Could Microwave Meals Actually Be Good for You?

It’s been a long day at the office and the last thing you want to do is cook; we feel you. But before you order takeout, give yourself a minute to consider another option — a microwavable meal.

Long derided for being full of artificial preservatives and sodium, frozen meals have undergone a healthy renaissance in recent years. “Frozen meals have changed into integrating more whole grains and more superfoods, like kale, beans and lentils,” says Bethany Doerfler, RD, LDN, and a clinical research dietician at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago.

In fact, frozen dishes may be better for you than food you pick up, or even meals you cook at home. They often boast several hundred fewer calories than people normally consume during a standard meal due to their smaller portion sizes, according to Doerfler. But before you go grabbing just any boxed meal, get the scoop on how to pick the healthiest options in the freezer section, and which health-conscious brands you might want to try. 

“Ideally, food starch should be the last ingredient, or one of the last ingredients used.”

Your first order of business in the freezer aisle: Take a close look at the nutrition facts label before tossing anything into your cart. You’ll want to be especially careful to check the sodium levels and grams of saturated fat in your meal choice, to avoid accidentally introducing a bloat-inducing health don’t into your diet.  

“Get something under 600 to 700 milligrams of sodium,” Doerfler says. And when it comes to saturated fats, shoppers should look for a meal that contains no more than a few grams, if any at all.

Your next task is to find a meal containing the least amount of artificial ingredients.

One tip: Ingredients on nutrition labels are listed in order from greatest representation to least. Therefore, the first couple you see should be whole grains, vegetables or lean proteins, according to Doerfler. What you don’t want to find? Food starches. They’re often used to replace fat and provide texture in frozen dishes.  “Ideally, food starch should be the last ingredient, or one of the last ingredients used,” Doerfler says. “It’s not a dangerous food additive, but it’s [mostly empty calories]”

Finally, frozen meals are meant to last a long time —  a bonus when you find yourself coming home late after most stores have closed. But, some will contain compounds such as butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), which is used to prevent oils in foods from going bad over time. While the FDA has declared BHT safe for consumption, people should try to minimize consumption of preservatives like this one, when they can. “The less we can get away with things like BHT, artificial sweeteners or food starches, the better,” Doerfler says. “If you can, stick with simple, clean, whole food groups.”

RELATED: The Beginner’s Guide to Clean Eating

Tying to shed a few pounds? Frozen meals could be a great secret weapon to add to your arsenal.

A well-known study from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition followed 100 obese patients throughout a dietary intervention — half relied on conventional foods when dieting and the other half on portion-controlled meal replacements (primarily shakes, bars and soups). Over a two year period, the group using meal replacements lost more weight than the traditional diet group, and was better able to maintain that weight loss. “Hands down the biggest, most likely explanation [for these findings] is that the meals are portion and calorie controlled,” Doerfler says, which is why she recommends pre-packaged frozen foods to dieters as well.

Seek out meals that contain between 250 and 400 calories. For most people trying to lose weight, Doerfler advises consuming around 400 calories for lunch and approximately 500 calories for dinner. That means you can — and should — supplement lower-calorie frozen meals with fresh fruits and veggies, or healthy carbs like a baked potato, to ensure you’re consuming enough calories and nutrients to stay full until your next meal.

“None of our lunch or dinner options have more than four grams of sugar, which is a teaspoon.”

While old favorites like Healthy Choice are continuing to up the ante with their offerings, new brands such as Luvo are making waves with their innovative and delicious frozen meals that include entrees like Chicken Chile Verde or Kale Ricotta Ravioli.

Focused on healthy, natural ingredients, Luvo boasts a menu full of, “BHT-free meals, proteins raised without antibiotics, dairy raised without hormones, cage-free eggs, and non-GMO ingredients for the top six high-risk crops, including corn, soy and canola,” according to Samatha Cassetty, RD, Luvo’s director of nutrition.

Each Luvo meal is cooked en papillote — it’s prepackaged in a paper bag, not a plastic container — ensuring that chicken doesn’t get rubbery and noodles remain al dente when microwaved. “None of our meals have more than 500 milligrams of sodium, and, barring one exception, none of our lunch or dinner options have more than four grams of added sugar, which is a teaspoon,” Cassetty says. To put this in context, the American Heart Association recommends consuming no more than six teaspoons of sugar per day for women, and nine teaspoons per day for men.

Healthy Choice is also making strides in satisfying customer demand for better-for-you foods. They recently unveiled a line of gluten-free meals adhering to the FDA’s new rules for g-free products. The name Healthy Choice requires the company to adhere to certain standards, as “healthy” is an FDA regulated term. “Each of the foods has to be low in fat, low in saturated fat, controlled in sodium, controlled in cholesterol and have at least three positive vitamins and minerals,” says Kristin Reimers, PhD, RD and director of nutrition at ConAgra, Healthy Choice’s parent company. 

Doerfler also recommends Artisan Bistro meals, noting that they often contain well under 500 mg of sodium per serving. And she applauds Amy’s Light & Lean line of foods for being low in fat and calories, as well as for providing ample choices for vegetarians and people with food allergies. Their meal options range from Roasted Polenta to Quinoa & Black Beans with Butternut Squash & Chard.

Chosen carefully, frozen meals “are absolutely a part of a healthy diet,” according to Doerfler. So next time you’re too wiped out to cook, hit up the freezer aisle rather than your local fast food joint.

Do you enjoy microwave meals? Tell us your favorite brands in the comments section. 

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Hate Breakfast? Why Research Says That’s Actually OK

The first meal of the day can have a very different meaning for different people. For some, it’s grabbing a granola bar to nibble on during the morning commute; for others, it includes a big omelet with a cup of coffee at home; and then there are the millions who forego grub in the a.m. altogether.

But how do these morning behaviors really affect weight loss, energy levels and appetite throughout the day? In order to help you crack the breakfast code, we tracked down the latest research, in addition to insights from Katherine Zeratsky, R.D., a nutrition instructor at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. Before you do — or don’t — dig in, here’s a reality check on the biggest breakfast myths.

RELATED: 10 Unexpected Omelet Recipes for Any Time of Day

Reality: Munching in the morning doesn’t have a direct effect on dropping pounds.

A recent study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that when people are trying to lose weight, it doesn’t matter if they devour a dish first thing after waking up or if they skip it altogether. The researchers assigned more than 300 overweight and obese (but otherwise healthy) individuals, ages 20 to 65, to either the control group (that continued with eating habits per usual), a group that was told to eat breakfast or a group that was instructed to miss the meal. After tracking their weight for 16 weeks, the scientists found that those who grabbed a bite in the morning didn’t lose any more weight than those who omitted a.m. snacks.

But take this finding with a grain of salt (maybe over some oatmeal). “Though our study suggests breakfast may not be key to weight loss, we only examined a general recommendation of eating versus skipping,” says Emily Dhurandhar, Ph.D., assistant professor at the Department of Health Behavior at the University of Alabama Birmingham and a lead author of the study. “Specific foods and timing may help,” so if weight loss is the goal, consult with a nutritionist or doctor to determine your best course of action.

Reality: Sure, you should lay off the sweet stuff, but not necessarily the cereal itself.

Lucky Charms, Cocoa Puffs and Fruity Pebbles may taste delicious, but they aren’t packing a nutrient punch. That’s not to say that other cereals on the market can’t be a part of a healthy, balanced diet. In fact, an Advances in Nutrition study found that whole-grain cereal can lower cholesterol (the soluble fiber prevents re-absorption of the substance in the gut). These slow-digesting carbs can also improve bowel function (the fiber content softens stool and promotes good-for-you bacteria in the digestive system), and help maintain a healthy weight.

The best choices when searching the shelves? Oat and barley mixes work best for those keeping an eye on cholesterol levels, and wheat bran is ideal for those with gut problems, says Peter Williams, Ph.D., honorary professorial fellow at the University of Wollongong in Australia and one of the study’s researchers. Williams suggests portion sizes of about one-third to one-half cup of a heavy cereal, like muesli, or one cup of a light cereal, such as puffed grains.

Reality: Food will increase your energy; just consider your activity of choice.

As for whether a morning meal will help you power through a workout, the answer is most likely. Research from the University of Bath in the United Kingdom found that those who ate breakfast had higher energy expenditure in daily physical activity over a six-week period, compared to those who fasted until noon. The study authors suspect that this effect can occur on any given day breakfast is eaten (discounting a long-term effect), because the improvement in energy levels was apparent from week one, says James Betts, Ph.D., research scientist and senior lecturer in the Department of Health at the University of Bath and lead author on the study.

Betts and his team also found high glucose levels in the breakfast-eating group, which signals to the brain and central nervous system that there’s energy available and motivates you to move. “You may realize the quality of your physical performance that day is not critical, say if you’re performing simple housework, so you opt for skipping breakfast to take advantage of the negative energy balance,” explains Betts. “Or you may decide that you need breakfast to support your energy needs and perform to the best of your ability.” Either way, breakfast can help support an active lifestyle.

Reality: It’s not guaranteed to reduce calorie intake in the afternoon, but eating in the morning does release chemicals to the brain and can also steady glucose levels throughout the day.

A new study just released from the University of Missouri found that having breakfast, particularly dishes high in protein, increased young adults’ levels of dopamine (a brain chemical responsible for moderating impulses and reward), which may reduce food cravings and overeating later in the day. Eating initiates a release of this neurohormone, which then triggers feelings of reward, explains Heather Leidy, an assistant professor of nutrition and exercise physiology at the University of Missouri and author of the study. That reward response, Leidy adds, is what helps people regulate how much they chow down.

If someone has eaten three meals in a given day and they’re still munching in the evening, that usually due to reasons other than hunger, like convenience, boredom, stress, or a reward, says Zeratsky. But that doesn’t necessarily mean eating breakfast will stave off late-night cravings. The above-mentioned University of Bath study found that having breakfast didn’t suppress caloric intake later in the day but that it did, however, regulate glucose levels in the afternoon and evening. The benefits: “More variable glucose levels can indicate a poorer diet or a more unsteady metabolism,” says Betts. “And chronic inflammation from the body’s excess exposure to glucose can lead to issues like diabetes or cardiovascular disease.” So while breakfast might not help you cut back on calories, it may cut disease risk.

RELATED: 7 Ways to Stop Unhealthy Food Cravings

Reality: It’s less about one meal than it is about what you over the course of the day.

According to the above recent research, weight loss isn’t necessarily tied to breakfast habits. It comes down to calories instead. “It’s the total number [of calories] that matters, whether you divide that into two meals or six,” says Zeratsky. But again, that doesn’t give you a free pass to skip breakfast every day. Having some foods to start out the day can promote a nutrient-rich diet overall, Zeratsky says.

Her go-to power meals: “energy foods,” including fruits and whole grains and “hunger-controlling” foods, like milk, yogurt, or eggs. If you are working out in the early a.m., opt for something smaller (particularly if you have a sensitive stomach), such as a banana or whole-grain bread with peanut butter or honey. If you do choose to eat early in the day, be sure it’s something healthy that will do your body good.

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