TV dinners, notorious for their high calorie and sodium counts, aren’t exactly the first food category we think of when we think “healthy eating.” But they’re seductively convenient, and some are far less deleterious to our health than others.
There are many hundreds of “TV dinners” on the market — the food industry stopped using that term in the 1960s, and now calls them simply “frozen dinners” — as well as frozen entrées substantial enough to form the main part of a meal. To find the 20 healthiest and 20 unhealthiest examples, 24/7 Wall St. created an index of calorie, fat, and sodium contents for 90 of these, choosing those most often reviewed on key websites.
As might be expected, brands with a healthy-eating focus, such as Amy’s, Kashi, and Lean Cuisine, show up on the healthiest TV dinners list, but there are some surprises, too, like an entry from the Margaritaville label. Also, two offerings from Kashi and one from Amy’s are ranked among the Unhealthiest.
Click here for the healthiest and unhealthiest TV dinners.
Click here to see our detailed findings.
20. Healthiest: Smart Ones Rigatoni with Broccoli and Chicken
> Calories: 260
> Sodium: 680mg
> Fat: 4g
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19. Healthiest: Luvo Orange Mango Chicken
> Calories: 420
> Sodium: 380mg
> Fat: 7g
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18. Healthiest: Brown Rice & Vegetable Bowl from Amy’s
> Calories: 260
> Sodium: 550mg
> Fat: 9g
17. Healthiest: Red’s Braised Chicken Burrito
> Calories: 290
> Sodium: 530mg
> Fat: 7g
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16. Healthiest: Slow-Roasted Turkey Breast from Smart Ones
> Calories: 210
> Sodium: 690mg
> Fat: 3.5g
15. Healthiest: Amy’s Black Bean Vegetable Enchilada, Light In Sodium
> Calories: 320
> Sodium: 360mg
> Fat: 12g
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14. Healthiest: Healthy Choice Golden Roasted Turkey Breast
> Calories: 250
> Sodium: 600mg
> Fat: 4.5g
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13. Healthiest: Smart Ones Lasagna Bake with Meat Sauce
> Calories: 250
> Sodium: 570mg
> Fat: 5g
12. Healthiest: Healthy Choice Portabello Spinach Parmesan
> Calories: 230
> Sodium: 570mg
> Fat: 5g
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11. Healthiest: Lean Cuisine Santa Fe Style Rice & Beans
> Calories: 290
> Sodium: 490mg
> Fat: 4g
10. Healthiest: Healthy Choice Cajun Style Chicken and Shrimp
> Calories: 220
> Sodium: 600mg
> Fat: 2.5g
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9. Healthiest: Saffron Road Sweet Chili Chicken Bowl
> Calories: 260
> Sodium: 490mg
> Fat: 5g
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8. Healthiest: Healthy Choice Café Steamers Beef Merlot
> Calories: 180
> Sodium: 600mg
> Fat: 4g
7. Healthiest: Amy’s Light and Lean Black Bean Cheese Enchilada
> Calories: 250
> Sodium: 480mg
> Fat: 5g
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6. Healthiest: Lean Cuisine Comfort Steak Portabella
> Calories: 160
> Sodium: 570mg
> Fat: 5g
5. Healthiest: Margaritaville Island Lime Shrimp
> Calories: 240
> Sodium: 330mg
> Fat: 11g
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4. Healthiest: Luvo Chicken Chorizo Chili
> Calories: 260
> Sodium: 340mg
> Fat: 8g
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3. Healthiest: José Olé Chicken Taquitos Rolled in Corn Tortillas
> Calories: 200
> Sodium: 400mg
> Fat: 8g
2. Healthiest: Kashi Chimichurri Quinoa Bowl
> Calories: 240
> Sodium: 330mg
> Fat: 7g
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1. Healthiest: SeaPak Salmon Burgers
> Calories: 110
> Sodium: 340mg
> Fat: 5g
20. Unhealthiest: Ethnic Gourmet Chicken Tikka Masala
> Calories: 260
> Sodium: 680mg
> Fat: 6g
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19. Unhealthiest: Michelina’s Macaroni & Cheese
> Calories: 280
> Sodium: 560mg
> Fat: 11g
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18. Unhealthiest: Healthy Choice Power Bowls Adobo Chicken Bowl
> Calories: 330
> Sodium: 600mg
> Fat: 8g
17. Unhealthiest: Cedarlane Eggplant Parmesan
> Calories: 280
> Sodium: 590mg
> Fat: 13g
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16. Unhealthiest: Healthy Choice Cafe Steamers Sweet & Sour Chicken
> Calories: 390
> Sodium: 550mg
> Fat: 8g
15. Unhealthiest: Trader Joe’s Chicken Burrito Bowl
> Calories: 370
> Sodium: 630mg
> Fat: 10g
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14. Unhealthiest: Saffron Road Chicken Biryani
> Calories: 400
> Sodium: 630mg
> Fat: 13g
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13. Unhealthiest: Tandoor Chef Balanced Vegetarian Paneer Tikka Masala
> Calories: 390
> Sodium: 620mg
> Fat: 16g
12. Unhealthiest: Amy’s Santa Fe Enchilada Bowl
> Calories: 350
> Sodium: 780mg
> Fat: 11g
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11. Unhealthiest: Ethnic Gourmet Bowl Pad Thai with shrimp
> Calories: 410
> Sodium: 850mg
> Fat: 7g
10. Unhealthiest: Amy’s Mexican Casserole Bowl
> Calories: 380
> Sodium: 780mg
> Fat: 16g
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9. Unhealthiest: Chili’s Chicken Fajita Rice Bowl
> Calories: 380
> Sodium: 960mg
> Fat: 10g
8. Unhealthiest: Banquet Chicken Fried Chicken Meal
> Calories: 330
> Sodium: 1100mg
> Fat: 14g
7. Unhealthiest: P.F. Chang’s Home Menu Orange Chicken
> Calories: 440
> Sodium: 980mg
> Fat: 14g
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6. Unhealthiest: Banquet Meatloaf Meal
> Calories: 330
> Sodium: 1350mg
> Fat: 11g
5. Unhealthiest: Marie Callender’s Cheesy Chicken & Bacon Pot Pie
> Calories: 510
> Sodium: 720mg
> Fat: 32g
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4. Unhealthiest: Marie Callender’s Spaghetti with Meat Sauce
> Calories: 540
> Sodium: 1,060mg
> Fat: 18g
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3. Unhealthiest: Stouffer’s Chicken Fettuccini Alfredo
> Calories: 570
> Sodium: 850mg
> Fat: 27g
2. Unhealthiest: Hungry-Man Home-Style Meatloaf
> Calories: 650
> Sodium: 1,440mg
> Fat: 32g
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1. Unhealthiest: Hungry-Man Selects Classic Fried Chicken
> Calories: 970
> Sodium: 1,480mg
> Fat: 59g
Merriam-Webster defines the TV dinner as “a quick-frozen packaged dinner (as of meat, potatoes, and a vegetable) that requires only heating before it is served.” These were originally designed as three-course meals — typically a protein, a vegetable, and a starch — arrayed in segmented aluminum-foil trays; desserts were added later. The aluminum was subsequently replaced by non-metallic microwave-safe materials.
The TV dinner’s origin story goes like this: In the fall of 1953, Omaha-based C.A. Swanson & Sons, which produced frozen and canned foods, massively overestimated the market for frozen holiday turkeys and found itself with 10 railroad cars packed with 520,000 pounds’ worth of the birds. It asked employees for suggestions as to how the surplus turkey could be used, and a salesman named Gerry Thomas suggested turning them into frozen dinners, packaged in three-compartment aluminum trays.
Television was a hot commodity just then. In 1950, a mere 9% of American homes had sets. By 1954, the number had soared to 56%. Because the frozen meals were compact and quick and easy to prepare, Swanson dubbed them “TV dinners” — originally packaging them in boxes designed to resemble TV screens, complete with two-dimensional tuning knobs.
Though it’s a good tale, there are a number of things wrong with it. To begin with, there were already three-part frozen dinners. A company called Maxson Food Systems, Inc. started making them for use on airplanes in 1945. Later that decade, an entrepreneur named Jack Fisher sold similar “FridgiDinners” to bars, and in 1949, brothers Albert and Meyer Bernstein founded Frozen Dinners, Inc. and sold frozen meals in three-part aluminum trays in the Pittsburgh area, under the unfortunately named One-Eyed Eskimo label.
More to the point, Gerry Thomas might not have had a role in the Swanson’s product at all. Though his obituary in the New York Times in 2005 credited him with inventing and naming the TV dinner, the paper subsequently published a correction noting that “there have been competing claims, including one from the Swanson family that W. Clarke Swanson, an owner of the company in the 1950s, had the idea.”
Whatever their origins, TV dinners were a hit. In their first full year of production, 1954, Swanson sold 25 million of them. In 1965, according to the trade journal “Quick Frozen Food,” TV dinners racked up $280 million in sales. That was just the beginning. In 2016, the last year for which figures are available, sales of frozen lunch and dinner entrees in U.S. retail stores reached $17.8 billion.
Industry analysts today think their popularity has peaked and predict a slow but steady decline in the sales of frozen foods of all kinds, in the coming years. For now, though, they still occupy a lot of square footage in grocery store freezer cases, and as long as TV dinners — or whatever you want to call them — are a part of our dietary lives, it’s good to know which ones are best (and worst) for us.
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