Are you tired of cooking and recently found yourself on the low FODMAP diet? Well you’re in luck because Gut Feelings recently launched a low FODMAP meal delivery service and it’s definitely worth considering.
Meal delivery services are pretty popular. They take the thinking out of cooking, and the food is delivered to your door. Easy peasy.
But for those with irritable bowel syndrome on the low FOMDAP diet, there aren’t a ton of meal delivery options. The US has Modify Health, the UK has Field Doctor, Australia has We Feed You, and Canada had nothing…
…until Gut Feelings appeared on the scene in Canada recently (only Ontario and Quebec for now) and introduced a really useful tool for IBS sufferers: low FODMAP meals delivered straight to your door.
*Note: I am NOT an affiliate for Gut Feelings and everything I’ve written below is my own personal experience.
Overall impressions of the meals
- There is a slight tanginess to some of the dishes, with Ginger Chicken having the most. I asked Gut Feelings about this and they suspect it may be related to the citric acid they use to add acidity since lemon and lime flavours weaken in the freezer.
- Overall textures were nice and soft, nothing was mushy.
- The portion sizes worked great for me but – small caveat here – I’m not a big eater. For some people the portion sizes may be perfect, for others they’ll be too small or too large. No company can produce a perfect portion size because everyone has different needs and appetites.
- The proportions of grain/vegetable/protein were nicely balanced. The dietitian in me loved this! Seldom felt like I got too much or too little of any one food item.
- Price – $90 for 7 meals isn’t cheap, especially these days. However, I do think this meal delivery service provides fair value for a number of reasons. First, the meals contain healthy ingredients like nutrient dense vegetables as well as lean animal and plant-based proteins. Second, there are very few food additives. Lastly, it’s the only low FODMAP meal delivery service in Canada.
I use these dishes as complementary to my own home-cooking (check out my favourite salmon recipe and teriyaki stir fry recipe – both regulars in my culinary rotation). On weekends I tend to pull lunches together in a very piece-meal / haphazard fashion, so I liked being able to pop a Gut Feelings tray in the microwave and enjoy a hot balanced meal for lunch.
Gut Feelings low FODMAP meal delivery service will be useful if you…
- Find the low FODMAP diet confusing and aren’t sure how to implement the restrictions
- Have kids and don’t want to subject the family to your low FODMAP diet
- Don’t like to cook
- Don’t have time to cook
- Have poor cooking skills
- Like to eat (or want to try) tofu and tempeh but aren’t good at cooking these soy proteins
- Can afford it
Can you trust that these dishes are truly low FODMAP?
Just because a recipe uses low FODMAP ingredients doesn’t mean the meal will be low FODMAP. It’s possible that the recipe uses a low FODMAP food but in a moderate or high FODMAP serving size. There may also be FODMAP stacking depending on how many foods in the recipe are FODMAP-containing foods.
But in the case of Gut Feelings’ meals, you can rest assured that they’re low FODMAP because they’re Monash University Low FODMAP certified.
This means the scientists at Monash received samples of the meals, analyzed them in a lab, and found the whole dish (not just the individual ingredients) to be low FODMAP.
Are all the dishes vegetarian? Any animal protein?
Yes, there’s some animal protein, namely beef and chicken, but most of the meals include tofu, tempeh, and/or chickpeas.
If you don’t eat much soy or beans, these dishes are a very tasty way of trying tofu, tempeh and legumes without the risk of botching a new recipe (my first attempt at tofu was terrible!) and then prematurely deciding ‘nope, I don’t eat tofu’.
The dishes with animal protein: Chunky Chili, Ginger Chicken, Millet Chicken Soup.
The dishes with plant protein: all the rest. The main plant protein is usually noted in the dish’s name.
You can browse their various meals here.
First Impressions: Unboxing
After opening the box, removing the insulated bag and pulling out the meals, my first thought was – whoa, that’s a lot of garbage.
Thankfully I discovered that the only item bound for the trash is the plastic cover on the meal containers. Everything else can be recycled: the cardboard box and removable label on the meal container go in the paper bin, the insulated bag and dry ice bags go in the plastics bin, and the meal container goes in the compost bin.
Also, the boxes are readily re-usable for cat fun :).
Heating the meals
You can heat the meals in the oven or microwave. I used the microwave and thought the meals came out fine. The instructions suggest 4-6 minutes for most of the dishes so I generally set my microwave for 5 minutes and the food always came out hot with no cold spots.
How long you microwave a meal depends on 1) how strong your microwave is, and 2) how cold the item is when you pull it from the freezer. You’ll need to experiment for yourself. Five minutes was always enough time to yield a perfectly hot dish.
To each their own
These are pre-made, ready to eat frozen meals. I don’t expect gourmet Michelin star quality meals from any low FODMAP meal delivery service and neither should you. I thought most of the meals I tried were tasty, healthy and easy to eat.
Everyone is unique, so we all have different taste and texture preferences. I may love something that you hate and vice versa. Keep this in mind as you read my reviews below and especially if you compare your experience with a meal to mine. To each their own.
I always encourage people to be open-minded when trying food because you never know when you’ll discover something you love. Trying new things opens up your diet and minimizes your restrictions. The more varied your diet, the healthier it likely is. Food is yummy and fun – so go experiment and enjoy!
Did I get any symptoms from the meals?
Nope. Not a one. (Caveat: I have mild to moderate IBS-C and no other gut issues).
Meals I tried
All the lunch/dinners: Jumbled Rice, Chunky Chili, Tofu Sunrise, Tempeh Bolognese, Mediterranean Pasta, Millet Chicken Soup, Ginger Chicken, Veggie Curry, Power Bowl, Peanut Colada.
Jumbled Rice
- Texture: Overall soft texture. The rice wasn’t mushy. The texture of the tempeh was great too – nice and soft.
- Taste: This dish contains jalapeno and smoked paprika but don’t let that deter you if you hate spice. I normally despise spicy heat because it just numbs my mouth to any other flavours, but the heat in this dish is very gentle. It in no way numbed my mouth, and the spice didn’t compel me to drink water or milk afterwards. Overall nice tomato flavour with a hint of tang (possibly from the pickled kale stems), which I enjoyed.
- Contains: Tempeh, whole canned tomatoes, white rice, kale, red pepper, spring onion, hemp hearts, jalapeno, smoked paprika, pickled kale stems, rosemary, thyme, garlic-infused olive oil.
Would I order it again: Definitely!
Chunky Chili
- Taste: Mmmm…I really enjoyed this one. This dish has paprika but isn’t hot, and I really enjoyed the hints of red wine. I couldn’t taste the cocoa powder but I’m sure it added depth to the dish.
- Texture: Most chillis use ground beef but this one used beef chunks – hence the name perhaps? The beef was a tad chewy but certainly not a jaw workout. The veggies and rice were soft.
- Notes: There were no kidney beans / other beans like it traditional chillis, so this dish should be easy to digest. Because the beef was a tad chewy, I’d consider heating for 4 to 4:30 minutes next time instead of 5 minutes.
- Contains: Beef, millet, white rice, kale, tomato paste, celery root, carrots, rutabaga, red wine, garlic-infused olive oil, cornmeal, smoked paprika, cumin, cocoa powder, asafoetida
Would I order it again: Definitely!
Tofu Sunrise
- Texture: Overall soft texture; even the sunflower seeds weren’t too hard – possibly because the dish got so hot in the microwave. The carrots weren’t tough or dried out, the rice wasn’t mushy. The tempeh’s texture was nice and soft. The sweet potato was very soft (almost like a semi-formed puree).
- Taste: The sweet potato gave this dish a lovely flavour – it wasn’t overpowering or too mild. The tanginess that’s common in these meals was nice and subtle. The sunflower seed flavour was almost imperceptible – which worked for me because I’m not a big fan.
- Contains: White rice, tofu, carrots, sweet potato, kale, red pepper, spring onion green parts, ginger, sunflower seeds, nutritional yeast, apple cider vinegar, soy sauce, maple syrup, brown sugar, garlic infused olive oil, rosemary, salt, pepper, citric acid.
Would I order it again: Definitely!
Tempeh Bolognese
- Texture: The fusilli was softer than in the Mediterranean pasta dish, likely because of the moisture from the tomato sauce. The vegetable chunks and tempeh pieces were nice and soft.
- Taste: Not surprisingly, this dish was tomato-y. It lacked the beef flavour that a classic bolognese possesses so the flavour was a tad flat by comparison but still a nice vegetable tomato pasta dish.
- Contains: Whole canned tomatoes, gluten-free brown rice pasta, tempeh, carrots, soy sauce, kale, tomato past, salt, thyme, oregano, black pepper, ed wine, garlic infused oil, asafoetida.
Would I order this again: Definitely!
Mediterranean Pasta
- Texture: The dish was very soft straight out of the microwave. As individual fusilis cooled, they firmed up a bit to al dente, and some kinda dried out, so eat it while it’s hot! There were some chewy moments with this dish on account of the olives and sun-dried tomatoes, but I enjoyed this.
- Taste: The primary flavour that shone through for me was olive. Definitely olive. No surprise there. It wasn’t overpowering though. I don’t love olives and yet I enjoyed this dish. (See why trying things is so important? If I had just assumed I wouldn’t like this dish because of the olives, I would have missed out on a lovely dish!).
- Contains: Brown rice gluten-free pasta, spinach, tofu feta, nutritional yeast, kalamata olives, garlic infused oil, hemp hearts, sun-dried tomato, thyme, oregano.
Would I order it again: Yes.
Millet Chicken Soup
- Texture: The millet, veg and beans were all nicely soft; no hard bits or mushy textures. Even the texture of the pinto beans worked well in this meal.
- Taste: There was a strong chicken flavour to this meal so accompanying it with a buttery tea biscuit would have been nice.
- Contains: Chicken stock, carrots, chicken breast, kale, pinto beans, potato, millet, garlic infused oil, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, ginger, turmeric, poultry seasoning, thyme, bay leaves, paprika, asafoetida.
- Notes: I cooked it for 5 minutes on high like the other dishes and found it was so hot that some liquid had leaked out. Probably could have pulled this dish out at 4:30 min. Excellent ratio of solids to liquid. It’s not just a bowl of liquid with a few solid bits.
Would I order again: Yes.
Ginger Chicken
- Texture: This meal was soft but not mushy. Even the broccoli was soft without being mush. The ground chicken was a tad dry but it wasn’t unpleasant.
- Taste: Unfortunately the flavour of this dish is predominantly tang and not much else. I’d like to see the ginger and sesame flavours enhanced considerably and the tang dialed back. I provided feedback on this to Gut Feelings.
- Contains: Quinoa, ground chicken, broccoli, red pepper, grated carrots, green onion, soy sauce, rice vinegar, sesame oil, brown sugar, ginger, garlic infused olive oil, citric acid.
- Notes: At first glance it looks like there’s no chicken but there is, it’s just crumbled small and is similar in colour to the quinoa. Also, because the food pieces in this dish are small, it only needs about 4 minutes on high heat in the microwave.
Would I order it again: Maybe, if they update the recipe to enhance the ginger flavour and tame the tang. Since I provided feedback to Gut Feelings, I’ll probably order this dish again in a month or so to see if anything has changed.
Veggie Curry
- Texture: This dish has some big chunks so it was nice to discover that everything was soft, including the chickpeas. Nothing worse than a big chunk of firm potato in a meal you expect to be soft.
- Taste: This isn’t a hot dish but the curry flavour is strong. Despite the long list of flavourful ingredients, I found this dish a bit one dimensional for my tastes. But I’m not a frequent curry consumer because I can seldom handle the heat in Indian food, so my word is certainly not the final word on this dish. Perhaps a bit more tomato would balance the curry.
- Contains: Potato, white rice, broccoli, carrots, organic tofu, chickpeas, light coconut milk, red pepper, curry powder, shredded coconut, hemp hearts, salt, garam masala, ginger, lime leaf, bay leaf, garlic infused olive oil, asafoetida, citric acid.
Would I order this again: Possibly on occasion for something different, but not on a regular basis.
Peanut Colada
- Texture: Everything was pretty soft but of course the peanuts had a mild crunch and the shredded carrots were a tad firm – almost chewy.
- Taste: This dish has a coconut flavour with hints of peanut and pineapple. Overall I didn’t like the taste of this dish, but that’s not surprising since I don’t really like coconut (except in cookies). If you like coconut, you may really enjoy this dish.
- Contains: Bok choy, white rice, tofu, carrots, light coconut milk, natural peanut butter, soy sauce, spring onion, pineapple, peanuts, brown sugar, rice vinegar, citric acid.
Would I order this again? No, this dish didn’t appeal to my personal preferences.
Power Bowl
- Texture: There were a variety of textures in this dish and that didn’t work for me. I wasn’t a fan of the kabocha squash texture, nor did I enjoy the sunflower seed texture with the soft somewhat mushy root vegetables. When I was halfway through the meal it dried out and that really affected my enjoyment of the meal.
- Taste: The flavours of ginger and turmeric really came through which I enjoyed. Bites with sunflower seeds had that flavour, which I wasn’t crazy about as sunflower seeds aren’t my jam.
- Contains: Quinoa, kale, kabocha squash, sweet potato, chickpeas, carrots, rutabaga, tahini, soy sauce, apple cider vinegar, ginger, turmeric, nutritional yeast, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, hemp hearts, maple syrup, citric acid.
Would I order this again: No, this dish didn’t appeal to my personal preferences.
The nutrition details
The ingredients in these meals look to be whole foods, spices, herbs, and garlic-infused olive oil. The only non-whole food used in these dishes is white rice, found in 5 of the 10 meals.
A healthy diet includes mostly whole grains but has room from for a few refined grains like white rice. Besides, these meals remain high fibre despite the white rice.
The only real “additive” in these meals is citric acid, which is used to enhance flavours, replace lemon, and preserve the freshness of foods. It is widely used in the food industry, and is a “permitted preservative” per Health Canada and “generally recognized as safe” by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Gut Feelings informed me that they use citric acid to enhance the lemony flavour in their dishes since lemon dilutes when frozen.
Looking at the Nutrition Facts Table, we see some larger numbers next to sodium, fat and carbohydrates – let’s examine whether you should be concerned.
The carbs
Here’s the thing – a vegetarian diet will always be high in carbs because plant foods contain carbs, including starch, fibre, and naturally-occurring sugar. This isn’t a problem because we know plant-based eating – despite its high carb load – is healthy and prevents disease. So don’t be afraid of the carbs in these dishes as they come from nutritious whole foods and provide a lot of low FODMAP fibre.
Bottom line: don’t be concerned about the carbs in these meals.
The fats
For a meal, the total fat content in these dishes is pretty reasonable if you think that the average adult should be getting roughly 45-78g of fat per day (20-35% of calories from fat, based on a 2000 calorie day). Most of the fat in these meals is unsaturated plant-based fat from healthy sources like tofu, tempeh, hemp hearts, garlic-infused olive oil, peanuts, sunflower seeds.
Saturated fat (the kind we don’t want too much of) is higher in the meals with coconut products (Peanut Colada, Veggie Curry), beef (Chunky Chilli) and chicken (Ginger Chicken). I wouldn’t recommend you eat only these 4 dishes on a daily basis, especially if you have a heart condition or high cholesterol.
By including other dishes with lower saturated fat in your diet, your total saturated fat intake averages lower than if you ate mostly the 4 dishes higher in saturated fat. (A perfect example of why dietary variety is so important).
Bottom line: don’t be concerned about the fats in these meals if you eat a variety of them.
The sodium
The sodium content in some of the dishes is perfectly fine for a meal (eg. Chicken Millet Soup, Jumbled Rice, Power Bowl). In others, the sodium content is a bit high (Chunky Chili, Tempeh Bolognese, Ginger Chicken, Tofu Sunrise, Veggie Currie). This is likely due to the soy sauce and salt.
If you eat a few dishes per week and otherwise cook healthy meals at home, I wouldn’t worry about the sodium content in these meals.
I would recommend that you eat more of the lower sodium dishes if you exclusively eat Gut Feelings meals for your low FODMAP elimination and reintroduction phases.
If you’ve been diagnosed with high blood pressure (even if it’s currently controlled with medications), or you have a heart or kidney condition, the lower sodium dishes will be your best choice.
Bottom line: don’t be concerned about the sodium in these meals if you eat a variety of them and also cook homemade meals at home.
Other nutrients
The plant variety in these meals is quite good. And why’s that important? First, the more variety in your diet, the more nutrients it provides. Second, some research suggests that a diet with 30 different plants per week optimizes the gut microbiota, a collection of gut microorganisms that can shape our health and digestive symptoms.
I love the potassium content in these meals – nice and high, as one would expect from plant-based meals. Potassium helps maintain healthy blood pressure
I also love the high fibre content – once again not surprising given the varied plant ingredients.
The calcium and iron content is also pretty good. Even though the iron in these dishes will be mainly plant-based non-heme iron (and therefore harder to absorb), the vitamin C in the veggies (tomato, kale, red pepper) will help your body better absorb it.
Technical stuff – subscribing to Gut Feelings
I signed up and placed an order pretty soon after Gut Feelings launched which may explain why I had a hell of a time accessing the subscription portal from the website initially. Eventually I had to go into the sign up email with the link to the portal and access it from there. I then bookmarked that web address for future access.
It now works pretty simply: when I log in, I’m brought to a My Account page where I can see my past orders and a “manage subscriptions” button that will take you to your subscription portal (see first image below).
The subscription portal (see below) is very user-friendly. Phew! The home page in the portal shows your active subscription, the billing dates and a ‘manage subscriptions’ button.
After you click ‘manage subscriptions’, there are a few actions you can take:
- make changes to the meals included in each delivery
- adjust your subscription schedule (every 1, 2 or 4 weeks)
- skip an order
- change the size of your box (small box = 7 meals, large box = 12 meals)
- edit your shipping address, payment method, phone number
- pause or cancel your subscription
The portal also has a ‘purchase history’ section so you can view your past orders.
OK, I hope this post helped you decide whether Gut Feelings low FODMAP meal delivery service is right for you, or at least worth trying.
Did you try any of their meals? If so, let me know your favourites! 🙂
xoAndrea, RD
