Read the Labels: Frozen Veggies

Vegetables are good for you, we all know that. But, which vegetables are best for your high potassium, low sodium, low fat heart healthy diet?

First off, let's focus on frozen vegetables for this post - frozen veggies are typically easy on your budget and easy on time to prepare. Going over the USDA facts in my reference data, I came across 3 vegetable gems that appeal to my taste buds and my heart healthy goals:

1. Peas (1 cup): 347 mg potassium, 8 mg sodium, 0.6 g fat (55:1 potassium:sodium).
2. Broccoli (1 cup): 261 mg potassium, 20 mg sodium, 0.2 g fat (13:1 potassium:sodium).
3. Lima Beans (1 cup): 955 mg potassium, 4 mg sodium, 0.7 g fat (239:1 potassium:sodium).

Wow, these are impressive potassium:sodium gems. So it seemed easy: go to the store, buy frozen peas, broccoli and lima beans and start adding to my diet. Oh, if only it was that easy...

Frozen Peas:

Kroger is the "store brand" at my local grocery store. So, buy Kroger frozen peas to save money and be healthy, right? WRONG! Take a look at the image to the left showing the nutrition facts of Kroger frozen peas. Look at the sodium line: 200 mg! You have got to be kidding - they added sodium to my peas. Scouring the frozen food shelves, I could not find a variety of peas from Kroger that did not have a huge amount of sodium - Ugh!

Kroger failed on peas, so I started scanning the nutrition facts on all the different brands of peas. Finally, I found Birds Eye with the same nutrition factsheet shown to the left. 0 mg of sodium, now that's a frozen vegetable remaining true to its fresh standards. Why on earth is Kroger adding sodium to their peas? Thanks to Birds Eye, I do not care - they cost about twice what the Kroger sodium bombs run; but they are healthy and good for my heart (and still less than 30 cents a serving).

Frozen Broccoli:

The Kroger frozen pea fiasco sure had me weary when I started my broccoli scan. But, see the nutrition facts to the left. Kroger frozen broccoli has only 20 mg of sodium - NICE! They can do it with broccoli but not with peas, go figure. Anyway, I now have the store brand frozen broccoli in my freezer - a cost effective & 13:1 gem to incorporate in my meals.





Frozen Lima Beans:

Ok, now on to lima beans. The Kroger brand comes in 2 types: Ford Hook with 5 mg of sodium and Baby with 240 mg of sodium. Argh - their they go again, adding 240 mg of sodium to baby lima beans. Why - don't ask me, I will just move on and add Kroger Ford Hook Frozen Lima Beans to my freezer: cost effective and a 239:1 potassium:sodium gem for my meals.

Kroger Ford Hook Lima Beans

Kroger Baby Lima Beans

Summary:

"Read the labels," have I said that before? It was amazing what a sodium spectrum I found in the frozen vegetable section of the store. But, alas, healthy is possible if you just read the labels.

I now have extremely cost effective broccoli & lima beans and affordable peas as staples in my hearth healthy list of ingredients.