Source: Lean Cuisine Website
This weekend I was doing my dreaded chore of grocery shopping early on Sunday morning. It was a slower crowd than usual so I had more time to pay attention to other carts. This one passed me by with the bottom covered in Weight Watchers Smart Ones. Why do people still buy those things?!
As if on cue, one of the MSN headlines yesterday was an article on the six worst frozen diet foods. I was curious as to what they chose and clicked through to read. Interestingly it was one of those Eat This Not That articles so it listed a bad choice and an “eat this instead” choice.
The #6 options for dessert made sense. Frozen yogurt most times is sugar laden and no longer resembling yogurt in anything other than name. Their better choice wasn’t bad either and was pretty low in sugar. It was a good choice if you’re going to eat dessert.
I rolled on to #5 and almost laughed out loud. They swapped one Lean Cuisine meal for another. Their “good” choice was a 170 calorie beef and broccoli meal. Now if you scroll towards the top of the screen, you’ll notice that this was written for Men’s Health. I’ll go out on a limb and assume the majority of their target audiences are men.
What man is going to get full from a 170 meal? A tiny woman wouldn’t get full from that! If you err on the low side, a small meal should average around 300 – 400 calories. So let’s say we eat two of these lean bad boys for 340 calories of beefy broccoli joy. You’ll scarf down 1340 mg of sodium in the process.
I googled the ingredients and I noticed that it lists the calories as 270 (typo in the article?). Even if you eat just one, you’ll be getting seasoned cooked beef product. Yeah, I love me some beef product! Don’t you? Do beef products travel in herds? 😉
It doesn’t take much effort to buy a lean sirloin steak, slice it and saute it with fresh broccoli. You’ll be able to eat a ton more of it to fill you up, and you won’t get the sodium and beef products. In fact, 4 oz of lean sirloin steak is 210 calories and 8 oz of broccoli is 77 calories according to FitDay. Add a couple splashes of soy sauces, and it’s still at 300 for a plate load of yumminess.
Most of the other suggestions were just as bad and laden with sodium, preservatives, and other choices that could be better. Cooking with whole ingredients isn’t hard and doesn’t take a lot more time than ripping the top of a box off and using the microwave. I eat real meals for all but two meals a week.
For those other two, The Kid and I eat out and try to make healthy choices. What do you think of the good and bad options in the article? Do you eat frozen diet foods?
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