ASK LARA: Are Lean Cuisines a Healthy Choice?
Posted August 25th, 2007 at 5:22 PM by Lara Johnson
Section: Nutrition, Healthy Eating, Columns, Ask Lara
Need advice? Injured? Confused? Overwhelmed? Bored? ASK LARA!
ASK LARA is a free advice column to help you with all of your running, fitness and nutrition inquiries. To ASK LARA — simply fill out the form at the conclusion of the column.
Q. Are Lean Cuisines a healthy source of nutrients for daily meals? Sometimes 2 or more?
~Lean and Mean from Connecticut
A. It depends on what you are using as a means for comparison. In my opinion, it is always best to go with fresh foods (vegetables, grains, fruits, and protein sources), and to steer clear of ready-made products. From this standpoint, frozen entrees are not the healthiest choice due to the preservatives found in such products. However, if your alternatives are fried foods and twinkies, Lean Cuisines are a much better choice. In any case, in the world of frozen foods, it’s best to know what to watch out for.
Although I have not had much experience with Lean Cuisine meals and entrees, I hope I can steer you in the right nutritional direction. In my investigation of this product, Lean Cuisine pleasantly surprised me. The website contains nutritional facts, tools, and the opportunity to receive advice from a nutritionist. Although they present a commitment to health and nutrition, do their products stand strong?
Overall, Lean Cuisine meals tend to be low in fat and calories. However, to make up for the reduced fat, processed foods often have to rely on sodium for flavor-enhancement. Lean Cuisine selections contain between 340 and 700mg sodium per serving, which is 14-29% of recommended daily value. They also boast vegetables that are flash frozen to preserve nutrients and flavor. While it’s true that freezing can preserve nutritional value, just be aware that not all of the meals contain vitamin-rich veggies. Lean Cuisine’s Spa Cuisine varieties appear to be the most nutrient-dense options due to the use of 100% whole grains and boasting “twice the veggies.” To view nutrition content, see calorie-count, a very useful tool which lists all of Lean Cuisine’s meals, displaying the nutrition label, as well as calorie and daily value breakdown. Each meal receives a letter grade based on its nutritional analysis.
Although Lean Cuisines are better than many frozen meals, they are still subject to processing. In these and other frozen foods, watch out for high sodium content, corn syrup and other sweeteners, and excessive food dyes. Also, most of the meals seem skimpy on the vegetables, your best bet for vitamins and minerals. All of the meals are different, so make good choices when selecting among them.
In general, if you can’t eat fresh food, you could do a lot worse than Lean Cuisine. However, like all convenience foods, it’s best not to live off of them. Variety is the key to good nutrition. I suggest you:
Research sources and for more information: [WebMD]
—— —— —— —— ——
Lara Johnson holds her M.S. in Health and Exercise Science from Wake Forest University, and is a certified Exercise Specialist from the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM). A clinical researcher and personal trainer, Lara works hard and plays harder, competing in events from the mile to the marathon as a member of the Boston Athletic Association (BAA).
Lara advocates exercise as the best prevention for disease and disability. She enjoys a training plan that focuses on running and that is complemented with speed-work, strength training, sound nutrition, cross training, and injury prevention.
Have a question? Please feel free to ASK LARA and TheFinalSprint.com’s team of experts by submitting your question via the form below.
Tags: food, food label, healthy eating, Healthy Fast and Cheap, nutrients, nutrition tips, nutritional label, vegetables
Like what you see? Subscribe to our feed!
The Final Sprint
[…] article continues at Lara Johnson brought to you by diet.medtrials.info and conSALSITA […]
August 25th, 2007 at 5:32 pm[…] West Nile Virus ASK LARA: Are Lean Cuisines a Healthy Choice? » This Summary is from an article posted at The Final Sprint (TFS) | The Internet’s Premier Running, Fitness, and Nutrition Publication on Saturday, August 25, 2007 This article’s contents are copywritten by the author of The Final Sprint (TFS) | The Internet’s Premier Running, Fitness, and Nutrition Publication. Please click "View Original Article…" below to view the article. Summary Provided by Technorati.comView Original Article at The Final Sprint (TFS) | The Internet’s Premier Running, Fitness, and Nutrition Publication » 10 Most Recent News Articles About Cholesterol […]
August 25th, 2007 at 8:29 pmHey yeah thats what I do. I add my own veggies to frozen stuff. The Frechetta ultrathin supreme pizzas for example are fantastic if you chop up more peppers and onions and add them on top.
February 20th, 2008 at 12:16 pmIt’s so nice to get a straight answer when I look something up. Thanks , you have a great website, it’s very helpful. Thanks again!
October 13th, 2009 at 10:45 am