Updated April 30, 2021
Eating healthy food is critical for health – at every stage of life. But, there are always associated challenges. These often get more significant as people age. The importance of food is we wrote this Silver Cuisine review.
The first area of business, of course, is to talk about Silver Cuisine itself. This is one of many companies that allows you to order meals that are shipped out to you. The meals are prepared by chefs, so you can be certain that they’re tasty and good for you.
Meals like this are a fantastic option for seniors who can’t cook for themselves or anyone else that sometimes needs food that is easy and healthy.
Why Use A Meal Delivery Service?
Before we delve into our Silver Cuisine review, we need to talk a little about the idea of meal delivery. Getting meals shipped might sound like the lazy way out. We’re all told that it’s much better to cook healthy meals from whole food ingredients.
However, doing so isn’t always practical.
- For example, physical or mental limitations may mean that a senior is no longer able to cook for themselves.
- Other seniors may simply not want to, especially if they are experiencing depression symptoms.
- Plus, seniors often face specific nutritional needs that may seem confusing.
- Adult children may sometimes cook for their parents, but this might be impractical if they don’t live nearby. Even caregivers who live with the senior might struggle to regularly cook for the senior if their dietary requirements are strict.
Meal delivery programs are one solution to this challenge and Silver Cuisine is a particularly powerful one.
The meals are much healthier than the frozen dinners you find at the grocery store. They tend to be lower in calories and sodium, while being more nutritious too.
What we like the most about the service is that Silver Cuisine focuses on seniors.
Many other programs are designed for a more general audience. Because of this, they often overlook key areas that are relevant to seniors, like the need to decrease sodium intake or the importance of heart-healthy meals.
Our Silver Cuisine Review
Silver Cuisine is a targeted component of the site BistroMD. BistroMD also provides meals, but they have a strong emphasis on weight loss meals and diet plans.
With Silver Cuisine, the focus is on providing seniors with the nutrition that they need. This includes addressing many of the challenges and requirements of specialized diets.
They currently support 9 distinct healthy diets and many meals can be included on multiple diets.
- Heart Healthy: The meals meet standards for calories, fat, saturated, fat, and sodium.
- Gluten Free: Meals are all tested to the FDA standard and use no gluten-containing ingredients.
- Diabetic: The meals are designed to support stable blood sugar levels and contain no more than 25 net grams of carbs per serving.
- Low Sodium: All meals contain no more than 600 mg of sodium.
- Low Carb: Meals contain no more than 25 net grams of carbs.
- Menopause: Meals focus on lean protein and low carbs, to support hormone regulation.
- Dairy free: All dairy-containing ingredients are excluded.
- Mediterranean: The meals are inspired by the Mediterranean diet, although they may not be authentically Mediterranean.
- Vegetarian: Meals are ‘inspired’ by popular recipes for seafood-based meals and plant-based meals. Surprisingly, this means that the vegetarian meals do contain fish.
They also offer breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, along with a range of snacks. There are multiple styles as well. For example, the breakfast list includes frittatas, pancakes, breakfast sandwiches, and wraps, while the lunch/dinner menu includes options like beef, pork, pasta, and seafood.
This allows you to order precisely what meals you’re looking for. The meals are also healthy and much better than frozen dinners that you’d find at the grocery store.
The dishes can also be relevant for seniors who need to lose weight, as they are already portion sized. This can help prevent overeating.
How Does It Work?
BistroMD itself allows people to choose a certain number of meals each week (as do many other services). But, Silver Cuisine doesn’t work like that. Instead, you simply purchase the meals individually.
Some of their features include:
- More than 150 different meals to choose from
- The menu rotates, so your options change over time
- No minimum order size, allowing you to order based on your needs
- Meals are designed by doctors and prepared by chefs
- The emphasis on nutrition means the food will always be healthy
- Free shipping on orders over $99
- Full nutritional details and an ingredients list for all meals
- Weekly specials that offer up to 30% off selected meals
Pricing
Most meals are somewhere between $8.49 and $10.99 per serving. Some specialty meals are more expensive, but these are often worth the price. For example, one of their most popular meals is Grilled Salmon with Lemon Dijon Dressing. This goes for $13.99.
AARP has partnered with Silver Cuisine, giving AARP members 25% off and free shipping on their initial order (as long as it is above $99).
The Benefits of Silver Cuisine
To finish off this Silver Cusine review, we need to talk a little about why the service works so well.
The meals from Silver Cuisine will never taste quite the same as something made at home. But, the service offers many advantages for seniors and caregivers.
For one thing, it is a powerful way to save time.
Many caregivers struggle to find the time to cook for everyone, especially when some family members have specific needs or like different food than other people.
There is also a safety component. The meals just need to be reheated in the microwave. This is much safer than cooking, especially for seniors who are disabled and live on their own.
And, of course, there is the health factor. You can be sure that you’re getting good meals with the company. With such a wide selection to choose from, there are likely to be some options that work perfectly for your family member.
You might even find that you enjoy some of the meals yourself. Why not try Silver Cuisine for yourself and see what you think? The meals can be ordered a la carte, rather than as part of a weekly plan, so you could always get a selection to stock the freezer and see how that goes. The risk is minimal and there’s plenty to be gained.
Is Silver Cuisine Worth It?
Services like Silver Cuisine are more expensive than cooking food yourself. Silver Cuisine could even seem like a waste of money, as services like Meals on Wheels are much cheaper and perform a similar function. Still, Silver Cuisine has some advantages that make it worth the price.
For one thing, seniors get to choose the meals that they want. There are plenty to choose from too, increasing the likelihood that they’ll find something that suits their preferences. This variety stops meals from getting dull and can make the service feel like a special treat.
Plus, services like Meals on Wheels need to serve many people while keeping the price low. That combination of goals means that such services can’t focus on quality and flavor in the same way that Silver Cuisine can. Silver Cuisine can also be perfect in situations where Meals on Wheels just isn’t an option.
Here’s another thing.
Silver Cuisine makes it easy for seniors to eat well without them needing to cook. This might be just what you need if the senior isn’t safe in the kitchen or is likely to eat takeout rather than cook for themselves.
A balanced diet is critical for staying healthy and aging well. If ordering pre-made dinners is the best way to achieve this goal, then so be it.
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