Science: Health: Obesity
Weight loss shopping service   (+2)  [vote for, against]
Everybody wins!

Americans work hard. Americans have no time. Americans are too heavy. What to do? Electrical shocks? No!

I propose that heavy, hard-working people would like to have someone else do their food shopping for them. This service could be done in such a way that subscribers achieve weight loss and a healthier diet. Hardworking folks would have their groceries chosen for them to ensure that their house has good food available for the whole family, with minimal cooking and effort. These groceries would be chosen by the service to achieve a balanced diet and weight loss.

Supermarkets might provide such a service very cheaply or for free, since they in essence get a captive market for their goods. Subscribers would provide data (household members, weights, food budget). I might be grumpy to find that I am having spinach pasta for dinner, with pears for dessert, but my grumpy will be outweighed by my love of convenience, and I will eat what is there.
-- bungston, Jan 25 2006

InTheZone Delivery http://www.inthezonedelivery.com/
Fresh meals delivered to your door daily before 6:00 a.m. [jurist, Jan 25 2006]

peapod.com http://www.peapod.c...AB0QDKU1GCQBD0WCFEQ
$10 off your first order. [jurist, Jan 25 2006]

Eh, if I am lazy enough to have someone plan and buy all my meals for me, and I do want to lose weight, I would eat it and not complain to bad either.
-- PollyNo9, Jan 25 2006


How does this differ from having *Weight Watchers* or *Zone Diet* or any other diet food program's prepared meals delivered to your door at arranged intervals? Many of these programs provide complete weekly menus (Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Snacks) that are variable and require minimal handling by the users.
-- jurist, Jan 25 2006


Well, peapod.com, Vons/Safeway, and any number of other large regional grocers will deliver your internet order of fresh groceries, vegetables and fruit to your doorstep, too, if that's all you want.
-- jurist, Jan 25 2006


Well, after I moved into a dorm this year, I have lost some weight. But that is mostly due to the poor quality of the food here.

Whole Foods Markets, Wild Oats, and other health food stores all have good fresh food if you are willing to pay for it. If you can make healthy food inexpensive and easily accesible, then people might be more inclined. Part of the obesity epidemic in America is that many people can't afford or don't have access to fresh, healthy food and do much of their shopping at convinience stores and fast food places.
-- discontinuuity, Jan 25 2006


Of course, implicit in this idea is an enabling of the customers' shopping disability which will mean that they will be "locked in" to the service, or its Choco-Pie Binge equivalent, until death.
-- calum, Jan 25 2006


Thanks for the kudos, [Druze]. Of course subscribers are free to shop, or not eat the broccoli delivered to them. I did not realize that Weight Watchers predelivered meals - as [Druze] observed this is not the same as getting groceries: you still need to go buy your diet coke and laundry soap. Plus you still need to shop for your kid's meals and dog food. Part of the motivation for the grocery is that they would sell you all that stuff as well: just like a regular grocery service now does.

This is a hybrid of the Weight Watchers meal delivery thing and a home delivery grocery service. It is not entirely novel, but like may ideas, a combination of two predecessors.
-- bungston, Jan 25 2006



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