What do you think of froze diet foods?

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Loves418
Loves418 Posts: 330 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Like Lean cuisine, weight watchers and the others don't come to mind at the moment. Do you use them? Do you think they help you lose weight with your menus food choices. Are you worried about the sodium count in them. Just wondering. Also if you do use them which ones taste good! No seafood tho..have allergies.
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Replies

  • cramernh
    cramernh Posts: 3,335 Member
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    Absolutely NOT!
    Filled with sodium.
    The portions are never the same, nor what they advertise.
    Preservatives and chemicals added..

    If I wanted a salt-lick, Ill eat my mother's cooking. If I wanted preprocessed garbage food, Ill eat my mother-in-law's cooking. LOL!

    Fresh foods are the only things consumed in my home..... I work as a chef (who has a medical background also) who firmly believes fresher the better...
  • longoverdue
    longoverdue Posts: 57 Member
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    I use lean cuisine on days when I cant get home for dinner due to work. Maybe two nights a week at most, but because of the sodium I really try to avoid using them if I dont have to, but it is better than eating out.
  • vs1023
    vs1023 Posts: 417 Member
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    I really only stick to fresh foods. I used to eat the lean cuisines and smart ones and then add vegetables to it since it's never enough food IMHO. Over the past 2 years though I've switched to a whole food diet so I don't buy them anymore.
  • grapenutSF
    grapenutSF Posts: 648 Member
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    Dislike.

    Real food is better for my body, and more filling. Win-win.

    I've made my own frozen food by just making more (eg, beef stew, lentil soup) and freezing that.
  • BrendaLee
    BrendaLee Posts: 4,463 Member
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    I think they're okay once in a while. The sodium is what ruins them, though.
  • Classalete
    Classalete Posts: 464 Member
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    For the birds.
  • psmd
    psmd Posts: 764 Member
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    Generally dislike but very occasionally will have Annie's, Kashi, or Ethnic Gourmet. Good in a pinch but that's about it.
  • wftiger
    wftiger Posts: 1,283 Member
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    I fall back on them on rare occasion but stay away because of the high sodium, usually low protein and high carb. When you eat fewer calories you need something to fill you up and fresh veggies and protein does that. I usually just make extra for supper and have it the next day for lunch. That solves the lunch problem.
  • em9371
    em9371 Posts: 1,047 Member
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    Dislike.

    Real food is better for my body, and more filling. Win-win.

    I've made my own frozen food by just making more (eg, beef stew, lentil soup) and freezing that.

    ^^ another vote for this. If you need quick food, cook extra when you have time and freeze portions so you have home made healthy 'ready meals'. You get a much bigger portion for same cals too by cooking from scratch :)
  • amberrrrh
    amberrrrh Posts: 63 Member
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    I admit that I eat "Smart One's" meals at least once a week for lunch..
    usually the chicken and broccoli w/rice.

    they are packed with sodium and that is why I try to stay away from things like that, but sometimes your just in too much of a hurry!
  • chubbiechicken
    chubbiechicken Posts: 29
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    gross !!!!!!!
  • Le_Joy
    Le_Joy Posts: 593 Member
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    In general I don't eat these, but with my crazy schedule I usually have some frozen store bought food in the freezer because there are days where I just don't have time and have run out of the home made frozen stuff. And if the choice is between these or eating out. I'd go with these types of meals!
  • bmacholiday
    bmacholiday Posts: 296 Member
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    I just can't eat them and barely stand the smell when someone heats one up in the lunchroom.
  • TikiMelody
    TikiMelody Posts: 1
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    Do you eat them for convenience? Use the microwave instead, but nuke real foods. I cut up some brussel sprouts in quarters, added a little water and nuked for 3 minutes to soften. You can cook up a chicken breast very easily and quickly, even do it ahead of time and cut it up so you can grab some when you need it. I mixed it up and drizzled a little sweet mustard on it for lunch. Delicious! I like real foods because I can control what goes in them. :smile:
  • CMmrsfloyd
    CMmrsfloyd Posts: 2,383 Member
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    You're my friend, you see my diary, you know I eat them, sometimes more frequently than others. LOL. Sometimes it's nice to have the convenience. Especially at breakfast, I like to pull something out of the freezer, nuke it for 2 minutes and carry it out the door with me on the way to take my kiddo to preschool. I do agree with others that yes the sodium tends to be high in the frozen dinners, but I also don't track sodium LMAO. I wouldn't recommend living off of them or anything, but I don't think having one now and then for convenience will throw anything off track unless you have a specific medical concern over the sodium content. One of my main issues though is that a lot of the frozen diet foods don't have as much protein as I would like - I often find myself adding some extra grilled chicken or salmon on top of the meal to help bump up the protein. But that's b/c I'm shooting for over 100 g per day so if a 'meal' has less than 20g I'm normally going to want to add in some more to help make sure I can meet my goal for the day.

    I'm just not one to say 'ewww gross don't do that' over ANYTHING b/c everyone has a different lifestyle, different priorities, different preferences, etc. you can find ways to make a lot of different things work for you. Not everything has to be all-or-nothing.
  • xaniza
    xaniza Posts: 250 Member
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    I like the steamer bags/meals. Lean Cuisine Chicken Poblano & Healthy Choice Sesame Chicken & Balsamic Chicken are pretty good. My kitchen is about as big as my computer monitor so the microwave is my dear friend until I can afford something a little more... spacious lol
  • Julie2402
    Julie2402 Posts: 126
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    Personally i prefer fresh, i know frozen is convenient but you can't beat fresh!!
  • kellyc3
    kellyc3 Posts: 95
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    I admit that about 3 days a week I eat a lean cuisine or smart ones. I always pair it up with a fruit or veggie.
  • hello77kitty
    hello77kitty Posts: 260 Member
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    I eat them probably a few times a week when I don't have time to cook dinner or run out of spinach for lunch. I like em and find most of them pretty good. Definitely add some extra veggies to fill you up. Some of my faves are
    Lean Cuisine: Butternut squash ravioli
    Michelinas Lean Gourmet: 3 cheese ziti, some chicken broccoli one with white sauce and pasta
    Fresh and Easy Eat Well: Channa Massala
  • Sigma28
    Sigma28 Posts: 83 Member
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    I have to play the devil's advocate here because there's so much angst against salt in this thread. Now for those members who don't have a well-functioning kidney, diabetic, have hypertension, and/or congestive heart failure, stop reading. Everyone else, read on. One of the kidney's functions is to balance the electrolytes (of which salt is one of them) in our body. When your sodium levels are low, the kidney's hold on to the sodium. When your sodium levels are high, it excretes the excess in urine. Of course the exception is if for some reason your kidneys can't eliminate enough sodium (eg. you have kidney problems, your diabetic, etc), the excess sodium will raise your blood pressure. HOWEVER, if you have healthy kidneys and are drinking ENOUGH water, your kidneys WILL flush out the excess. When I say enough water, I mean those eight 8 oz glasses besides anything you drank during your workout, or even more if you drank anything with caffeine in it (caffeine is a diuretic). How do you know if you're flushing out enough sodium? You're urine should be clear, not yellow.

    Let's talk about these frozen diet meals. You have to read those labels. Lean Cuisine has a Spa Collection and Healthy Choice has a Cafe Steamers section. A lot of those meals have about 550-600mg of sodium in it. To put that into perspective, that's about 1/4 tsp of salt. Assuming you don't lick the bowl clean of its juices, you're not ingesting that amount. (2300mg/day is the guideline 50 years old or younger, if you're wondering.) For some, that's a lot. For me, that's okay because I make a protein shake for breakfast, so I could have a 1000mg sodium dinner and be quite under the guideline.

    Lastly, since we're all on this site, I'm assuming we're all exercising pretty regularly. Ever wonder why our sweat tastes salty? That's because it has salt in it. We need some salt to replenish it. Those that are Ironman competitors/marathon runners on MFP can tell you that they do have to reach for the Gatorade/electrolyte drink versus water sometimes when competing on a hot, humid day. Why? They're losing too much salt sweating and if they reach for water instead, it dilutes the sodium in the bloodstream, and hyponatremia results. Now I'm not saying you should go out and drink sports drinks after every workout (since most of us work out for about an hour, water is preferred), but I'm saying that you're working some of the sodium out of your system. Now those that train 3 + hours a day, go and eat some chips and salsa. ;)

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