These high fat/sodium meals have been around since the 50’s. I was wondering if there has been any studies of people eating this stuff for lunch and dinner for a year or two (with an occasional fruit or veggie). Of course hypertenstion and heart disease usually comes from high fat and sodium food, but what about the preservatives and unnatural (partially hydrogenated) fat?
I guess my real question is: what kind of long term affect does preservatives have on the human body?
Dunno what happens to you in life, but I’ve heard that the preservatives in food has led to slower decay of human bodies.
I’d imagine that you probably could survive eating nothing but TV dinners (assuming the monotony didn’t kill you outright) but I don’t think you’d be very healthy. Eventually, the buildup of all of that guck would probably lead to heart failure.
I guess one would soon develop scurvy and other diseases associated with lack of vitamins.
Jeez, Spark, I’ve been around since the 50’s, and I’ve never thought of TV dinners as “food.”
It’s more like, “Wow, my gut is empty, but I really don’t feel like preparing any real food. I’ll just pop a TV dinner in the oven! It won’t nourish or sustain me in any significant way, but it’ll make my belly stop growling!”
I don’t know why fortune smiles on some and lets the rest go free…
T
When was the last time you guys walked past the frozen food case? The selection of “TV dinners” has changed since the 50’s. If you didn’t mind paying 300% more for your food, you could manage a very healthy diet from the frozen isle. Much better than you would fare if you tried to subsist on the canned section.
I agree. “Healthy Choice” offers some very tasty meals that are nutritionally balanced. I recommend the glazed chicken with carrots. To be labeled “healthy” they have to be low in fat and calories and sodium.
BTW, there was a nutritionist on Oprah or somewhere that said parents shouldn’t feel guilty about buying Happy Meals for their kids twice a month or so. She said they were suprisingly nutritious, even though they were way too high in sodium and calories. As long as your child is a healthy weight, they’re not THAT bad.
Go figure.
I’ll third that. I eat TV dinners all the time. They’re convenient to bring into work and cook when I get a chance to eat. Unless you’re buying the bottom line 99 cent specials, they’re pretty good. I don’t think scurvy or other vitamin defiencies are going to kill me any time too soon. TV dinners invariably have vegetables and many have fruit as well. Personally, I think what could be unhealthy for a steady diet would be eating all your meals at MacDonalds or Burger King. When’s the last time you saw a vegetable other than a french fry or a ketchup packet in one of those places?
Yeah, I have to agree, they have changed since th 50’s. They are full of everything you need & you can get very low fat ones. Even some weight watchers meals, for example.
The biggest change is self-rising pizza. You put it in a cold oven, stuff bakes & the taste is great, the price is considerably LESS too.
Onions, pickles, lettuce and tomatoes on sandwiches. Also, some of them sell salads.
Do people really count french fries as a vegetable? I count them as a greasy snack, same as potato chips. If french fries are a legitimate vegetable, can I start counting my potato chips as a vegetable, too?
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I bought some TV dinners the other day that looked good and were on sale. I got a lot of different kinds; some labeled as “healthy”, some not labeled.
The other night when I came home my son had decided to fix himself one of the non-“healthy” label dinners and had left the box sitting on the stove. I picked it up and looked at the nutrition information (yeah, I should have done this in the store, but I was in a hurry). 70% of the saturated fat allowance, and some ridiculous amount of sodium (50% or thereabouts).
My son is skinny anyway (high metabolism), so it’s not like it’s going to hurt him, but I was amazed at how high the fat content actually was compared to the 15-20% of the “healthy” dishes… and even those tend to be higher in sodium than they probably should be.
Also, those little snack packages with meat, cheese, and crackers that say “98% Fat Free” on the label? That applies to the meat ONLY. If you want to eat the cheese too, figure you’re getting AT LEAST half your daily allotment of saturated fat per pack.
Yes, you could live off of them, but not very well. The current selections have low fat, low salt along with the regular stuff.
The pasta dinners, after a while, all taste the same. Nothing like nuked cardboard! The Chinese ones start tasting the same instantly, no matter which one you take. Switch to Mexican and you get the delightful flavor of cardboard burritos or whatever and the fillings all taste like they were fixed about two years ago. (If they actually come from Mexico, they probably were. Plus no doubt contain a real healthy dose of DDT.)
The diet ones are basically pasta with additives. After eating a bunch of them your taste buds get ready to suicide.
The regular ones vary in flavor, best – in my opinion – is the turkey and dressing, then the Salisbury steak, followed by roast beef, beef tips, chopped steak, and lastly, breaded chicken. Chicken does not seem to do well in TV dinners. Then again, I never have been fond of reheated chicken in any form, noticing that the flavor changes if it is cooked and then allowed to set for a day or more in the cooler. Avoid the pasta meals also. The Ravioli turns into pasty cardboard which the addition of new sauce cannot help.
Anyone trying to live off of those things had best take daily dosages of vitamin B, E, C and A. It would be like trying to live off that Chef Boyardee crap. (Paste in a can.)
I’m a bachelor. I know. I had to learn how to cook out of self defense – and do a pretty damn good job of it I might say – because I ate my way through almost all of the TV dinners, Chef Boyardee, canned spaghetti, ravioli, spaghetti-O’s (Mistake there), frozen Chinese dinners and even those canned Mexican things like beans wrapped in corn husks. Spam became a welcome favorite.
Then, I am ashamed to say, I ate those frozen hamburgers, sandwiches, hot dogs, and sausage-in-a-biscuit things. (Heartburn city) I even bought the BBQ in a BUCKET and no amount of doctoring up could improve it. (Dogs liked it.)
If you want to get a reasonably well balanced, easy, tasty meal, get a Publix all-the-way sub sandwich. Delicious!
Or, do as I do from time to time. I saved TV dinner trays and sometimes I cook up a bunch of stuff, reload the trays and freeze them. My own TV dinners are far better than the store bought stuff.
Actually, aside from the low fat, etc. dinners that everyone seems to be pushing, which are totally fine too, you can live on T.V. dinners. They have protein, veggies, and even a dessert!. Even if they’re not too healthy. It’s a more balanced meal than our forefathers ate for who knows how long, and they managed to live AND procreate. Please, no pontification about how they died early. Or else we have to go into disease, hygiene, etc. Which isn’t really the point.
Many of the ‘low fat’ dinners aren’t really that low in fat. You have to be careful. It’s like ‘light’ olive oil; I know people who honestly think it’s lower in calories than regular olive oil because of that one word. (It even says on the label that it’s called ‘light’ because it’s light in taste and colour, but they still assume the government is protecting them. Ha.)
maybe I’m insane, ill or both, but I get the “light” type frozen meals (Usually Weight Watchers’ Smart Ones or lean Cuisine) and I think some of them aren’t that bad. I esp like the Smart Ones “Penne Pollo” which is penne, broccoli, tomato and some grilled chicken in garlic/mustardy sort of sauce. 6g of fat, which I think is reasonable. In terms of balance, you got yer complex carbs, protein, fiber all right there.
Some of them are pretty “blah” though, or have odd textures. You have to experiement to find the “good ones.”
This is somewhat on topic. Why do non-healthy frozen entrees have so much sodium in them ?
Because people like salt. Salt tastes good. If there’s not enough salt in it, it would taste “bland” and you wouldn’t buy it anymore.
Why does salt taste good? Beats the heck out of me.
sentinel . . great idea! . . im single, i try to make dinner twice a week with a lot of leftovers . . instead of eating the same thing 3 nights in a row . . i could save half to “tv dinners” . . thanks!
I’m just upset they stopped making Tyson TV dinners. They were great. Chicken Picatta mmmm.
I have to agree with Torq, I tried some “low sodium” soup once. Damn stuff needed salt.
Sentinel, you enjoyed Spam, and you’re complaining about TV dinners?
I eat them all the time. Pick the ones I like, and that’s not all I eat, but I still eat them fairly often. I’m not dead - I exercise regularly, have great blood pressure, and cholesteral levels are good.
I happen to like the chicken. Lately it’s been Marie Calendar’s.