- Many frozen foods contain excessive amounts of sodium, sugar, and fat.
- Eating foods that are high in sodium can put you at risk of high blood pressure.
- Sugar-filled foods can make you hungry immediately after the sugar rush.
While the freezer is a truly necessary kitchen appliance that helps preserve food, it’s important to note that some frozen foods are best avoided to improve your overall health.
Below are some of those foods:
1. Frozen Pizza
If you keep some frozen pizzas in your freezer for those moments when you just can’t wait for the delivery guy, it’s time to toss them out. Frozen pizzas are packed with fat and sodium that can make you gain pounds. DiGiorno’s Croissant Crust Three Meat Pizza, for instance, contains 840 milligrams of sodium per serving. The American Heart Association recommends limiting sodium consumption to no more than 2,300 milligrams each day.
2. Peanut Butter Ice Cream
It’s common knowledge that ice cream isn’t healthy food. And the peanut butter ice cream is one flavor that you’d want to avoid in particular. Peanut butter ice cream often packs the most calories and sugar among all flavors. A pint of Ben & Jerry’s Peanut Butter Cup contains 1,400 calories, 96 grams of sugar, and 98 grams of fat.
A pint of Tillamook’s Double Nutty Peanut Butter ice cream contains more than 1,300 calories and 102 grams of fat, while Häagen-Dazs’ Peanut Butter Salted Fudge has the same calories as two McDonald’s Quarter Pounders with cheese.
3. Frozen Chicken Dinners
While frozen dinners are convenient, fried chicken-based frozen meals may be the worst option. Hungry-Man’s Double Chicken Bowl Boneless Fried Chicken meal, for example, comes with two fried chicken patties served with mac and cheese. The meal contains over 2,000 milligrams of sodium and 760 calories. Hungry-Man’s Golden Battered Chicken with Cheese Fries, which comes with a golden battered chicken and fries with cheese sauce, packs 1,620 milligrams of sodium.
Consuming high-sodium foods can make you gain weight and put you at risk for more serious health concerns, like hypertension.
4. Frozen Pies
Frozen pies may make dessert time easy and convenient, but making your own may be a better option because you’re in control of the ingredients. A slice of Sara Lee’s Lemon Meringue Crème Pie packs 51 grams of sugar, which is the same amount you get from 17 Oreo Thin Cookies.
5. Frozen Sandwiches
Frozen sandwiches that are ready in minutes, whether it’s a turnover style like a Hot Pocket or loaded with sausage and cheese with pancakes as the buns, can be dangerous. Take, for example, Buffalo Style Chicken Hot Pocket, which contains 1,170 milligrams of sodium per serving.
6. Frozen Pastries
You may have loved munching on a Toaster Strudel as a child, but it’s better to keep it a memory. These pastry convenience foods are sugar-filled foods without fiber that will cause an energy dip after the sugar rush, making you crave for food soon after. Also, eating too much added sugar can make you gain belly fat and increase your mortality risk from heart disease.