Help! Is this unhealthy or not?

[isthisbad1]

Usually I prefer to batch cook but for all sorts of reasons (space, time, effort!) it just hasn’t been the easiest to do recently.

I’ve always heard so many negative things about ready meals and how unhealthy and rubbish they are and it’s skewed my perception of it. I recently bought some fresh ready meals from Morrison’s (it was from a low calorie, ‘healthy’ range of fresh ready meals) and so far it’s been great. It’s quick, simple, and has actually given me the chance to try different meals that otherwise I wouldn’t have made or tried myself (I’m normally a fussy eater). It’s just easier so round to be honest

but growing up and at school it was always drilled into us that ready meals are terrible and unhealthy and lazy in a way. Of course it’s better to cook from scratch but my work is so, so busy at the moment it’s just not always practical and sometimes it’s just easier to stick something in the oven or microwave.

as long as you pick a ready meal with good quality contents (or as best as you can), with fruit and veg and good quality meat or fish, is it that bad really for say 5 days a week? Or is it better to try and find the time to always batch cook?

sorry just need some perspective on it all. And if anyone has any healthy or good quality ready meal recommendations I would really appreciate it!

Can you take a photo of the ingredients and nutritional values? It's hard to know without this.

I’ve binned the packet from tonight but I’ll find it on the Morrison’s website and post it, thank you! I should have said, I’m not specifically bothered about sticking with these ready meals and i would change to something else if better, these just happen to be the ones that i tried and liked so far 😎

typically high in sugar and salt arent they?

Have you considered a meal planning services cr? Lots of my friends use them; they are home cooked meals you buy and then cook at home. They have the macros and everything calculated, and are generally “healthy”

Of course home cooked is healthier, but it’s not necessarily a black and white situation of one being good and everything else being bad. Stress is also bad for you, and it sounds like cooking a meal every night night cause you more stress.

There's not enough veg in them for me. The portions are very small compared to my home cooked meals, although the calories are similar. Bulking out with veg is more satisfying, but defeats the object of convenience.

They tend to have lots of sugar and salt in and not enough veg.

They are ultra processed foods which are generally thought to be very bad for you. Higher in salt and sugar than home cooked food. And then there are the emulsifiers, preservatives and god knows what else.

I think it is good that you are trying out different meals by using these for the moment, if there are particular ones that you really like, maybe you could have a look for a recipe online and batch cook a couple, so a curry or a pasta sauce ?
I cook loads of pasta and freeze it in portions so it only takes a couple of minutes to cook for the children, sauce also only takes a couple of minutes to heat through.
Veg in the steamer in the microwave, again a few minutes.

I think they are ok once in a while - but not too often due to the salt content plus other ingredients that probably aren’t great. I am not a ready meal fan to be honest. I’ve got quite a few meals that don’t take too long to cook mid week after work so don’t ever buy any apart from an odd one from M&S as I’ve found they are the best but still not brilliant

Not all ready meals were created equal! It depends on what you get and what the rest of your diet looks like. I think if you can afford to by good quality meals and balance them so you still meet nutritional guidelines then do what ever works for you.

If buying ready prepared food I look for items where I recognise the listed ingredients. If the ingredients list is made up of produce fair play. If it's a list of chemicals and numbers, I'd swerve it.

Personally Id just prefer to eat really simple food. Poached eggs on toast, spinach and mushroom omelette, jacket potato with tuna and salad, baked fish of chicken with a few herbs and spice and veg. But do what works for you.

I don't think that pre-prepared meals are a good idea 5 days a week, because of the salt/sugar content.

But if you have to, I'd bulk them out with plenty of veg as a side dish and maybe have some yogurt or an apple for desert.

Cooking your own food is always going to be healthier than eating ultra processed food and I certainly wouldn't be eating them every day if you can avoid it. If you're going to have them though then I'd have them with a salad (to avoid having to cook more veg but also getting something fresh with it).

Is it not really expensive though to buy the healthy ones and do you not just find yourself hungry afterwards?

You freeze pasta? It only takes 10 minutes to boil anyway.

Ready meals tend to be unnecessarily high in sugar and salt. They also tend to be very carb heavy because carbs are so cheap. They’re highly unlikely to have enough veg in them. Low calorie doesn’t mean it’s healthy - a low calorie ready meal usually just means that it’s smaller.

@saveforthat I freeze lots of stuff, not polar bear livers though, very toxic apparently

Just check the ingredients like you would for anything else, but lots of them aren’t bad these days - Waitrose, M n S and Cook especially.

I go through bouts of using them quite a lot and I am fine! Just add veg.

Not all of them. That was 30 years ago.