As you know, I’m a huge fan of nutritionfacts.org. They’ve done an incredible job of educating people about the health benefits of a whole food plant-based diet and the science behind it. You’ve probably heard of their guideline – the daily dozen – and maybe you even participated in my Daily Dozen challenge last January. Basically, the Daily Dozen is a checklist of all the types of healthy food to get in our diet daily for optimal health and longevity. Every recommendation is backed by strong science. Squeezing all these different categories of food into each day can be tough though – and that’s why I’m so excited to tell you about a new tool I’ve partnered with that makes it easy!
What It Is
It’s called The Scientific Meal Planner and it generates meal plans that try to satisfy the daily dozen every day of the plan! You may have seen some of the daily dozen challenge videos where people try to do this themselves… it’s tough! With The Scientific Meal Planner, all of that planning is on autopilot and you can nail an ideally balanced diet with a lot less effort. I don’t recommend you products I don’t believe in – but The Scientific Meal Planner and I are on the same page! I’ve partnered with them and so you’ll see my recipes in there amongst other recipe creators who all believe in this approach to evidence based meal planning. It’s just a fun way to be introduced to awesome food blogs with our style of recipes, too. Wanna know the best part? There’s a totally free version you can use, no credit card required.
The free version gives you healthy meal plans in full, while the premium version adds convenience features to make things even easier. Here’s how that breaks down:
| Free Version | Premium Version ($7.99/mo or $79.90/yr) |
| Access to the meal planner | Access to the meal planner |
| Generate up to 3 meal plans at once | Unlimited meal plans |
| Recipe swaps (replace ones that don’t interest you) | |
| Calorie controls | |
| Nutrient breakdowns | |
| Shopping Lists (can I get a hooray?!) | |
| Optional text reminders |
Works for Everyone
The great thing about The Scientific Meal Planner is that it works for all types of people. Are you into meal prepping for the week? There’s a mode for that. Prefer to cook dinner every evening and eat the leftovers for lunch the next day? There’s a mode for that. Cooking for one or a family of four? It scales recipes appropriately. Don’t have a ton of time to cook? Use the time controls to ensure every recipe takes 30 minutes or less. Have specific calorie goals? Set a calorie range that meets your needs. Want the same breakfast every day? There’s an option for that. It’ll generate meal plans that fit your preferences while making sure each day covers a minimum of 75% of the daily dozen servings.
How it Works
Making a plan is simple. Just choose the meal plan mode, the number of people it’s for, the number of days it should cover, whether you want the same breakfast every day, whether you want snacks, how long the recipes should take, and your desired calorie range. Hit generate, and it’ll build you a plan within a few seconds. Once it’s done, you’ll be able to see how each day of the plan breaks down in terms of nutrition and the daily dozen.
From there you can check out the recipes and swap out any you don’t like. You can print out the meal plan for your fridge, see the shopping list, and even share the plan with your friends. You can also favorite recipes you enjoyed to keep track of them for next time.
Healthy diets only work if you consistently follow them, and meal planning can help you commit to following through! The Scientific Meal Planner includes a reminder system to help you keep yourself on track. If you’d like, you can set it up to text you once a week at a certain time to remind you to make a healthy meal plan and stick with it.
There are other healthy meal planning services out there, but what makes The Scientific Meal Planner special is its evidence based approach to meal plan construction. Instead of just random healthy recipes, it combines them in a way such that every day of the plan satisfies the daily dozen. It’s a passion project created by one guy – Dan Burnette – and his goal is to keep on top of the latest science, incorporating the best available evidence into the meal planning algorithm.
This is the last meal planning tool you’ll ever need!
Consider upgrading to premium to support us & The Scientific Meal Planner as we work to make it as easy as possible to eat healthy! I LOVE how the premium version creates a shopping list for you! I loath creating a shopping list, but with this tool, I simply cross off what I already have, and I’m done.
In fact, I have a promo code for you to try the premium version for free for one month! Enter TRYPREMIUM at checkout, and you won’t be charged a penny.
Even if you’re not really into checking off nutrient-dense foods with the daily dozen, this is just a great meal planner to help you figure out how to eat more whole, plant foods.
Check it out here for a one month free trial: https://scientificmealplanner.com/
*I am a partner of The Scientific Meal Planner, an affiliate program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by subscription to the meal planner services. I use the Scientific Meal Planner tool and recommend it because I believe it is a great tool for you!
