If we want to eat in the cleanest manner possible, arguably the best route to go is with fresh produce. With that being said, the obvious downside to fresh produce is their very limited shelf life. Frozen foods are a great alternative here as they have a longer shelf life, and usually require little to no preparation to make as well.
Frozen foods have been getting a bad reputation as of late, has these types of foods are generally thought of as ones which contain high amounts of preservatives as well as high amounts of fat, and consuming too much of these types of nutrients can be and detrimental to our health.
Although many of these frozen foods are in fact bad for our health, there are a few you should keep on hand for those days where you just don’t have the time or energy to prepare a fresh meal.
Rules to Follow When Buying Frozen Food
1. Check the Ingredients
The first thing you need to do when it comes to choosing a healthier frozen food option, is to take a look at the nutrition label. While virtually all but frozen foods are prepared with some type of preservative, some options are way better than others. Tried to minimize the amount of preservatives are eating in your meal as much as possible.
Other ingredients to look for are unnecessary additives such as things like hydrogenated oils, high for fructose corn syrup, another unnecessary ingredients which are generally considered to be not the best for our health.
2. Asses the Nutritional Profile
While you’re reading those ingredients on the label, you might as well take a look at the other attributes listed here as far as calories, sugar, and protein are concerned. You want to make sure that’s your meals here are going to be 500 calories at maximum, and contain at least 10 or more grams of protein.
It is important to remember that not only are the Corel calories of the meal important, but the breakdown of the profile of these nutrients as well. You’re much better off eating a meal that a 600 calories and has said a 20 g of protein, as opposed to eating a meal that has 500 calories which only contains 5 g of protein.
3. Make Modifications
Some of the healthiest foods out there which we can eat require little to no preparation, however on their own their kind of bland sands really aren’t that enticing of foods to eat on their own. This includes healthy foods such as beans, lagoons, another high fiber, high protein plant based foods.
Conversely another issue with many frozen foods is that they are lacking in fiber and protein, making pairing these two a good idea in an effort to supplement one’s diet with more fiber and protein.
These types of foods also very versatile and that they can be added to a variety of dishes, so keeping them handy in the pantry is a good idea so that you can add them to your frozen foods as you see fit.
