New Guidelines

In class yesterday one of my professors brought up that there have been new Dietary Guidelines show that now, no more than 7% of total calories should come from saturated fat each day. 7%! One of my Lean Cuisine meals, Lean Pockets, or one of my Smart One meals has near that. Heck, even if I ate a turkey dog with a wheat bun and add my usual ketchup, mustard, and sweet relish that would add to the fat for the day. This means that if I ate two to three frozen meals each day to make keeping up with my calories or keeping up with Weight Watchers points easier would not be the best idea when it comes down to the fact that I need to keep my saturated fat less than 7% daily. Not to mention the saturated fat in these meals, the sodium content is outrageous! I love my Smart Ones meals, especially the Vodka Rigatoni and the Canadian Ham & Egg English Muffin but when it comes down to the Dietary Guidelines and trying to follow them - is eating these meals worth it? As a college student, already working three jobs, I prefer cheap meals in moderation such as the $2.33 Smart Ones meals or when Harvey's grocery store has Lean Pockets priced at 3 (2 per box) for $5 when you use your Harvey's key. Now as nutrition major, I would tell one who wants to lose weight to cut their calories by 500 calories each day for one week to lose one pound per week. This would mean that one should simply count their calories and they will lose weight. Well, me, a nutrition major eating Lean Pockets and Smart Ones and other frozen prepackaged and processed meals makes it extremely easy to count calories and to help me or anyone else to lose weight on a budget. But when it comes down to it, preventing things such as coronary heart disease, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes is a lot more important than simply dropping weight just by counting calories. Therefore, others and myself need to watch fat and sodium in my food before consuming it. So if I crave pizza tomorrow, I can grab a Lean Pocket and have those 290 calories and the saturated fat and sodium that is in them, but as long as I don't eat a Lean Pocket every day and as long as I don't eat 3 at a time, a Lean Pocket can be an excellent choice when it comes to teaching one to eat in moderation. It is a solution to implementing change into ones diet, including mine!