Oh boy, here we go again. Another food service company pretending to wave the flag of “science.” This one is called xxxxxx and their flagship location is at xxxxxx in New York.
I am not naming the company here because one of the founders is an acquaintance. The purpose of this article is strictly for training my team and for other educational uses.
They toss around names like the Mifflin St Jeor Model, TDEE, and BMR like they are holding the keys to human health. Let me save you the suspense: it is all just calories in and calories out. That is it. That is the whole song and dance. It sounds fancy, it looks slick on a PowerPoint, but it is not helping anyone eat better. It is marketing in a lab coat.
Do you really think slapping some DNA graphics on a website and sprinkling in a few science buzzwords makes your food healthy? Please. It is the same tired trick. They hide behind numbers and models while serving up the same garbage. Call it what it is: a fear factory. They scare people with jargon, then sell them the cure.
What I like about them is that they are at least trying to create a food place that claims no processed ingredients. We will see if they follow through. If they succeed, maybe it opens the door for more health-focused companies to rise out of the ocean of garbage in New York.
Here is what would be more intellectually honest. State the truth. Say it loud: yes, calorie restriction can make you lose weight. But without actual lifestyle change, exercise, rest, breathing, therapy, working through childhood addictions, those diets crash and burn.
Xxxxxx’s marketing sheet lists “vegetable forward” down at bullet point six. Six! That should be bullet point one, two, and three. Big green salads should be the headliner, not an afterthought shoved under a pile of chicken breast.
Instead of serving word salad, how about serving actual salad? Broccoli, cauliflower, leafy greens, fruit. The prime nutrients we all need. But no, they double down on protein like it is the holy grail. Protein protein protein. Meanwhile, they ignore the obvious: the main nutrient of human survival has always been clean plant carbohydrates. These feed the microbiome. They stabilize digestion. They fuel the body through glucose in the Krebs cycle. Every single cell in your body is built to run on glucose. Protein is necessary, yes, but it is not the foundation.
And here is the kicker. Study after study shows chicken is not the “healthy protein” people think it is. You want data? Fine:
- Adventist Health Study 2 (2013) – Vegetarians lived longer and had lower rates of cardiovascular disease and diabetes compared to meat eaters.
- EPIC Oxford Study (2009) – Higher intakes of poultry and other animal proteins were linked with greater risk of ischemic heart disease compared to plant-based diets.
- National Cancer Institute analysis (2012/2019) – Replacing red and processed meat with plant protein significantly reduced overall mortality, while poultry offered no added longevity benefit.
- JAMA Internal Medicine modeling study (2022) – Adopting a plant-based diet rich in greens, cruciferous vegetables, legumes, and fruits could extend life expectancy by up to 10 years.
I have looked at these studies. They are not groundbreaking, but they all point in the same direction: people who eat more plants and less animal protein live longer and have lower rates of disease. That is the takeaway. So any food company that pretends it has discovered the ultimate bio-hack while ignoring plants as the foundation of human nutrition is just another food company. They are not leading the conversation. They are not innovators. They are just serving food. And no amount of DNA graphics or scientific jargon on a website changes that.
So while these companies strut around waving equations and metabolic jargon, they miss the most basic truth: health is not in measurements, it is in the food. Eat plants. Cut the processed junk. Leave the animal protein behind.
They have invented nothing. Just a smokescreen. The only “prime nutrient” worth talking about is the one they ignore: whole plant carbohydrates. Broccoli. Cauliflower. Kale. Spinach. Apples. Oranges. Berries. Real food. Not shakes. Not formulas. Not buzzwords.
And here is the worst part. Their whole model breeds anxiety. It makes people dependent on charts and formulas instead of trusting their own body. It turns eating into an obsessive math class. That is not health. That is neurosis.
The truth is simple. Eat big salads. Eat fruit. Eat whole, unprocessed plants. That is where real nourishment comes from. Everything else is noise. Everything else is smoke.
The facts are on the table. You can read them yourself on government sites. Plants win. Meat loses. Chicken is not a health food. Anyone saying otherwise is cashing in on confusion.
My hope is that these companies drop the buzzwords, stop confusing people, and put more attention on total lifestyle instead of calorie counting and macro math. Diets that fixate on numbers drive people into orthorexia and anxiety, which are at the root of addictive eating patterns.
What really annoys me is how they pretend they have discovered some modern-day diet hack when all they have done is slap a new name, new fonts, and new colors on the same old playbook. There is nothing revolutionary here. I have no idea what their food will taste like, how it will be served, or what it will cost. That, along with their operation and price points, will decide their future. At the end of the day they are not even close to being my competitor. They are battling it out with Sakara Life, Dig, Sweetgreen, and other calorie-peddling brands. I wish them luck.