Deliver Us From Evil Foods

Best Convenience Foods: 3 Tips!

By Glenn Mueller
eDiets Senior Writer

Contrary to what you may believe, there is no sacred diet commandment out there which proclaims: "Thou shall not eat convenience foods." The mere fact that a meal is healthy doesn’t mean it can’t also be quick and easy to prepare.

"Like a lot of people out there, convenience foods are extremely important to me," says eDiets Director of Nutrition Services, Pamela Ofstein. "Now, I won’t say all convenience meals taste exactly like home cooking -- but when you need a meal that is fast, convenient and nutritious, there are some choices out there that fit the mold."

Pam offers some important tips to help you save time without sacrificing your health. For her, the bottom line about convenience foods comes down to taste and nutritional value.

"There are a lot of frozen entrees out there that claim to be low in fat and calories," Pam says. "However, many of the meals you see with tempting pictures on the box have more fat, calories and sodium than you should consume in an entire day."

So just what kind of healthy convenience foods can you eat without going off your meal plan? In order to eat healthy and conveniently, Pam says it is important to read labels and check for sodium, fat content and calorie levels.

The salt of the earth.
Many frozen entrees contain high levels of sodium, which is used for preservation and flavoring. In fact, some of these entrees can contain over 2,000 milligrams of sodium -- and that's just for one meal! Pam suggests looking for items that have 800 milligrams of sodium or less. After all, the American Heart Association guidelines dictate that healthy Americans should consume no more than 2,400 milligrams of sodium per day.

Time to cut the fat.
Pam recommends looking for a meal that contains 8 grams of fat or less. She also suggests looking for entrees that contain little or no saturated fat. Don’t worry! Just because something contains little or no fat doesn’t mean it won’t taste good.

Cut the calories.
If you are trying to stick to a healthy meal plan, you should make sure each of the meals is within your acceptable calorie range. Most healthy meal plans on eDiets include meals of 250 calories and up, so that should give you a wide range of choices. "If you find a meal that is slightly lower in calories than your plan is designed for, add a salad or a piece of fruit," Pam says. "It is a lot easier to add calories than to take them away."

Deliver Us From Evil… Foods.
One way to ensure your meals are always healthy and convenient is to sign up for eDiets DeliciouslyYours, the top-ranked diet meal delivery service on the market. DeliciouslyYours is the first major meal plan from a national weight-loss company that ships a full menu of chilled, fresh foods with no added preservatives. Unlike other plans that rely on frozen, canned or powdered foods, eDiets DeliciouslyYours guarantees freshness, since the foods are not prepared until customers order them.

SPECIAL OFFER: DeliciouslyYours is now available in a convenient 5-day "Weekends Off" plan! Sign up and get a FREE eDiets membership! Click for details.

This great service is available throughout the continental United States, and you can have those meals delivered directly to your home or office. The eDiets DeliciouslyYours program includes meals prepared by expert chefs who honed their skills at the Culinary Institute of America along with several high-end restaurants across the country. Delicious meals on the menu include, Fresh Basil & Tomato Salad with Grilled Chicken, Homestyle Meatloaf, Classic Five-Layer Lasagna and Shrimp Scampi… Just to name a few.

Once an order is created, chefs prepare the meals fresh in restaurant-style kitchens and immediately seal in the freshness with proprietary packaging. With this stay-fresh packaging, eDiets DeliciouslyYours guarantees a full 14-day shelf life from the day of receipt when the product is kept chilled in a refrigerator. Best of all, no preservatives are added, which ensures that your meals are always fresh.

"Better-tasting food makes sticking to a diet much easier, and with eDiets DeliciouslyYours, we've raised the bar on what consumers have come to expect from a meal delivery service," says eDiets president Steve Rattner. "We have taken unprecedented steps to ensure the freshness of the foods being delivered, while offering a new level of quality and variety in the types of foods being offered. In addition, all of our menus are developed by trained chefs in conjunction with a staff of registered dietitians, so customers can feel secure in knowing these delicious entrees and desserts are appropriate to help them meet their lifestyle, diet and nutritional needs."

Two Great Programs; One Great Product

The top-ranked diet meal delivery service on the market just got even better. Due to popular demand, eDiets DeliciouslyYours now offers a convenient 5-day plan. By taking advantage of our new "Weekends Free" program, you can enjoy all of our finest freshly-prepared entrees and still keep the flexibility to plan your own meals two days each week. Best of all, this plan is available for the low cost of only $99.

"Our members give us great feedback, and offering a 5-day option has consistently been a top request," says Rob Drago, eDiets Vice President - Meal Delivery. "In addition to being a great value, our new ‘Weekend's Free’ plan offers all the benefits of our #1 rated diet meal delivery program with the added benefit of enhanced flexibility."

Two Great Programs; One Great Product

With two great programs to choose from, signing up for eDiets DeliciouslyYours has never been easier. You may want to kick-start your weight loss with the structure and discipline of the 7-day complete program and switch to the more flexible 5-day "Weekends Free" program as soon as you reach your goal weight. The 5-day program provides an ideal way for a person who has been on any kind of meal delivery or pre-made meal plan to transition back into preparing their own healthy meals.

"The five day plan is perfect for people who want to lose weight or maintain," says eDiets Director of Nutrition Services Pamela Ofstein. "For those of you who like to cook or eat out on the weekends or during the week, the five day a week plan will fit your lifestyle. It provides you those great-tasting, portion-controlled meals, yet gives you that bit of flexibility when you need it."

Whichever option you choose, you will receive the same freshly-prepared signature dishes that helped eDiets DeliciouslyYours become the #1 rated diet meal delivery service. That’s right… we beat out Zone Chefs, Jenny Craig’s Direct, Nutrisystem and others in a recent taste test conducted by Epicurious.com. Among the tester’s favorite entrees were Chicken Flatbread Pizza, Frittata with Turkey-Ham, and Turkey Chili. They should try our program again, now that we’ve added a host of mouth-watering new entrees, such as White Chicken Vedure with Chick Peas, Tuscan Chicken Fettucini, Turkey Bolognese, and Sweet Basil Chicken with Brown Rice and Vegetables.

The fitness pros at eDiets can show you how to combine exercise and nutrition to get the best results. This is what you’ve been looking for. You will need to make the commitment, but isn’t it time to finally take care of you? Click here to get started.