Salt in Lean Cuisine: there’s too much for me

Lean Cuisine began as a line of frozen foods that supposedly was healthier than other frozen offerings because it had fewer calories. But I’ve always avoided them because of the massive amounts of salt they, and all frozen offerings, contain.

So I was happy to see an old colleague writing about the salt issue in a recent Bloomberg story about Lean Cuisine and the marketing troubles it’s been having of late.

“Salt is the biggest concern among consumers, according to a survey by Bernstein Research. Early versions of Lean Cuisine averaged 1,000 milligrams of sodium, or two-thirds of the recommended daily intake for more than half of American adults. The 130 varieties of Lean Cuisine now average 600 milligrams, and in 2010 Nestle pledged to reduce sodium by a further 10 percent by 2015,” writes Matt Boyle.

Even 600 mgs of salt in one meal is too much for me. Having that in three meals a day would put me at 1,800 mgs, over my nutritionist recommended level of 1,500 mgs and well over the 1,200 mgs I’m trying to maintain to account for measurement errors.

Matt notes that people don’t perceive frozen products as fresh simply because they are frozen and have lots of ingredients to preserve them. To me, it’s about the salt first and foremost.
John