LeafSide Knowledge Base

We’re here to help you be more successful with a whole-foods plant-based lifestyle, and your questions are what drive us to improve and create amazing products.

If you have additional questions, please email us at [email protected], and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

 

Allergen & Aversion Help Articles

Most of our meals are nominally gluten-free, meaning they have no specific ingredients with gluten, but it’s possible that trace amounts are present. We are not a gluten-free kitchen, so our meals are not certified as such. In particular, one of our meals does use organic whole grain wheat (bulgur): the Tex Mex savory bowl.  You can see all of our meals here: https://www.goleafside.com/meals/ Simply click on each meal to see a description, the ingredients, and the basic nutritional information.

If you have been clinically diagnosed with celiac disease by a licensed medical professional (using blood tests and a biopsy), we advise not using our meals.

Otherwise and in general, if you suspect you have non-celiac gluten sensitivity (NCGS), consider working with a licensed lifestyle medicine professional (RD or MD) who can carefully review your current actual diet, while following an evidence-based protocol to properly diagnose the situation. A careful and thorough diagnosis can save you a lot of needless worry, avoid incorrect dietary restrictions (and missed social events), and avoid wasted money on unhealthy foods. Certified gluten-free products can easily cost 3× more, while still being highly processed and loaded with added sugar, saturated animal fats, and salt.

Put another way, it’s important to distinguish between refined, ultra-processed, high glycemic-index, and nutrient-poor wheat products, versus minimally processed, fiber-rich, low glycemic-index, high-nutrient whole grains.  The vast majority of Americans eat far too much of the former, which include:

  • Bread, bagels, and tortillas from white/refined flour
  • Cakes, cookies, crackers, donuts, and pretzels from white/refined flour
  • Pizza from white/refined wheat flour
  • Pastas from white/refined wheat
  • Ready-to-eat cereals from white/refined wheat

We all recognize the above foods, which are ubiquitous in developed countries.  By contrast, few recognize, and regularly eat, minimally processed wheat products like wheatberries, or cracked whole wheat (bulgur, freekeh), or other whole grain wheat foods. Furthermore, practically all the above ultra-processed wheat products come with added processed sugar, processed (saturated) fats, and lots of salt — unhealthy additives that are very cheap, increase shelf life, and above all, are now provably addictive (esp. sugar, fat) on top of the addictive properties of refined flour itself.

Small wonder that when people reduce or eliminate such refined wheat products, they often feel better (better energy, better sleep, better mood) — but it’s easy to mistake correlation for causality, i.e. in dropping processed foods, much more (and worse) than gluten was cut from entering the body.

One more wrinkle to NCGS that’s worth mentioning: Anecdotally, many people who suspect gluten sensitivity (e.g. brain fog, poor sleep, depression, or an upset stomach after eating white flour bread or typical baked goods) experience fewer or no issues after eliminating processed food from their diets, and/or eating organic wheat products. These outcomes suggest one possible cause is the heavy use of pesticides (e.g. glyphosate) in conventional wheat foods.  It has become a common practice to use pesticides (with glyphosate as a primary chemical) on conventional crops like wheat, soy, corn, etc. shortly before and/or after harvesting (as a desiccant for faster drying, or with conventional wheat, to kill the crop for early harvesting), which can greatly increase the presence of those chemicals in conventional, non-organic consumer food products.

To learn more about allergies, gluten, glyphosate and the effects it has on the human body, we recommend listening to this Rich Roll podcast interview with Dr. Zach Bush: https://www.richroll.com/podcast/zach-bush-353/ as well as his second return interview here: https://www.richroll.com/podcast/zach-bush-414/ 

Thanks for your interest in LeafSide! Currently, our Broccoli Cashew Alfredo and Thai Veggie Noodle savory bowls have soy curls.

Additionally, all of our soups and savory bowls contain miso powder to offset the negative effects of sodium in salt, but you may request for your meals to SOS-free if you would like to omit the miso and sea salt (the choice is to have either both of those ingredients or neither). You can learn more about why we add miso to our dishes with salt, and how to request SOS-free meals at the following link: https://www.goleafside.com/faq/single-faq/do-your-products-conform-to-the-no-sos-guidelines-no-added-salt-oil-or-sugar/

You’ll find the ingredients and nutritional information for all of our meals here: https://www.goleafside.com/nutrition-summary/

If you have an allergy to soy, please note that we cannot guarantee no cross-contamination since we do use soy ingredients in our kitchen.

Please let us know what other questions you have, and we hope to see you on the LeafSide!

Thank you for your interest in LeafSide!

At this time, all of our meals, except the Blue Brilliance smoothie, Creamy Potato Leek soup, Goji Peach Paradise sweet bowl, Lentil Tomato Pasta savory bowl, Madras Curry savory bowl, Thai Veggie Noodle savory bowl, and Tropical Bliss smoothie, include nuts because we follow Dr. Greger’s Daily Dozen guidelines. He recommends 1/4 cup of nuts/seeds or 2 tablespoons of nut/seed butter per day. The scientific evidence for their health benefits is very strong.

Please click here to learn more about why we include nuts: https://www.goleafside.com/faq/single-faq/what-why-fat-in-leafside-meals/

Additionally, this recent article by Dr. Joel Fuhrman is helpful to learn more about the benefits of eating nuts and seeds: https://www.drfuhrman.com/library/eat-to-live-blog/168/the-attack-against-nuts-and-seeds-getting-nuttier-all-the-time

That said, we plan to offer more nut-free recipes in the future as we continue to grow and expand our offerings. You’ll find the ingredients and nutritional information for all of our meals here: https://www.goleafside.com/nutrition-summary/

For those with allergies, please note that we cannot guarantee no cross-contamination since we do use tree nuts in our kitchen.

Thanks for your question!

We add mushrooms to many of our recipes due to their high content of ergothioneine. It’s a nominal amount as it doesn’t take much for the desired effect. In case you haven’t seen it yet, here’s more about that antioxidant from our website:

“Obtained only through diet, and most abundant in mushrooms, ergothioneine is a newly found antioxidant that our cells have specific receptors for. It may represent a new vitamin that can uniquely enter a cell’s nucleus and mitochondria, concentrating wherever there’s high oxidative stress, like the eyes.”

Currently, our Pesto & Peppers Pasta, Creamy Potato Leek soup, Goji Peach Paradise sweet bowl, Madras Curry, Smoky Pea Soup, Sweet Potato Dal, and Thai Veggie Noodle do not contain mushrooms. All of our smoothies are also mushroom-free. If you have an allergy to mushrooms, please note that we cannot guarantee no cross-contamination since we do use mushrooms in our kitchen.
You’re welcome to review the ingredients and nutritional information for all of our meals here: https://www.goleafside.com/nutrition-summary/

Thanks for your question!

You’re welcome to review the ingredients and nutritional information for all of our meals here: https://www.goleafside.com/nutrition-summary/

Please note that we cannot guarantee no cross-contamination for any ingredients used in our kitchen.

For those with allergies to specific herbs or spices (parsley, oregano, basil, etc.), please reach out to us by email at [email protected]. We primarily use common household spices in our meals under the umbrella of spices and herbs, but we’d be happy to review our recipes on your behalf for less common allergens.

Thank you for your interest in LeafSide! We appreciate that everyone has different taste preferences, so we do our best to offer a diverse range of meals to accommodate as many people as possible. Spicy heat is a difficult thing to qualify because it’s different for everyone. We may think a recipe is not spicy at all, but you may find it to be intolerable.

We do separate herbs and spices that some may consider being spicy hot from our Spices and Herbs umbrella to help you review which meals will work best for you! You’ll find the ingredients and nutritional information for all of our meals here: https://www.goleafside.com/nutrition-summary/

In general, if you don’t like spicy heat, we would recommend Broccoli Cashew Alfredo, Creamy Forest Mushroom, Creamy Potato Leek Soup, Pesto & Peppers Pasta, our 4 sweet bowls, and any of our 6 smoothies.

Please note that our meals include a fair amount of herbs and spices for flavor since we do not add sugar or oil, and they are very low in sodium. If you aren’t considering the added sugar, oil, and/or salt that may be in your current diet, your taste buds may find 100% whole food plant-based meals like LeafSide very different from what you’re used to eating. There’s generally a 1-3 month adjustment period (during which your taste buds will regrow, literally) for most people who are transitioning to a whole food plant-based diet.


Community Help Articles

Thanks for asking about our affiliate program! We are honored that you would like to help spread the word about LeafSide. We’ve been working with a few organizations on a test basis, but we don’t have a public affiliate or referral program available at this time.

We recommend that you place an order (our minimum requirement is 12 items) to try the meals yourself to see if you’re comfortable recommending them. It’s best to direct those interested to our website. Our FAQ and and Knowledge Base pages could be particularly helpful: https://www.goleafside.com/faq/  & https://www.goleafside.com/knowledge-base/

Again, we’re grateful that you share the benefits of a plant-based diet, and thank you for your interest in our meals. Let us know if you have additional questions, and we hope to see you on the LeafSide!

Thank you for your interest in LeafSide!

We do have an Instagram: @leafside

You can find our Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/LeafSide/

We also have a group on Facebook where ideas are shared on how to eat WFPB with less time and effort: How Not To Die or Diet, for busy people: Dr. Greger’s guidelines in 15 min / day (our meals follow Dr. Greger’s Daily Dozen guidelines).

Please feel free to like our page and join our group, and let us know if you have additional questions.

We hope to see you on the LeafSide!

Thanks for your question! Due to Dr. Greger’s strict non-commercial policy, there’s no formal relationship between Dr. Greger and LeafSide, nor is his non-profit organization NutritionFacts.org affiliated with LeafSide. Indeed as a general policy, they do not give endorsements to any company or product.

Nevertheless, Dr. Greger has been giving us scientific and nutrition advice for years, has mentioned LeafSide at events and during interviews, and eats LeafSide meals during his travels. He also eats LeafSide at home when he’s too busy to cook, including pouring his favorite LeafSide soups or bowls over his own mixture of pressure-cooked whole grains, while adding even more greens and hot sauce.  He’s pleased to see that LeafSide follows his evidence-based Daily Dozen nutrition guidelines, unlike any other food company.

You can hear some of his thoughts on our meals in the following NutritionFacts.org video (LeafSide is mentioned at 4:00): https://youtu.be/oj8qAwgADdM?t=241

Please let us know what other questions you have, and we hope to see you on the LeafSide!

Thank you for your interest in LeafSide! At this time, we are available only in the United States.

Unfortunately, shipping costs prohibit us from sending our products to other countries. Typically, a carrier charges $65 USD minimum (there’s no extra fee from us) and there may be additional customs/taxes on top of that. We hope to eventually get international distributors to lower the shipping costs, but we can’t yet say when that will be available.

If you visit the US frequently, you’re certainly welcome to get a LeafSide box during your stay, and/or if you have family/friends who live in the US visiting you, they could bring our meals to you. Please note that our system will not accept billing or shipping addresses that are outside of the US.
Thank you for your support and understanding!

Environment Help Articles

Thanks for your question! As someone interested in eating whole food plant-based meals, you’re probably aware that the single most effective action and lifestyle change that any of us can do for the environment is to avoid eating animal products. As one of many supporting scientific studies, this recent massive Oxford University study affirms the power of plant-based eating for the environment: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/31/avoiding-meat-and-dairy-is-single-biggest-way-to-reduce-your-impact-on-earth We are proud to offer meals that help both human health and our planet in the most effective way known to science.

Regarding packaging, in particular, minimizing materials and waste is an ongoing research project at LeafSide.

  • Currently, the stand-up pouches we use are made with BPA-free polyethylene and polypropylene.
  • Compared to meal-kits (with individually wrapped ingredients) and many store-bought foods, the amount of packaging used for one full LeafSide meal is much less.

We are still looking for a packaging solution we’re totally happy with, e.g. 100% recyclable with no loss of material utility. Currently, it is a very difficult materials engineering problem to make a package that keeps out air, moisture, and sunlight — while also being easily recyclable, or being safely degradable with just air, moisture, and sunlight.

The packs can be recycled by some facilities, but you would need to check with your local municipality for this. Also, major stores (e.g. Target, Walmart, and some grocery stores) do accept these bags for recycling as well. We also have numerous LeafSiders who re-use our packaging!

Nevertheless, packaging and materials innovation continues rapidly, and we are actively testing more eco-friendly packaging options at this time. Please let us know what other questions you have, and we hope to see you on the LeafSide!

Here is one LeafSider’s garden of boxes growing squashes and melons:

Due to the durability and reseal seam on our pouches, you may consider using these for your bulk bin finds at the grocery store. Our team frequently reuses these for storing unused portions of avocado or other fruits and veggies!

We recommend submerging the empty pouches in warm, soapy water to remove the label until the sticker softens and easily scrapes away.



Meals Help Articles

Thank you for your interest in LeafSide! We add mustard seeds to our meals that contain cruciferous veggies because it helps to activate the cancer-fighting sulforaphane in those vegetables. Since we follow Dr. Greger’s evidence-based nutrition science, we plan to continue using mustard seeds for this reason. This video is helpful in explaining the relationship between mustard seeds and cruciferous veggies: https://nutritionfacts.org/video/second-strategy-to-cooking-broccoli/

Please let us know if you have additional questions, and we hope to see you on the LeafSide!

Thanks for your interest in LeafSide! Our smoothies should definitely be considered as meals. They are full of nutritious ingredients like black beans, sweet potatoes, greens, oats, peas, seeds, nuts, fruit, etc.. Many LeafSiders tell us that our smoothies keep them full for many hours and help them from snacking in between meals.

Our smoothies are the only meals that need to be blended. We recommend that you use a high-speed blender with 800 watts or more power in order to blend them to a smooth consistency.

Please let us know if you have additional questions, and we hope to see you on the LeafSide!

Thank you for your question! We appreciate that everyone has different taste preferences, so we do our best to offer a diverse range of meals to accommodate as many people as possible.

Asou may know, our meals are based on Dr. Greger’s nutritional guidelines. He has several resources that discuss how black pepper and turmeric work together to increase the availability of curcumin (the anti-inflammatory yellow pigment in turmeric) in the bloodstream, which is why we include black pepper in many of our recipes. It is often a very small amount as it doesn’t take much for the desired effect.

We hope you’ll find this video to be helpful in explaining this further: https://nutritionfacts.org/video/boosting-the-bioavailability-of-curcumin/

Thanks for your question! The type of container used does affect the final result of a meal, especially those with noodles and legumes.

Any of the following bowls work well for our meals since they are deep, retain heat well, and have a tight-fitting lid:

Stainless Steel Bowl – We use these in our test kitchen!

Microwavable Bowl – Perfect for those that have access to only a microwave for boiling water.

Collapsible Bowl – Ideal for frequent travelers to minimize space.

You can find the five “must-know” LeafSider preparation tips at the following link: https://www.goleafside.com/leafsider-tips/  

Thanks for your interest!

At this time, we are working on providing some meal modification tips for our current recipes. For example, we recently featured a recipe for Fudgy Brownies with our Cacao Raspberry sweet bowl, as well as Stuffed Peppers or Portobello Mushroom Caps filled with our Creamy Forest Mushroom savory bowl. These tips can extend one pouch to make 6-8 servings and provide additional variety by turning our meals into something entirely new!

You can find examples of our meal modifications in our free Meal Plan here: https://www.goleafside.com/leafside-meal-plan/

You can find additional recipes on our social media pages here:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LeafSide/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leafside/



Nutrition Help Articles

With the possible exception of people suffering from advanced heart disease, whose doctors have ordered a low-fat diet for medical reasons like reversing atherosclerosis, the human body needs significant amounts of dietary fat to function properly — the main issue is what kind of fats, from what sources.

As researchers have noted, between the long-lived populations of the “Blue Zones” there is a wide range of fat intakes, from the 10-12% fat of Okinawan diets, to around 30% for some Mediterranean groups like Icaria, or Sardinia. What these long-lived peoples have in common is that the sources of fat are minimally processed, and from plants: nuts, seeds, avocados, or whole olives more than olive oil.  Even when oil is used, it’s minimally processed, e,g. made directly from mechanical pressing without further chemical treatments.

The least healthy fat is saturated fat, where the balance of evidence continues to show strong associations with heart disease risk.  But even there, the source of saturated fats matter: it’s animal or processed saturated fats that are strongly associated with worsening cholesterol (thus raising heart disease risk), and lipotoxicity (increasing type 2 diabetes risk), while also bringing unwanted toxins like pesticides, growth hormones, glycotoxins, etc. which are stored in animals’ fat cells.

By comparison, plant fats in their whole form are generally clean, and loaded with supporting antioxidants, phytonutrients, and fiber. Even with the whole plant foods containing more saturated fat (e.g. whole coconut flakes), the fiber and other nutrients counteract the typical bad effects of saturated fats. But this kind of “package deal” of foods is not at all conveyed on current food label standards.

The short answer is, YES! All meals are either SOS-free by default, or have that option.

All LeafSide products come with zero added oil or sugar; zip, nada, zero  We have had that constraint — of no added sugar and no processed (nutrient-stripped) ingredients — from the beginning of our product development.

All of LeafSide’s sweet meals (smoothies and sweet-bowls) are SOS-free: no added sugar, oil, salt.

For our savory dishes (soups and savory-bowls) there are two options: the first is low-salt & miso, using a minimal amount of sea salt and miso powder, which has been shown to remarkably offset the negative effects of sodium in salt, even when the effective amount of sodium in miso is the same.  We also follow Dr. Greger’s low sodium rule, that a meal should have its milligrams of sodium (mg) number, be less than its calories (kCal) number, e.g. here’s our popular Tex-Mex savory bowl with a sodium number lower than its calories number — a rule which holds for all our meals.

Why: With our savory meals, minimizing and cutting the salt is a balancing act of what tastes good, and health concerns from current nutrition science.  Most of the population regularly eats far too much salt/sodium (as that is the cheapest way to increase flavor and increase the addictive aspect of food) and their taste buds are used to high salt.  Until someone’s taste buds have adjusted to the more subtle, fuller flavors of whole-foods plant-based eating (it only takes 3-4 weeks after fully switching to 100% WFPB), there needs to be just enough salt (and many other flavors) in a LeafSide meal to discourage people from adding more salt.

However, for those customers already eating 100% WFPB and SOS-free, who want a “no SOS” or “SOS-free” compliant meal, we offer SOS-free versions of all savory meals, i.e. without any added salt or miso.  Note: all SOS-free savory meals contain 100 mg (or less) of sodium that is naturally occurring in the ingredients. Please contact us or write a note in your order if you want your savory meals SOS free.  (And if you’re wondering about whether to choose the regular or SOS-free version, please read the other FAQ on sodium, thanks.)

The short answers: all our sweet meals (smoothies, sweet-bowls) are free of added salt.  For the savory meals (soups and savory-bowls),  we add the least amount of salt that still tastes good, use miso to lower salt’s risks, and we adhere to the sodium < calories number rule, from Dr. Greger and Jeff Novick RD. We also offer "salt-free" (no added salt nor miso) aka SOS-free versions of our savory meals. All SOS-free savory meals contain about 100 mg (or less) of sodium that is naturally occurring in the ingredients (except for the SOS-free Creamy Potato Leek soup, which is under 180 mg of naturally occurring sodium). Background: We conducted many tests for each savory recipe when deciding how much added salt (and thus sodium) to use.  The general concern was that healthy but bland recipes ("bland" to those accustomed to high salt levels from fast food and the Standard American Diet) would encourage the unhealthy habit of adding too much salt. So we put the absolute minimum necessary to create a good taste for more mainstream eaters, while still keeping the overall meal’s sodium milligrams number, below its calories number.

We also use miso powder, which research has shown has remarkable abilities to cancel out two of the main health risks of salt: hypertension and stomach cancer.

If you have further concerns about added salt and prefer SOS-free savory meals, please note our other FAQ entry about that option, and be sure to let us know (via chat or in your Order Notes) that you want the SOS-free option, thanks.

In general we recommend that most people new to LeafSide, and especially those new to WFPB eating, order the regular savory meals — until and unless your tastes in food are very accustomed to SOS-free foods at every meal.  One good test: a committed SOS-free eater will find practically all fast food and restaurant food intolerably salty, and easily notice the effects of excess salt in their body afterward.

Thank you for your question!

The majority of our LeafSiders are too busy to cook every day, but they still appreciate and want to get the benefits of eating healthy meals. Some of our LeafSiders eat 2-3 of our meals a day.

The number of meals you choose to eat per day is up to your personal preferences and needs.

LeafSide meals are nutritious, easy to make, and convenient to use at home or on the go. Whether you eat them every day or a few times a week, we want to help you eat healthy, delicious meals no matter how busy you are!

Thanks for your question! The sodium content in the meals without added salt & miso (which we add to help negate the effects of salt) is as follows:

  • Soups – Black Bean & Chunky Tomato: 45 mg; Creamy Potato Leek: 174 mg; Golden Garlic Bean: 98 mg; Smoky Pea: 133 mg; Sweet Potato Dal: 119 mg
  • Savory bowls – Broccoli Cashew Alfredo: 60 mg; Creamy Forest Mushroom: 29 mg; Lentil Tomato Pasta: 50 mg; Madras Curry: 64 mg; Pesto & Peppers Pasta: 20 mg; Tex Mex: 45 mg; Thai Veggie Noodle: 93 mg

Thank you for your interest in LeafSide!  As a food company, please note that we cannot give personalized medical advice. We highly recommend working with a licensed lifestyle medicine professional (RD or MD) who can carefully review your situation and make a recommendation.

In general, a whole food plant-based (WFPB) diet has been shown to greatly help with diabetes symptoms, and can fully reverse type 2 diabetes as well as pre-diabetic symptoms, sometimes very quickly. Dr. Greger has some great videos on the topic of diabetes, summing up the current state of the art:

https://nutritionfacts.org/video/the-best-diet-for-diabetes/

(further down that page, in the “Doctor’s Notes” section, are links to more videos on the topic of diabetes)

See also: https://nutritionfacts.org/topics/diabetes/ and https://www.pcrm.org/health-topics/diabetes

LeafSide meals are 100% whole food plant-based, and anecdotally, some LeafSiders with diabetes have reported excellent results with our meals, such as avoiding blood-sugar spikes and requiring less insulin.

Please note: There are some great online-based organizations out there that provide lifestyle support and advice for those with diabetes. These include CHIP Health, Mastering Diabetes, and Diabetes Undone. We recommend checking these out as well!

Thank you for your interest in LeafSide! Our meals are 100% whole food plant-based, and anecdotally, some LeafSiders have reported excellent results with our meals and their weight loss journey.

As a food company, please note that we cannot give personalized medical advice. We highly recommend working with a licensed lifestyle medicine professional (RD or MD) who can carefully review your situation and make a recommendation. In general, a whole food plant-based (WFPB) diet has been shown to greatly help with weight loss, depending on individual lifestyles.

One can lose excess weight in the short term on a very wide variety of diets, but what matters is keeping the weight off, i.e. long-term, healthy, and ideally easy weight management, where we’d simply eat delicious and nutritious foods until we feel full.

That need for easy long-term weight management implies eating meals that are nutrient-dense: delivering all the macro, micro, and phytonutrients needed for good health, while avoiding excess energy density, i.e. avoiding calorie-rich foods that are nutrient-poor and bypassing our natural satiety senses (because they have no fiber), like saturated fats from meat and dairy, oils, processed sugar, etc. From epidemiology and clinical research, plant-based diets best fit those requirements.

Only a diversified whole food plant-based menu fits those requirements of high nutrient density while avoiding excessively high caloric/energy density. Put another way, eating minimally processed, fiber-rich foods best allows our natural satiety signals to work, while also being long-term sustainable because 1) the eating guidelines are very simple to follow, and 2) the meals are fully nourishing.

In fact, the highest average weight loss ever recorded in a randomized controlled trial (aka RCT, the “gold standard” for evidence-based health studies) without restricting calories and without exercise, long-term (6 months and 12 months), was achieved with a whole food plant-based diet — in the BROAD study. Participants who were simply educated about WFPB (not provided meals or food) for 3 months, and told to focus on eating as much WFPB as they could, lost an average of about 12 kg (26 pounds) by the 6-month mark, and kept that result at the 1-year mark too!

Dr. Greger has some great videos on the topic of weight loss, summing up the current state of the art:

Evidence-Based Weight Loss – Live Presentation
“The Plant-Based Diet” by Dr. Greger TEDxBismarack

See also: A Whole Food Plant-Based Diet Is Effective for Weight Loss by Dr. Greger

We hope this is helpful, and are all looking forward to serving you!

Thanks for your question! It’s great to hear that you’re using the daily dozen; we also use it to keep on track with healthy eating.

You’ll find the daily dozen content for all of our meals in the following printable PDF:

Daily Dozen Servings for LeafSide Meals Created in 2023 and Onward

Please reach out to us by email at [email protected] if you require the PDF file for meals created in or before December 2022, and thanks for being with us on the LeafSide!

Thanks for your interest in LeafSide!

Our meals are free of refined and processed carbohydrates and only contain carbohydrates from whole-food plant-based sources such as fiber-rich legumes, grains, and nuts/seeds. These sources do not only contain energy-filled carbohydrates but are also packaged with a wealth of phytonutrients and the nutrition your body needs.

You may find this article about low-carb diets and health interesting: https://nutritionfacts.org/video/low-carb-diets-and-coronary-blood-flow/

You’ll find the ingredients and nutritional information for all of our meals here: https://www.goleafside.com/nutrition-summary/

As a food company, we can’t give personalized medical or nutritional advice, so please consult with a licensed lifestyle medicine professional (RD or MD) who is educated in lifestyle medicine and plant-based nutrition for help with your specific needs.

 

Thanks for your question!

You can easily access the most up-to-date ingredient & nutrition information for LeafSide meals, right from your smartphone by scanning the QR code to see an up-to-date nutrition panel, along with which ingredients are currently organic vs conventional for each meal.

How it works:

  1. Open your smartphone camera.
  2. Point it at the QR code on the back of the label of one of your meals.
  3. Click the link that appears on your screen to see the full nutrition information for the meal.

We hope this is helpful, and are truly grateful to have you with us on the LeafSide!


Account, Subscription & Ordering Help Articles

Thanks for your question!

Generally, we recommend placing orders about a week to two weeks before you need them because our fulfillment time does vary based on the number of orders in our queue and the meals we have in stock.

Due to high demand, we are currently fulfilling orders about 3 business days after they process. Additionally, our shipping carriers give us a timeframe of 2-5 business days, but please note that certain offices may be experiencing more delays than others. Once shipped, you’ll receive an automated email with your tracking details.

If you have additional questions, please email us at [email protected], and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

Thank you for your patience and understanding!

Thanks for your question!

For returning LeafSiders, you will click on Account (rather than Order) and update your box within your subscription. This process is important to avoid creating multiple subscriptions.

Once you are logged in to your account, you would go to the Subscriptions tab and click on your active subscription. This is where you can place a renewal order immediately (“Renew Now”), skip your next box (“Skip Next Renewal”), or cancel your subscription (the “Cancel Subscription” button is at the bottom of the page).

To update your selections, addresses, or contact information, you will click the green “Update Your Next LeafSide Renewal” button.

Please note that if you would like to update an order that has already been processed (shipping address, selections, etc.), you will need to contact us directly as soon as possible by phone during business hours (520.502.4743) or email ( [email protected] ). As stated in our Terms & Conditions, once a renewal order has shipped it is non-refundable..

To see our entire money-back guarantee, please see our Terms & Conditions here: https://www.goleafside.com/terms/

Thank you for wanting to share LeafSide with others! We do not have gift cards or gift certificates yet.

You’re welcome to purchase a box for someone using your billing address and their shipping address. We have only 12-item minimum monthly subscriptions available at this time, but we plan to offer other options (with different pricing and minimums) by the end of 2022.

You’re welcome to customize the box however you’d like as long as you meet the 12-item minimum. We recommend starting with the minimum order or with one of each of the 23 recipes currently available. This way, they can determine what favorites to select when they order.

If you’re paying with a credit card, please mention in the customer notes section (on the order payment page) that the order is a gift, and please provide the gift message you’d like to send with the meals.

If you’d like your order to be a one-time gift, you can cancel the subscription immediately after placing the order. You can read more about how to update the subscription here: https://www.goleafside.com/knowledge-base/single-faq/how-do-i-update-my-subscription/

Thanks for your interest in LeafSide!

Currently, we offer only subscriptions with a 12-item minimum order requirement, but we will have other options with different pricing and minimums available soon.

In the meantime, if you don’t need meals each month, you’re welcome to order and cancel your subscription immediately afterward. If you pay with a card, feel free to type “one-time order” into the notes section of the payment page, and our team will cancel the subscription on your behalf upon receiving your order.

We recommend placing your order soon to get our best pricing deal!

We’re confident that you’ll find our meals to be tasty, nutritious, and convenient for home, work, and travel. Please let us know what other questions you have. We look forward to serving you!

Thanks for your interest in LeafSide! We do not offer discounts or promos for initial orders at this time. However, we do offer a discounted price per meal for our regular subscribers. You can read more about this and get started with your first order here: https://www.goleafside.com/order/

We offer loyalty pricing for our actively subscribed LeafSiders that consume our meals regularly. We will provide our lowest price when you buy more meals on a regular schedule to ensure the best unit economics for LeafSide to help enable that best price.

We’ve been told that our meals are reasonably priced considering they contain 20-30 ingredients, the majority of which are organic, and they’re packed with nutrition. Some customers have told us they’re saving money by eating LeafSide because they no longer have to spend hours driving around to shop (often at several stores to find the quality ingredients they need), and they don’t have to make time for meal prep. Furthermore, it’s quick, easy, and economic to “extend” and modify a single LeafSide meal to feed more family and friends, or make several meals for yourself — ask us about such “meal-mods” if you’d like ideas.

We have a 12-item minimum order requirement, but many LeafSiders start with a box that includes one of each recipe (23) so they can try everything and select their favorites for their next order.

Our meals are based on the highest standards for plant-based nutrition, while also being very tasty and super convenient. We encourage you to try them and discover the value that we offer. Please let us know if you have additional questions, and we hope to see you on the LeafSide!

Thanks for your question!

We ship our orders with USPS Priority Mail or FedEx One Rate, depending on your specific location and the size of your order.

Typically, we ship with the carrier that is more economical since we cover the majority of shipping fees.

Standard shipping within the contiguous United States is $6.99 for orders of any size.

Shipping to Alaska or Hawaii is:

  • $12.99 for orders of 12-24 meals
  • $34.99 for 25-41 meals
  • $49.99 for orders of 42-70

If you have a preference in which carrier is used for your packages, please reach out to us by email at [email protected] we can note this on your subscription if you’d be willing to pay any difference in fees that may occur.

You may consider using a General Delivery address to have packages held by your local post office for pick up without the need to purchase a P.O. Box. This allows your parcels to be delivered and kept behind the counter at your nearest post office to avoid the potential of porch pirates or misdelivery.

You can read details about this option and best practices for doing so on the USPS site here: https://faq.usps.com/s/article/What-is-General-Delivery.

Alternatively, you could also use a FedEx OnSite or Walgreens location for pick-ups as well. You can read about that option here: https://www.fedex.com/en-us/shipping/drop-off-pick-up-walgreens.html.

We hope this is helpful. Please let us know if you have other questions, and we hope to see you on the LeafSide!

Thanks for your question!

At this time, we only accept PayPal and credit card as methods of payment.

Because USDA requires that SNAP-authorized retailers must have at least 3 out of 4 staple food categories (vegetables or fruits; dairy products; meat, poultry, or fish; breads or cereal), we do not fit the full criterion as all of our meals are vegan and do not include meat or dairy.

Since 2009, cities and states across the U.S. have been implementing the “Double Up” SNAP program. For every $1 you spend on any SNAP/EBT eligible item, you can receive up to $10 to use towards locally grown fruits and vegetables. This program was designed to increase the availability and accessibility of fresh foods to those in communities faced with food insecurity while also supporting local farmers.

Here is the link if you’d like to learn more: https://doubleupamerica.org/

If you require immediate assistance to acquire food, please visit the following resources:
https://www.211.org/
https://www.feedingamerica.org/find-your-local-foodbank
https://www.usa.gov/food-help
https://www.nutrition.gov/topics/food-assistance-programs/supplemental-nutrition-assistance-program-snap
https://www.nutrition.gov/topics/food-security-and-access/food-assistance-programs/food-distribution-programs