I’m a Registered Dietitian and I Let AI Plan My Meals—Here’s How It Went

Artificial intelligence, commonly known as AI, is becoming increasingly integrated into our everyday lives. From serving as a personal shopper or idea generator to acting as a graphic designer or even a therapist, AI is being used in countless creative ways to make people’s lives easier.

One of the more recent uses of AI that has caught my attention is custom meal plan creation, especially since I’m a registered dietitian. This immediately sparked my curiosity because, admittedly, making meal plans is one of my least favorite parts of the job. It’s time-consuming, tedious, and requires a lot of attention to detail and creativity—skills I prefer to dedicate to other tasks. So, I figured I’d give it a try and share my experience on what AI produces. Read on to discover my thoughts about AI-generated meal plans…and if I think it’s something you should try.

First Impression

I decided to go with trusty old ChatGPT for this endeavor and typed in “make me a healthy meal plan” with no other information. In under thirty seconds, it produced seven days’ worth of breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. Before jumping into the meals, the platform offered some general guidelines, advising me to drink eight to 10 cups of water per day, optionally snack on fruit, nuts, Greek yogurt, boiled eggs, or veggie sticks, and adjust portion sizes based on activity level and individual needs.

After that disclaimer, it outlined the meals, which weren’t particularly creative. Breakfasts were traditional options like eggs, smoothies, Greek yogurt, cottage cheese, and protein pancakes. Lunch and dinner included dishes like wraps, stuffed peppers, grain bowls, chili, soups, salads, and grilled meats with starches and vegetables. However, there were no recipes included with these meal ideas, nor portion sizes. So, I asked for some recipes, and it quickly outlined ingredients and simple instructions for the meals it initially offered, which I was impressed with. 

I then asked for portion sizes for an active person of my age, and it gave me an entirely new plan. Instead of general guidelines (like at the beginning of the plan), it offered portion sizes for every food group per day. This information was based on a general calorie range for someone my age who’s active. Afterwards, it shared a much more detailed meal plan with exactly how much of each food I should eat at every meal, as well as portioned snacks—but the recipe ideas were equally basic as the first.

At the end of each meal plan, the platform asked me if I’d like to make any changes based on dietary preferences—whether that be vegan, vegetarian, gluten-free, high-protein, or otherwise—and also offered grocery lists, prep guides, or macronutrient breakdowns. All of these were welcome conveniences.

My Review

At the end of the day, I think AI-generated meal plans can be useful in certain situations—but are best avoided by others. The meal plans I received offered some helpful meal ideas and generally healthy recommendations, along with options to swap meals, adjust for dietary preferences, and access detailed recipe information and nutrition facts. However, the recipes were very basic and lacked creativity.

But my biggest qualm with AI-generated meal plans is that they lack the professional insight of a registered dietitian, which is essential for providing accurate recommendations. I tried to approach this experiment as I’d imagine someone who didn’t know their dietary requirements would: by asking for a ‘healthy meal plan’. 

What it initially produced—a meal plan without portion sizes or amounts—could easily be interpreted as a free-for-all, allowing someone to eat as much as they want, or could lead to another person not getting enough calories. Similarly, someone may not consume enough fruits or veggies on a daily basis with this type of portionless plan.

When I took it a step further by adding my age and specifying ‘active’ as a disclaimer, it produced a more detailed plan with set caloric parameters. But again, this was created generically—not under the supervision of a credentialed professional to ensure the numbers were accurate—and it didn’t ask the important questions an RD would to determine that the calculations were tailored to the individual.

When AI Can Help With Meal Planning

There are a few instances where this system can come in handy. One is for the client who has already met with an RD and has their specific caloric, macronutrient, and/or food group needs in hand, but no meal plan. They could enter that information into an AI platform and receive a pretty comprehensive meal plan and individualize it—or ask for more aligned recipes—as they saw fit. Another beneficial use of this tool would be for an RD looking to make a meal plan for a client. They can review the provided plan to ensure it’s in line with the client’s needs, saving themselves a lot of time.

A final circumstance where this system could be helpful is if someone just needs some basic meal ideas and is able to self-regulate portion sizes in such a way that their weight, energy levels, and health have been pretty stable. These folks could also ask AI for recipe ideas outside of a full meal plan.

The Bottom Line

When it comes down to it, I think AI meal plans should be taken with a grain of salt. These conveniences lack the stamp of approval from a credentialed professional to ensure that they accurately reflect a person’s unique nutrition needs. While you can go in and ask AI to assess your nutrition needs, what it produces is still not reviewed by a healthcare professional.

That said, AI meal plans can help some people improve their diets with basic, nutritionally sound meal ideas. This can be especially helpful for those who have already met with an RD about their nutritional needs, those in stable health looking for new recipes, or for RDs wanting to save some time.

As a dietitian, I generally subscribe to the idea that it’s better to understand the principles of healthy eating and build meals around that—using what you already have in your kitchen and what’s in season—rather than strictly following a meal plan. This way of eating allows for more flexibility and is often easier to practice in everyday life. Plus, I personally believe that with some of the downsides of AI—like its environmental impact—we could all use a reminder to prioritize our own internal intelligence before quickly turning to a platform like ChatGPT to do the thinking for us.