The Worst: Banquet Mexican Style Enchilada Combo Meal
This meal has a surprising amount of hydrolyzed soy protein (a hidden source of MSG), which means while you think you're eating beef, much of it is really meat-flavored soy.
Instead, try O Organics Organic Black Bean Enchiladas, which has no saturated fat or cholesterol, more than twice the protein than you'll find in Banquet's frozen meal, and is USDA certified organic to boot. True, it's not beef, but hey, you really weren't getting that with the Banquet meal anyway.
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The Worst: Hungry-Man Bourbon Steak Strips
Not even the hungriest man (or woman) should touch this meal: With 9 g of saturated fat and an obscene amount of sodium (1,720 mg, which is 72 percent of the recommended daily intake!), it's a fat and salt bomb that'll do a number on your insides.
"Stick to frozen food options that have 600 mg of sodium or less per serving," says Cipullo. "Otherwise you're bound to go over the recommended daily value that's between 1,500 and 2,300 mg." The healthier option: Blake's Organic Macaroni and Beef, which has 404 mg of sodium and an all-organic ingredient list.
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The Worst: Buitoni's Four Cheese Spinach Ravioli
Buitoni does the unforgivable when it comes to single-serve meals: Each one has two servings per container, which is terribly misleading. After all, who's going to eat half a measly little frozen entrée?
In this case, the double serving means this ravioli dish has a whopping 42 g of fat, 200 mg of cholesterol (66 percent of the daily value), and 1,872 mg of sodium (78 percent of the daily value).
A better bet? Candle Cafe's Vegan Tofu Spinach Ravioli, which has zero cholesterol and uses tapioca cheese, an ingredient that sounds suspect but tastes exactly like the real stuff and is much better for you.
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The Worst: El Monterey Beef & Bean Green Chili Burrito
Most frozen burritos we checked out hovered around 10 g of fat and 700 mg of sodium (around 30 percent of the daily recommended intake).
El Monterey wins the unhealthiest award due mostly to the very long ingredient list. But even the brands with less junk in them, like Amy's and EVOL, don't get Cipullo's stamp of approval.
If you must indulge, EVOL's Mini Chicken Bean & Rice Burrito is what you should reach for. It's got all the goodness of EVOL's all-natural ingredients, but in a more manageable size, with a third of the calories and less than half the fat and sodium than its larger-portioned counterparts have.
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The Worst: Bertolli Tuscan Style Beef & Vegetables Soup
Most packaged soups are amazingly high in sodium, but Bertolli's takes it to a new level with 1,110 mg of the salty stuff, almost half of the recommended daily intake. What's more, this frozen meal is loaded with 20 g of fat and 7 g of saturated fat.
A standout alternative for less salty broth is Kettle Cuisine's Angus Beef Steak Chili with Beans. It has only 540 mg of sodium, plus twice the fiber and five more grams of protein than Bertolli's. (For even less sodium, try a veggie soup.)
Take a stroll down the frozen food aisle at your local grocery store and you'll be surrounded by boxes with dishes that look deceptively appetizing (hello Photoshop) -- and have tempting labels like "low fat," "light," and "high protein." But are any of these "healthy" frozen dinners actually good for you?
As a smart shopper, you've hopefully learned to take all product packaging with a sizeable grain of salt, but frozen meals in particular can trip you up with misleading labels and hidden health horrors. "Most frozen meals are high in sugar and sodium, contain tons of preservatives, and don't have much to offer in terms of fruits, vegetables, or fiber," says Laura Cipullo, a registered dietician and certified diabetes instructor in New York City.
While that news is a bit depressing for all of us too time-crunched to do more than pop a frozen dinner in the microwave, there is some hope. For every chemical-laden, fat-filled meal out there, there is a comparable option with better ingredients, less fat, and even a few veggies thrown in for good measure. Check out this list of the 10 worst frozen food offenders, along with healthier frozen dinners that still taste delicious.
