Frozen meals are a great go-to on days when you’re too tired or too busy to cook. However, not all frozen meals are created equal. With the sheer volume of options stocked in the frozen aisle, it’s hard to know how to differentiate nutritious options from the rest.
Frozen dinners get a bad rap — but some of them can be fine replacements for cooked meals. You just need to know what to look for. Pre-prepared foods often contain additives to help preserve and extend the shelf life of foods, according to Lyndsay Hall, a registered dietitian at JM Nutrition, a Canada-wide nutritional counselling service.
“Sodium is one common additive or preservative to watch out for,” she says. “It is almost guaranteed that a frozen meal will contain more sodium than a homemade meal. However, some options are certainly better than others.”
How to pick the healthiest frozen meals
Hall says to look out for meals that have the lowest sodium content possible, and keep in mind the fact that the average adult is advised to consume no more than 2,300 mg of sodium per day, according to Health Canada.
So if a frozen meal contained 1,000 mg of sodium, that’s nearly half your daily recommended amount. Hall looks for options with ideally 600 mg of sodium or less, and no more than 800 mg of sodium.
Balance is also important to keep in mind.
“I pay the closest attention to the balance of protein and carbohydrates,” Hall says. Consider whether the frozen meal contains a protein source, a carb source and a vegetable source. Many frozen meals only contain protein and carbs, with a small quantity of veggies. For this reason, Hall recommends serving a frozen vegetable or salad kit to the frozen meal to make it more balanced and satiating.
In order for a frozen meal to be satiating, Hall says look for options that have at least 15 to 20 grams of protein, and less than 50 to 60 grams of carbohydrates, if possible. “What’s more important to watch out for is if the meal contains mostly carbs and very little protein,” she said. “Those types of meals lack balance.”
Sauces can amp up a frozen dinner, but be wary of sugar and sodium. (Photo via Getty Images)
Sugar is another factor. Many frozen meals contain sauces with added sugar, particularly those with sweet chili sauce or teriyaki sauce, she says. Saturated fat is often correlated with high cholesterol, risk of heart disease, and inflammation, so Hall says “it pays to be mindful of our consumption of it and to limit intake of it where possible.”
She looks for frozen meals with 15 per cent of the daily value percentage (DV) of saturated fats or less.
And what about calories? Hall says that’s one of the last things she looks for — noting that the calorie content does not always dictate the nutrient content of a meal.
“I would put the caloric content of a frozen meal towards the end of the list of things I look for when comparing frozen meals,” Hall says.
However, some frozen meals can be quite calorie-dense, so Hall looks for meals with closer to 600 calories or less per serving.
With these guidelines in mind, here are 10 frozen meals that Hall would actually recommend .
10 best frozen dinners, according to a dietitianThe bottom line
Can truly nutritious options be found in the frozen aisle? Yes, Hall says, though some should be skipped based on the sodium, saturated fat and sugar content.
“There are some relatively nutritious options that you can find in the frozen section of the grocery store,” she said. “But you do have to be thoughtful about which options you choose and why.”
Based on this registered dietitian’s guidelines, if the frozen package has more than 1,000 mg of sodium, more than 15 per cent daily value for saturated fat, more than 10 grams of sugar and less than 5 grams of protein, it’s best to keep looking.
“[A meal over those guidelines] would not have very much to offer nutritionally,” Hall says. “Unfortunately, many frozen pasta, noodle dishes and pizzas would fall into this category.”
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