Meal Planning’s Best Kept Secret: It is Not About Health at All
From Skeptic to Believer
The irony of what I’m doing hasn’t escaped me. I have never been a meal planner. Not once. In fact, the whole idea used to feel…well… constraining. But here I am, the founder of a health-first meal planning app; telling you why it has been a game changer for me — and why it might be for you too!
I built a basic meal planning feature into my beta, mostly for others to test. But I started “dogfooding” it myself. Three months in, I can confidently say: I am hooked.
Balance, Mindfulness, and the Surprise I Didn’t See Coming
Meal planning is about being intentional with food. It helps me balance nutrition across the week instead of winging it meal by meal. It makes it easier to be mindful about what I’m putting on my plate and into my body. And it streamlines the chaos of home cooking — fewer last-minute scrambles, fewer half-baked ideas, and more meals I actually feel good about serving.
But it has surprised me in ways I didn’t expect. The real game-changer? Food waste.
Why Food Waste Is the Bigger Problem
Here’s the hard truth:
American households waste on average 6.2 cups of edible food every week — that’s about 322 cups (81 liters) each year.
It adds up to $1,500 per household every year in wasted food.
And the environmental toll? Food waste is the #1 material in landfills, responsible for 58% of landfill methane emissions and 4% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.
I used to cringe every time I dumped a wilted cucumber or bag of spinach in the trash. It felt like failure.
Think about that: we’re literally throwing away food and paying for the privilege of polluting the planet.
Why Meal Planning is the Way to Go!
Meal planning is one of the simplest, most overlooked levers we have to fix this. By planning ahead, you buy only what you need, use it fully, and cut back on the guilt of tossing spoiled food. In the last 3m of meal planning, I have tossed all of half a bag of lettuce from the fridge! In 3 months!! Not only that, meal planning cut my grocery bill by about $100 in just the first two weeks of August compared to that of July.
That’s money back in my pocket, fewer wasted trips to the store, and — most importantly — less food in the trash.
So to me, it’s a no-brainer: better for the planet, better for the wallet, better for your health.
Would Anyone Care?
So, can an app help reduce your carbon footprint? Absolutely. But the bigger question is: will people care enough to act?
I believe yes. Most of us want to do better, but the gap between intention and action is wide. That’s where Nuven comes in — making the better choice easier, more obvious, and more convenient.
Because at the end of the day, meal planning isn’t just about saving time in the kitchen. It’s about saving money, saving food, and maybe — just maybe — saving our planet.