How do you guys feel about low calorie frozen meals?
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I watch lots of cooking shows, and chefs working with fine ingredients put handfuls of salt in everything. One of the more common criticisms in cooking competition shows is "under seasoning" which usually leads to them saying If you'd just salted this properly it would've been a winner. I'm sometimes horrified by how much salt I see them add to each "layer of flavor". I'm not so sure an excess of salt necessarily means low quality ingredients. I actually don't use much salt at all when I do cook, and I like the food I cook, so I figure that evens out the soups, frozen dinners, and pickles I eat quite nicely, if that's even necessary. <shrugs>9
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WinoGelato wrote: »poisonesse wrote: »One word says it all when it comes to frozen meals, low calorie or not. SODIUM! It's off the scale, most meals come in at close to your entire day's sodium goal. Which means they're not healthy. In the short term? If you have to eat them, do so. In the long term, they're just not good for you.
OH, and while eating those low, 900-1200 calories per day might seem like a great way to lose weight... again, that one word, SODIUM! Which means water retention, which means you don't see the results you might hope to see.
I just checked the handful of frozen meals in my freezer and they all have b/w 600-700 mg of sodium in them. I don’t have a medical condition causing me to limit sodium so I don’t particularly track it but I believe the standard recommendation is<2,500 mg per day so I’m struggling to see how these meals are “off the scale”.
Yep, and agreed, for them's as has no need to watch for sodium. For someone like me, who actually tries to stay below 1,000 per day (though I often fail on weekends....), 600 mg is a lot.2 -
Frozen dinners aren't all Hungry Man nutrition disasters, they've become significantly healthier in recent years as manufacturers realised that consumers want decent food and not just convenience. My father manages to stay below 1500 mg sodium per day, and that includes a frozen meal and an Ensure (not particularly low either!)
Hungry Man meals aren't necessarily nutrition disasters, depending on your goal! I have a 19 year old college athlete who needs to take consume 4000 calories per day and doesn't always have time to prepare a home cooked meal (and my cooking habits are on the lighter side). He goes to the grocery store and looks for the highest-calorie prepared meals he can find just to maintain weight!
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I definitely include them in my meals, i frequently don't get time to go for lunch when i'm at work at remote locations, so i keep a couple in the freezer at work. I also keep several in the freezer at home. I don't cook much so if i'm on my own for dinner, a frozen meal is delicious. Remember though, that they frequently do change recipes on these things, so if you have any food allergies read the box every time you buy them. I've forgotten the brand but i recently bought a cheese enchilada meal that i've had before, but they've since changed the recipe to include "mushroom essence". I'm allergic to mushrooms, and am glad i glanced at the box as i was waiting for it to cook, who would imagine mushroom essence in a cheese enchilada?
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I wonder has anyone ever really looked into how much sodium they add to their home cooked meals🤔
I add very little...I rarely cook with it and if I do, it's usually a small pinch in what is an otherwise large recipe. I figure people can salt it on their own if they are so inclined. I cook with a lot of herbs and spices and don't need to dump salt into my cooking to give it flavor.
I'm hypertensive, so I have to watch my sodium. I high day here and there isn't a big deal, but I eat a largely lower sodium diet. After 7 years, my taste buds are definitely sensitive to over-saltiness...it can make eating out difficult sometimes because I want to taste the food...not the sodium bomb they through in there. People forget what the actual food tastes like.3 -
As a pregnant person, I loathe these stinky microwave meals. I can smell it when anyone on the floor heats one up and I call them "fake chemical salt meals". They smell like no food I've ever smelled. I now consider them edible food-like substances because they smell so off I can't even really describe it.14
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Amy's are the best. As for prepping your own frozen that's awesome. I bet it's way cheaper too. What do you store your meals in? Thanks!0
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As a pregnant person, I loathe these stinky microwave meals. I can smell it when anyone on the floor heats one up and I call them "fake chemical salt meals". They smell like no food I've ever smelled. I now consider them edible food-like substances because they smell so off I can't even really describe it.
Curious if you felt this way about the smell of frozen meals prior to your pregnancy? These are pretty strong reactions to something that many of us eat and even enjoy, so to have them classified as “fake chemical salt meals” and all lumped together when they are are literally hundreds of different types of meals seems like it’s more of a situation with your heightened olfactory system than in the meals themselves...6 -
Like most here I do frozen dinners/lunches occasionally. I love Costco's Yakisoba noodles, Lean Cuisine Butternut Squash Ravioli, Trader Joes Won Ton Soup, etc. You do need to be mindful of sodium but there is no reason (I can see) to avoid them completely.0
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I watch lots of cooking shows, and chefs working with fine ingredients put handfuls of salt in everything. One of the more common criticisms in cooking competition shows is "under seasoning" which usually leads to them saying If you'd just salted this properly it would've been a winner. I'm sometimes horrified by how much salt I see them add to each "layer of flavor". I'm not so sure an excess of salt necessarily means low quality ingredients. I actually don't use much salt at all when I do cook, and I like the food I cook, so I figure that evens out the soups, frozen dinners, and pickles I eat quite nicely, if that's even necessary. <shrugs>
I'm not making a blanket statement that high salt = low quality. In fact, I specifically said several times that was not the case.
I'm pointing out that in some cases the food manufacturers themselves are saying that salt is used to fix quality issues which could also be remedied by costlier ingredients that they are too cheap to use.
I'm not going to type any more from the book, but anyone who cares to read it will not be surprised by this:As a pregnant person, I loathe these stinky microwave meals. I can smell it when anyone on the floor heats one up and I call them "fake chemical salt meals". They smell like no food I've ever smelled. I now consider them edible food-like substances because they smell so off I can't even really describe it.2 -
WinoGelato wrote: »As a pregnant person, I loathe these stinky microwave meals. I can smell it when anyone on the floor heats one up and I call them "fake chemical salt meals". They smell like no food I've ever smelled. I now consider them edible food-like substances because they smell so off I can't even really describe it.
Curious if you felt this way about the smell of frozen meals prior to your pregnancy? These are pretty strong reactions to something that many of us eat and even enjoy, so to have them classified as “fake chemical salt meals” and all lumped together when they are are literally hundreds of different types of meals seems like it’s more of a situation with your heightened olfactory system than in the meals themselves...
I can't speak for that particular poster, but I know when my wife was pregnant with baby 2, a lot of things smelled weird to her that never bothered her before and that she actually enjoyed before. She couldn't stand the smell of microwave popcorn for example...or cheeseburgers on the grill. It was weird.1 -
kshama2001 wrote: »I watch lots of cooking shows, and chefs working with fine ingredients put handfuls of salt in everything. One of the more common criticisms in cooking competition shows is "under seasoning" which usually leads to them saying If you'd just salted this properly it would've been a winner. I'm sometimes horrified by how much salt I see them add to each "layer of flavor". I'm not so sure an excess of salt necessarily means low quality ingredients. I actually don't use much salt at all when I do cook, and I like the food I cook, so I figure that evens out the soups, frozen dinners, and pickles I eat quite nicely, if that's even necessary. <shrugs>
I'm not making a blanket statement that high salt = low quality. In fact, I specifically said several times that was not the case.
I'm pointing out that in some cases the food manufacturers themselves are saying that salt is used to fix quality issues which could also be remedied by costlier ingredients that they are too cheap to use.
I'm not going to type any more from the book, but anyone who cares to read it will not be surprised by this:As a pregnant person, I loathe these stinky microwave meals. I can smell it when anyone on the floor heats one up and I call them "fake chemical salt meals". They smell like no food I've ever smelled. I now consider them edible food-like substances because they smell so off I can't even really describe it.
I get that that's what you're saying, I just don't understand the relevancy then of this salt tangent (which several folks keep coming back to in this thread) to the OP, who in fact specifically stated that the meals she chooses are not high in sodium. "Frozen meals" is a huge category encompassing expensive choices with high quality organic ingredients, less expensive choices some with better quality than others, super cheap options with awful numbers in the nutrition panel. It's really easy to avoid high sodium processed food if that's important to you.
I clicked the link through to the Michael Moss book, and it seems to me he too makes this sweeping generalization of "processed food". I don't think it's useful. Not all processed food is high in salt, sugar, and fat. That's an old boogeyman set up decades ago.
And to the other poster quoted, I tend to be fairly sensitive to smells and I don't know what smell you're referring to, unless the folks in your office are underestimating the power of your microwave and are overcooking their meals - the plastic tray can start to smell "plastic-ey" if you leave it in their too long.1 -
WinoGelato wrote: »As a pregnant person, I loathe these stinky microwave meals. I can smell it when anyone on the floor heats one up and I call them "fake chemical salt meals". They smell like no food I've ever smelled. I now consider them edible food-like substances because they smell so off I can't even really describe it.
Curious if you felt this way about the smell of frozen meals prior to your pregnancy? These are pretty strong reactions to something that many of us eat and even enjoy, so to have them classified as “fake chemical salt meals” and all lumped together when they are are literally hundreds of different types of meals seems like it’s more of a situation with your heightened olfactory system than in the meals themselves...
I was convinced the cat had urinated on the couch for weeks when I was pregnant. No, it was just new couch foam smell. I tore all the covers off the cushions, bought a urine light, etc - looking for the phantom urine.2 -
I don’t think one of these would fill me for dinner, but I take one to work for lunch a few times a week. Some are really good, others taste really bland. But I like to variety and low calorie options with minimal effort! I say enjoy0
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I understand different smells can become an issue for people in pregnancy - but surely people recognise the issue is with them not with " fake chemical salt meals"
When I was pregnant I found some things I didn't mind usually, made me feel nauseaous - cheese and tuna spring to mind.
But the issue was me, not cheese or tuna being fake chemicals or any such thing.
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As I've said in previous threads.
I won't cook because I can't and I don't like doing it. I also work a lot (by choice, I love what I do) so pretty much everything I eat falls into one of two categories. Food I can buy take away on the way home and food I can take out of the freezer and nuke when I get home.
Worked fine for me. Been able to drop weight relatively stress free and my health markers during my last few check ups have been in the words of my Doc "Great, just great! Right where they should be"2 -
Not for me. I just bought this as I’m not fit enough after surgery to go to my local market and supermarket veggies are expensive. Only need to add a protein and rice. And make peanur sauce from scratch as readymade one tastes aweful. This is probably enough for 4-5 dinners and will cost about 1 Euro per portion (will freeze portions) while a single frozen/microwave meal costs around 3-5 Euro.
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WinoGelato wrote: »poisonesse wrote: »One word says it all when it comes to frozen meals, low calorie or not. SODIUM! It's off the scale, most meals come in at close to your entire day's sodium goal. Which means they're not healthy. In the short term? If you have to eat them, do so. In the long term, they're just not good for you.
OH, and while eating those low, 900-1200 calories per day might seem like a great way to lose weight... again, that one word, SODIUM! Which means water retention, which means you don't see the results you might hope to see.
I just checked the handful of frozen meals in my freezer and they all have b/w 600-700 mg of sodium in them. I don’t have a medical condition causing me to limit sodium so I don’t particularly track it but I believe the standard recommendation is<2,500 mg per day so I’m struggling to see how these meals are “off the scale”.
was just going to post exactly this! just pulled my frozen meal box out of the garbage to check and it is 670mg or 28% of daily limit. while I'm sure there are ones out there that are closer to your daily limit, it certainly isn't the norm nor is it impossible to find ones with lower sodium.0
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