cases. If you have a few extra seconds, I suggest a nonstick skillet or air fryer to heat ModifyHealth meals. Either one will produce better results than the microwave.
Read more: There's a Right Way to Reheat Leftovers and It's Not the Microwave
Final verdict on ModifyHealth
This was one of the better diet-friendly prepared meal services I've tried, with highly tailored plans to help manage health conditions or improve your overall eating habits. I found the meals tasty and well prepared, if not a bit bland at times, but nothing a shot or two of hot sauce couldn't fix. That said, the breakfast meals were bad and I would suggest avoiding them altogether.
ModifyHealth's simple pricing is also a boon for the service in my eyes and $13 is a fair price considering the quality. The already reasonable cost is buoyed by the service's free shipping policy -- some services charge as much as $20. If you're struggling to eat well or battling a food intolerance or health condition that could be aided with proper nutrition, ModifyHealth was designed with you in mind. The healthy, diet-friendly meal subscription certainly earned this gluten-intolerant's stamp of approval.
Fresh N Lean is still my favorite healthy meal delivery service but it doesn't offer the same level of support or meal plans for as many health conditions such as low-FODMAP, diabetes-friendly and low-sodium. If one of those niche eating plans could be the key to unlocking a healthier you, ModifyHealth is certainly worth a shot.