If you listen to a lot of podcasts on Leo Laporte’s TWIT network, you may have heard of NatureBox. The premise is that the service will deliver healthy snacks to your home for as little as 20 dollars a month. That seems like a lot, but this could be a godsend if you, like me, work from home.
The products are good and somewhat healthy as well. However, I’ve decided that subscribing to the service is just not worth it.
Some back story: I had decided that I needed to trim down and basically relearn what I had to do to maintain a healthy weight. Right now I am definitely NOT at the weight I want to be, but I am getting there (I’ve dropped about 20 pounds so far).
One of the things that has vexed me is this: what can I snack on that’s good for me?
When looking for options, one of the things I thought of was NatureBox. I’ve heard about it time and time again on This Week in Tech and the thought appealed to me. What’s better than a care package of snacks delivered monthly? So I signed up.
Once I was enrolled, I was able to pick the snacks I wanted for my first package. If I didn’t have a preference, I could have them surprise me. So I my first order was picked, and it came in about a week after I ordered. My package included Whole Wheat Figgy Bars, Baked Sweet Potato Fries, Cranberry Almond Bites, Honey Crunch Crisps, Apple Pie Oat Clusters, and a surprise I didn’t plan on, Roasted Sea Salt Chickpeas.
I’ve sampled most of the package already, and I have to say that I’m a fan of both the Figgy Bars and the Honey Crunch Crisps. The Baked Sweet Potato Fries are also totally yummy, but I have to question how much sweet potato they actually contain., seeing as the first ingredient isn’t even sweet potatoes. They are tasty though, and one serving is only 70 calories.
The biggest question, of course, is whether having healthy snacks shipped to you is worth it.
The box you get for $20 is not large. In fact, thanks to my growing teenager, it’s already nearly gone. I guess my biggest problem with it is that you can get many of these things locally and for far less money. So the best thing to do would be to go to the store and get a selection of healthy snacks from your grocery store’s natural food section, or visit some place like Trade Joe’s or Whole Foods. You won’t save money by subscribing to NatureBox, and there’s one distinct upside to doing your own healthy snack shopping: You can go shopping on any day that you want, and you won’t have to wait for the next box.
Sam’s Club has a box with 30 individual servings of Back To Nature snacks, which are along the same “healthy snack” lines, and it costs a mere $10.87. Sam’s also has a bag of trail mix that would easily fill every one of the subscription service’s bags for $9.48. If you are careful about your selections, store-bought snacks can be just as healthy, cost less, and you’ll get more.
So tell me again how good of a deal this is, Leo? Oh yeah. It’s not.
However, getting snacks delivered to your door is convenient, and their snacks do taste good, so I guess that’s something.
Still want to try NatureBox for yourself? You can subscribe here.