Sugar Turned On Me

One of the things that makes modern culture possible is refrigeration. While I’m more a fan of fresh food, frozen food is undeniably a good thing. Its the reason we can experience the variety of foods that we can while they are out of season and why many foods are accessible to the mass market that were not in other centuries.

Today I went looking for something for dinner tonight, as I’m not going to be at home but will have access to a microwave. The problem I ran into is that frozen food tends not to be the most diabetic friendly. Frozen entrees often lose their flavor in the process, at least in my experience. Manufacturers  seem to counteract this by adding strong flavors to the foods. The easiest flavor to add is sweetness.

While it’s not specifically an issue for diabetics so much as humans, there’s a lot preservatives in most frozen foods as well.

But I promised you a list, so the things I try to remember when in the freezer aisle are:

1. Read labels. Check for high sodium and high fructose corn syrup.
2. Don’t believe the picture on the box. Food stylists are paid a great deal to make food look good.
3. Check the portion size.  The size of the box isn’t always a good indicator how filling the meal will be.
4. Sauces. A lot of vegteables will come in a cheese sauce or some sort of glaze. This will turn the most basic of foods into additional carbs.
5. Entrees trump TV dinners. Multiple items in one package usually mean they skimp on quality on some of them. Stick to packages that just have one item in them.

The good thing is that frozen dinner makers now cater to the Atkins and diet crowds, which usually means I can find something good.  Convienient doesn’t have to mean bad these days. But getting a frozen dinner means you’ve let someone else cook dinner for you, and as Alton Brown once said, be wary of anyone making you food who you wouldn’t be willing to hug.

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