Are Boxed Delivery Meals Worth It?

To choose the right delivery meal service, you have to know what to look for.

For some people, the delivery meal industry couldn't have taken off any sooner. Boxed meals, to them, are the perfect solution to a busy schedule or an aversion to the kitchen. For others though, boxed meals don't solve much and might amount to money poorly spent. To see if boxed meals are right for you, consider the following five criteria: cost, time, level of difficulty, nutrition, and taste.

Cost

Delivery meals are not cheap. Per person, the average meal costs about $13. But if you're someone who often buys too much of one ingredient or another to cook your meals, then a delivery meal service might very well save you money. Subscribing to a delivery service can also help you cut down on waste. That's nothing to gloss over -- each year, we waste about $165 billion in food.

Your Parent Has Dementia: What to Talk to Their Doctor About

Make sure all their doctors are aware of all the medications she is taking.

Q: My mom is 94 and has dementia. She is taking a whole medicine cabinet-full of medications and I think they actually make her fuzzier. How should I talk to her various doctors about what she is taking and if she can get off some of the meds? — Gary R., Denver, Colorado

A: Many dementia patients are taking what docs call a "polypharmacy" — three or more medications that affect their central nervous system. And we really don't know how that mixture truly affects each individual person.

A new study in JAMA Network that looked at more than 1 million Medicare patients found almost 14% of them were taking a potentially harmful mix of antidepressants, antipsychotics, antiepileptics, benzodiazepines such as Valium and Ativan, nonbenzodiazepine benzodiazepine receptor agonist hypnotics such as Ambien or Sonata, and opioids. And almost a third of those folks were taking five or more such medications. The most common medication combination included an antidepressant, an antiepileptic, and an antipsychotic. Gabapentin was the most common medication — often for off-label uses, such as to ease chronic pain or treat psychiatric disorders, according to the researchers from the University of Michigan.

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