TV dinners were popular among families and singles even a few decades ago when they didn’t want to cook. These convenience foods were loaded with poor-quality ingredients and high in sodium and fat. Today’s prepared, prepackaged foods are even more convenient as they are delivered, with a focus on healthy recipes. They are prepared with fresh ingredients and packaged to be reheated in the microwave within a few minutes, making them the perfect choice for busy people who want meals which follow a specific meal/diet plan.
Meal planning is often said to be one of the most straightforward ways to keep your diet and health on track. By planning out what you intend to eat ahead of time, you can make all of your choices at once in a calm and focused manner.
Is Meal Planning Easy without having much experience?
There can be many challenges to meal planning. Weighing potential risks and potential benefits of an ingredient may vary from one person to another thus, meal planning involves all but simple solutions. Time and knowledge are the two most common challenges in meal planning.
Consider dietitians working in a hospital. They plan out meals for their patients with full focus on their health conditions and preferences. In schools, a Dietitian may use cycle menu planning where meal offerings also must be nutritionally balanced.
When it comes to planning meals for a large audience in a healthcare setting or academic setting, time appears to be the top hurdle. Creating meal plans by hand also may sometimes result in errors. Accordingly, diet and nutrition professionals tend to work with meal planning software programs to be efficient and minimize errors when planning clients’ diets.
Why is Meal Planning Software Necessary for Dietitians and Nutritionists?
Dietitians and Nutritionists can help clients reach their health goals with additional guidance by offering them meal plans. Meal plans can be personalized based on the health conditions and ethnic meal preferences of their clients. Dietitians and Nutritionists also often struggle to be compliant with client recommendations when planning meals by hand. A meal planning software program can be an excellent solution to save time and improve compliance.
What Should be Considered When Selecting a Meal Planning Software?
The first and foremost criterion for selecting a meal planning software is the platform should allow you to easily analyze, modify and adjust meal plans, nutritional recommendations, and recipes as per client requirements.
Secondly, it is essential to consider a software which has an extensive nutrient database and dietary reference values that can help analyze many foods from around the world. The application also should allow you to add an unlimited number of your own foods and recipes.
Thirdly, the convenience for customization of meal plans as per ethnic taste. Faster implementation of preference requests from select clients should come built-in with the software.
What Features Matter in Meal Planning Software?
There are a lot of essential features which actually matter in a meal planning software.
- Extensive nutrient database
- Quick search and preview nutrient feature
- Preview of the nutrient breakdown and reports for client education
- Option to modify and compare meals against set goals
In Conclusion:
An efficient meal planning software can be an important boost to the growth of a business or nutrition practice. It will help you gain credibility by serving your clients in a timely and professional manner.
Nutritionist Pro™ and its legacy products have been serving the nutrition professional market since the early 1980’s.