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In this day and age where schedules seem busier than ever, finding time to cook a full meal at home can be a challenge. Takeout, the local drive-thru, or pre-made meals can often become go-to strategies for people short on time.
But when it comes to nutrition, these quick meal solutions may not always support your health. One of the reasons is that many of these meals are high in sodium.
For most people, and especially for people with heart disease, being mindful of sodium intake is pretty important. Managing how much sodium you’re taking in each day can help reduce the risk for high blood pressure, extra fluid retention, and other complications that can occur in your heart and vascular system.
That brings us to a key question—if you need to cut down on your sodium intake but you’re also short on time, can you use frozen meals instead of restaurant food?
The answer is yes, but as long as you keep a few key points in mind. In this post, we’ll cover how to find low sodium frozen meals that can support a healthy heart and vascular system.
Quick disclaimer—although I am a registered dietitian nutritionist, your reading of this or any articles on this website does not constitute medical nutrition therapy advice nor create a practitioner-client relationship. The information I provide here on this website is for educational and informational purposes only. Please see my full disclaimer for more information.
Sodium and Heart Health
Before we discuss how to choose frozen meals, let’s first take a look at why managing your sodium intake matters.
Where Is Sodium Found?
Sodium is found both in salt and in other preservative and flavoring agents in our food today. Although a food may not taste salty, it can still contain hidden sodium.1
What Are the Effects of Too Much Sodium?
Taking in too much sodium on a daily basis has been noticeably associated with higher blood pressure readings, based on the research we have today.2
High blood pressure can lead to increased pressure on the heart and other blood vessels, even in the kidneys. That increased pressure can cause strokes or kidney failure,3 which I saw often while I worked in the hospital.
Extra sodium can also hold on to more water in your body (fluid retention). People with heart failure, whose hearts often don’t pump as well, can often end up holding a lot of extra fluid and need to be hospitalized to get that fluid out of their bodies.
This is why for most people with heart disease, or people at risk for it, watching sodium intake can help prevent further issues in the future.
How Much Sodium Should You Have Per Day?
What does watching sodium intake look like? The American Heart Association tells us that 1500 milligrams (mg) per day is a reasonable amount for many people.4
But not everyone is quite ready to go that low. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans suggest aiming for 2300 mg per day,5 which actually is much lower than many Americans’ estimated daily intake of 3500 mg.4
So all things considered, choosing lower sodium meals can be a great strategy to help protect your heart and overall health.
How to Choose Low Sodium Frozen Meals
Now that we’ve discussed why choosing lower sodium meal options is helpful to your heart, let’s move on to how to do this when you’re selecting frozen meals.
Check Serving Sizes
A first key point to make is that the serving size of a meal is important when you’re trying to determine if the amount of sodium it contains is right for you.
While many frozen meals are single-serve, others are not. It can sometimes be difficult to tell when you look at the packaging.
Looking at the nutrition facts label can help you determine if the package contains one serving or multiple servings. You will usually find this information in the “serving size” and “servings per container” lines.
Knowing the number of servings in the package can help you decide if that serving will feel satisfying enough or if you need to find a more filling type of meal.
Furthermore, if you buy a meal with multiple servings and plan to eat more than one serving, you’ll need to remember that you’ll also be taking in more sodium that way. The packaging may tell you how much sodium is in more than one serving; but it doesn’t always.
Then how exactly can you determine how much sodium is enough or too much? Read on.
Determine the Sodium Content
After you’ve checked the serving size, move on to the line that says “sodium.” This line will generally tell you how much sodium is in one serving of the item you’re choosing.
If your package contains more than one serving, the amount of sodium in more than one serving may not be shown on the package (although in some cases it may be).
Once you’ve found that line, your next question might be: how do I know what the right amount of sodium per serving should be? Let’s explore this a bit.
General Meal Amount Recommendations
A general recommendation I often share with patients is to aim for around 600 mg or less of sodium per meal as a starting point.
If you generally eat about 3 meals per day, 600 mg per meal on average adds up to around 1800 mg per day. About 1800 mg of sodium per day fits well within the recommended daily range of 1500-2300 mg.
Therefore, if you plan to eat only that single frozen entree during your meal time, you should be fine.
However, if your meal comes with more than one serving and you plan to eat more than one serving, consider looking for a lower sodium amount per serving of closer to 200-300 mg to keep things balanced.
Adding Other Components
A second recommendation I share with patients is that what you plan to have with your meal also counts.
If you’re having a side of steamed vegetables or maybe a piece of fruit, the sodium content of 600 mg per meal might still be appropriate.
However, if you are planning to have a more substantial side that could contain a few hundred milligrams of sodium, I would suggest aiming for a lower amount of sodium, closer to 300-400 mg, in the meal you choose.
Considering Daily Sodium Totals
One last recommendation my patients will often hear is that your total daily sodium intake matters. This means that it is possible to have a little more sodium at one meal if you compensate by having less at another meal.
If you don’t mind reading labels, you may want to consider looking more closely at how items add up in your day. This can give you the information you need to allow for a little higher sodium level in your frozen meal of choice.
If this strategy feels overwhelming, then feel free to see if the next strategy feels more doable for you.
Know Your Terms
If picking up multiple meals to check the sodium content feels like potentially too large of a task, you could try these next two major suggestions (checking for sodium-related terms and using the Heart Check mark) to help narrow things down a bit.
For both of these strategies, you can simply scan the front of the meal packaging.
Background on Terminology
When it comes to the sodium content of a food, the American Heart Association provides us some terms to use as a guide.
- Salt/sodium-free — Less than 5 milligrams of sodium per serving
- Very low sodium — 35 milligrams or less per serving
- Low sodium —140 milligrams or less per serving
- Reduced sodium — At least 25% less sodium per serving than the item’s usual sodium level
- Light in sodium or lightly salted — At least 50% less sodium than the regular product
- No salt added or unsalted — No salt is added during processing, but these products may not be salt/sodium-free unless stated
These terms can be found on multiple types of food items. Some frozen meals may contain one or more of these terms.
Application to Frozen Meals
How do these terms apply when you’re selecting a meal? And are there some exceptions to the rules? Here are a few comments.
First, you will probably not see the “salt/sodium free” or “very low sodium” terms on frozen meal packaging. This is because commercial frozen meals generally need some amount of sodium in them to provide flavor and act as a preservative.
Instead, you will more likely see the “low sodium” or “reduced sodium” terms on meal packaging. The “low sodium” phrase is probably a better indicator that the meal is a wiser choice as opposed to the “reduced sodium” designation.
Why? Although the reduced sodium item has 25% less sodium than the original item, the original product could have started out with a high level of sodium. Therefore, 25% less sodium in the product may not be low enough to benefit someone on a low sodium diet.
Secondly, if you come across the “lightly salted” or “light in sodium terminology” in a frozen meal, this could potentially be a wiser choice because 50% less sodium than the original is a bigger drop from only 25% less sodium than the original, as would be found in the reduced sodium item.
Lastly, if you do come across the “no salt added” or “unsalted” terms, you will probably still need to check the label to see how much sodium is in the product, since the product might have had sodium in it to begin with.
Consider Heart Check Products
A second less involved strategy is looking for the Heart Check certification on a food’s packaging. This can be a quicker way to find low sodium meals.
The Heart Check certification contains sodium limits for different categories of foods.
For the “main dish and meal products” category, the goal for sodium is to be less than 600 mg of sodium per serving. This limit is basically what we discussed in an earlier section.
So as you can see, the Heart Check certification can be a great way to find lower sodium frozen meal options. And that brings us to a few other bonus suggestions for choosing frozen meals that are low in sodium.
Other Nutritional Considerations
Although the following recommendations are not necessarily dealing with sodium, they will be important as you choose meals that are not only low in sodium but also supportive of heart health in general.
Ensure Adequate Protein and Fiber
Two important nutrients that I typically encourage people to check for are protein and fiber. Both protein and fiber can help manage hunger and stabilize blood sugar levels, especially if you have diabetes.
Protein
Protein needs per person can vary, but for most of my patients, at least 15-20 grams of protein per meal is a reasonable starting point. In other situations, need per meal may be higher, such as closer to 30 grams or more.
Fiber
Since daily fiber needs can be anywhere from 21-38 grams per day6 (women vs men), I would definitely encourage choosing a frozen meal that contains several grams of fiber (4-5 grams or more), especially if you plan to eat that meal by itself.
One quick caution, however—if the meal contains a very large amount of fiber, like 15-20+ grams, it might not be too friendly to your gastrointestinal system. In other words, you may have more gas and bloating if you’re not used to all that fiber at one time.
In some cases then, around 10-15 grams may be better tolerated versus a larger amount of fiber all at once.
Limit Added Sugars and Saturated Fats
Next on our list of additional recommendations is limiting added sugars and saturated fats. Added sugars and saturated fats are two types of nutrients that may not benefit heart health when you consume too much of them.
If you’re choosing frozen meals with a Heart Check certification, they should already be lower in these nutrients. If the meal is not heart-check certified, look for the lowest amounts of these nutrients possible.
Let’s explore how to do this in a little more detail.
Added Sugars
For added sugars (see my related blog post for more details), try to keep meals under 10 grams, or even as close to zero as possible. This is because the added sugar in other items you may be choosing can add up quickly during the day.
For context, the recommended amounts of added sugars are around 25 grams per day for women and 36 grams per day for men.7
Saturated Fat
For saturated fats, also keep these as low as you can. Aim for <5 grams per meal if possible, since many people need only 11-13 grams/day to support managing cholesterol levels and preventing disease.8
Aim for Healthy Fats, Whole Grains, Vegetables
The last recommendation is to consider the foods actually featured in the frozen meal you’re choosing.
Look for whole grains, vegetables, lean proteins, and healthy fat sources (see more detailed explanations in this post) as key components of these meals. Oftentimes frozen meals with these main components may end up being lower in sodium as it is.
So on that more positive note, how can we put all of this information together? Let’s do this by discussing some frozen meal examples to get you started with the process of building your knowledge and application skills.
Frozen Meal Examples
Since brands and their meal formulations can change fairly often, it would be near impossible to create a complete list of low sodium frozen meals to choose from.
That is why this entire article so far has discussed how to read packaging and labels to give you the knowledge and confidence you need to make decisions that support your heart.
But I will provide a few brand generalizations to get you started. Please note they may change over time, so always double check the packaging.
Some common grocery store freezer aisle brands to start your label-reading journey with might be:
- Healthy Choice meals
- Lean Cuisine meals
- Amy’s brand meals
- Sweet Earth meals
- Saffron Road meals
Also keep in mind you’ll need to check each entree individually, since not all meals from these brands will fit the low sodium frozen meal criteria we’ve discussed so far.
Rounding Out the Meal
Don’t forget that you can add in fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables to round out your meal and help you feel satisfied.
You might also want to add in extra herbs, or citrus juice, or salt-free seasoning blends for more flavor. Test out a few options to see what you prefer.
Conclusion
As we come to the end of our discussion, hopefully you’ve learned how to choose more nutritious low sodium frozen meals to support your heart and vascular system.
And no matter where your skill set is at, keep practicing. Nutrition-related behavior changes do take time.
So now it’s your turn–what are one or two action steps you can start practicing today as you look for low sodium frozen meals?
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Sources
- Heart.org. Accessed January 5, 2025. https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-eating/eat-smart/sodium/sodium-sources
- Heart.org. Accessed January 5, 2025. https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/high-blood-pressure/changes-you-can-make-to-manage-high-blood-pressure/shaking-the-salt-habit-to-lower-high-blood-pressure
- Heart.org. Accessed January 5, 2025. https://www.heart.org/en/health-topics/high-blood-pressure/the-facts-about-high-blood-pressure
- Heart.org. Accessed January 5, 2025. https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-eating/eat-smart/sodium/how-much-sodium-should-i-eat-per-day
- Dietaryguidelines.gov. Accessed January 5, 2025. https://www.dietaryguidelines.gov/sites/default/files/2021-03/Dietary_Guidelines_for_Americans-2020-2025.pdf
- How to add more fiber to your diet. Mayo Clinic. Accessed January 5, 2025. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/fiber/art-20043983
- Heart.org. Accessed January 5, 2025. https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-eating/eat-smart/sugar/added-sugars#:~:text=How%20much%20added%20sugar%20is,as%20high%20fructose%20corn%20syrup.
- Heart.org. Accessed January 5, 2025. https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-eating/eat-smart/fats/saturated-fats
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