How to: Healthy Dinner from the Frozen Food Aisle

During colder months, the limited availability of fresh produce can lead us to rely more on canned, frozen, and prepackaged foods. But how can you continue to be health-conscious when choosing prepackaged products?

Below, our nutrition expert outlines tips for reading food labels and choosing nutritious foods during the winter.

Start with serving size

“When reading food labels, I always tell clients to start at the top with the serving size,” says Alicia Buterbaugh, a registered dietician, and certified diabetes educator. “Many people neglect to look at the serving size, which may be different from a person’s portion size. If the serving size is half a cup and someone eats a full cup, they need to double the information on the nutrition label.”

Consider daily values

Next, look at the Percent Daily Values of certain ingredients. In general, explains Alicia, five percent or less is a low amount of an ingredient, while 20 percent or more is considered high.

Try to ensure that you consume low amounts—less than 100 percent of the daily value—of these ingredients:

Fat: Keep saturated fat below 20 grams daily and trans fat as low as possible.

Cholesterol: Keep cholesterol intake under 300 milligrams per day.

Sodium: Keep sodium intake under 2,300 milligrams per day.

Notice added sugars

“Over the next couple of years, we’ll start to see labels listing grams of added sugar,” Alicia says. New guidelines from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration will require added sugar to be listed on nutrition labels by the end of January 2020. Some labels have already incorporated this change, while others are not listing it yet.

The American Heart Association recommends that men consume no more than 36 grams of added sugar daily and women no more than 25 grams. “Currently, it can be tricky because most food labels don’t differentiate between added and naturally occurring sugar,” Alicia says.

Look for keywords like dextrose, fructose, corn syrup, and sucrose, indicating that a food has more added sugar.

Check out nutrients

Take a look at the nutrients at the bottom of the food label, and choose foods that are higher—20 percent daily value or more—in these ingredients:

Vitamin D: Vitamin D helps with calcium absorption and bone strength and lowers the risk of osteoporosis.

Potassium: Adequate potassium intake can lower blood pressure, regulate water balance, and counteract the effects of sodium.

Calcium: Calcium is vital to heart, muscle, and nerve function and helps to build and maintain strong bones.

Iron: Iron is involved in transporting oxygen throughout the body and maintaining a healthy immune system.

Fiber: Soluble fiber can help lower “bad” cholesterol (LDL), and insoluble fiber helps with digestive regularity.

Quick tips

Fresh produce is best when choosing fruits and vegetables. In the absence of fresh produce, remember:

When choosing canned products, choose “unsweetened” fruit and “no salt added” veggies.
Watch for frozen vegetables with added sauces, as these can be high in sodium.
Be careful of frozen dinners, which can be very high in sodium and fat.