Healthy Food Choices: Frozen Entrees

Frozen entrees have a bad reputation, but some are becoming healthy alternatives to other meals. Try these tips for buying frozen entrees in this healthy shopping video.

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Convenience
Not all commercial products are unhealthy
Always read food label
Choose lower fat & sodium options
Complement frozen meals with fresh produce

About this Author

Michelle Cooper has been a registered dietician for more than 10 years. She currently works for the state of North Carolina for the New Hanover County School District in the Child Nutrition Department as the supervising registered dietician on staff. She specializes in child nutrition, child fitness and overall child health. She enjoys her job because it allows her to be a pivotal piece of child development.

MICHELLE COOPER: Next we're going to talk about frozen entrees. In today's fast-paced society, there are going to be times often when you don't have time to prepare a dinner made from scratch or made with fresh vegetables, produce, lean meats, whatever. You may have to grab a frozen entree. Not all frozen entrees are bad but most of the commercial products tend to be high in sodium, high in calories and high in fat. The best advice I can give you is to read the label, try to find one that has a lower sodium content and a lower fat content. Unfortunately, the serving sizes to these frozen entrees tends to be a little bit on the small size, so what you're probably going to want to do is find a side that will go with it. For example, if you decide to have one of the frozen pizzas seen here behind me, why don't you make a little, fresh garden salad to go along with that? If you don't have time to make a fresh garden salad, have a little bag of frozen broccoli on hand that you can just steam up a cup of. That way you're getting extra calories but not from fat and you're getting some of the more healthy vitamins and nutrients that you need. So it's okay every now and then to have a frozen entree. In fact, some people when they're by themselves don't want to cook for just one so it's a good, viable alternative, just make sure you read the food label and throw along something healthy to go with it, either a toss salad, a half a cup of steamed broccoli or maybe a fruit serving, and that will go a long way to making your frozen entree even more nutritious.

Healthy Food Choices: Frozen Entrees Video

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