Due to the rise in people using weight-loss jabs and the fact that eating less is cool again, M&S launched ‘Nutrient Dense’, a range of meals, snacks, and drinks designed with small appetites in mind.
The Nutrient Dense range consists of 20 products, from H?O shots to a cocoa chia seed mousse and high fibre seeded breads to tandoori chicken and rice, each containing at least one of 10 micronutrients and made from wholefoods and store cupboard ingredients.
Whether you’re taking weight-loss jabs, are watching your waistline, aren’t keen on food in general, or have elderly relatives struggling to eat more than half a slice of toast, these meals are created with covering all of your dietary bases in mind.
With ‘Nutrient Dense’ capitalised in a large font on the front of each packet in the range, you’ll have no trouble finding on the shelves from the 5th of January. The packet also has the Eat Well flower to help you find them, if you know what that looks like.
As I’ve discovered after a few rounds of Mounjaro, your body becomes devoid of certain vitamins, and after needing B12 booster jabs, I understand the need for ensuring a proper diet is maintained, even when your feelings of hunger have long since departed.
M&S Head of Food Nutrition, Grace Ricotti, said: “Our Nutrient Dense range is perfect for customers looking to support their health as each recipe is packed with the key nutrients we all need in our diets.
“With the increase in popularity of weight-loss injections, a reduced appetite can mean missing out on important nutrients and that’s why nutrient density is so important.
We challenged ourselves to make products that are denser in nutrients than calories, so every single mouthful is packed full of more of the good stuff we all need.”
She continues: “The importance of us all eating enough fibre cannot be overestimated. As well as helping day to day with effective digestion, long term it is important to reduce the risk of bowel cancer and so many other diseases. Products such as our Nutrient Dense Super Seeded Oaty Bread, which has 13g of fibre in two slices, are aimed at making it super easy for customers to reach the recommended 30g a day.”
Given the effort M&S has gone to keeping the nutrients in the food, we’re not surprised by the high prices. Rather than play the hunting-round-in-store game, we checked the prices via delivery partner Ocado:
- 400g Nutrient Dense Tandoori Chicken = £7
- 400g Nutrient Dense Cauli-Rice Prawn Paella = £7
- 290g Nutrient Dense Satay Chicken, Black Rice, and Mango = £5.75
- 300g Nutrient Dense Super Seeded Oaty Sliced Bread = £1.80
- 180g Nutrient Dense Cocoa Chia Mousse = £2.75
For main, 400g meals expect to pay £7. The smaller 280g – 305g bowls are priced at £5.75 while the 240g – 285g salads will cost £4. For the sides, you’re looking at anywhere between £1.80 and £2.50.
At the moment, Ocado has an intro offer on the Nutrient Dense salads, knocking 50p off the list price until the 27th of January.
After the best part of a decade embracing body positivity, it’s now trendy to be thin again. It would be nice if supermarket ranges had people’s health at the forefront of ready meal innovation, not just when the fat cats sensed a money making opportunity. Now we know supermarkets can make nutrient rich snacks and meals over those filled with sodium and saturated fats, it would be nice if it become the mainstream.
Testing the range
The main meals didn’t look worth £7 – I was quite disappointed when I saw them. However, we did do a group taste test of the chia pudding, cocoa chia mousse, and the ginger shot.
So what did we think? Unfortunately, it wasn’t an overly positive response.
Chia pudding taste test:
– Gross
– Like tapioca
– A hard swallow
– One tester got used to the texture and didn’t mind it in the end
Cocoa chia mousse:
– Very dark and bitter
– Doesn’t taste how it looks
– Tapioca
– Weirdly moreish, not sure why
The ginger shot was warming but the ginger wasn’t strong enough to take your throat out, tasting more like orange juice. Even those who weren’t fans of ginger didn’t mind it.
Unfortunately, we probably wouldn’t buy any of the ones we tried again, but it wouldn’t put us off trying some of the other sides in the range.
