Lean Cuisine paninis - question regarding salt

Does anyone else like these paninis?   I just ate the Chicken Club for lunch - I'm alarmed by the sodium content though - I don't know if I need to drink more water to make sure I flush all the sodium out or if I'll retain even more by drinking more..I'm working out today so hopefully it won't give me that awful bloated feeling..

More water or normal consumption?

 

   

I like ALL the sandwiches that lean cuisine makes.  I haven't tried the paninis yet (although I have some in the fridge) but I really like the flatbread sandwiches and the pizzas too.

I was concerned about the sodium too.  It doesn't get a good grade from cc either.  But I LOVE having these for dinners because they are really good, they fill me up, AND I feel good about myself too.  They definitely help me keep my calorie intake where I need it to be.

Can anyone else shed some light on this?

Most of their entrees are really good - another good one that feels like a cheat is the calzone from Smart Ones - Weight Watchers.   I'm sure I'll be nice and puffy from eating it but I'm hoping a good work out will help me sweat it out - it's impossibly humid too so I don't get much of a break in that department.

I just wonder if eating these low fat meals, working out regularly will actually help me lose weight!  It's been years since I diete and when I did, it was a pretty kamikaze plan I did - very little to eat - I got used to it but as soon as I started eating normally, I blew back up.  I have this awful fear that I won't actually lose the weight!!         

 

Lots of diet foods which are the lower-fat cousins of regular processed foods have extra salt added, most likely to compensate for the flavor lost from the lack of fat. Excess sodium consumption can be a factor in leading to high blood pressure, even if it doesn't show up immediately. 

Both myself and my dad eat their food and all the Dr said was to have an extra glass of water for the day. My dad has high BP so he also stated if he eats one of the diet meals he is not allowed pickles or saurkraut that day.

Sodium is also a preservative, therefore in frozen entrees and canned soups the content of sodium can be very high. As long as your not chasing with french fries and salty snacks i'd say your ok!

I was thinking about trying lean cuisine.. are they "healthy"? I know they are low in calories, which is a plus!

 

There's a ton of sodium in there to preserve it for the months it's going to sit on the shelf - wouldn't it just be healthier to make a turkey/chicken sandwich at home?

Less artificial ingredients, less sodium, and let's face it - it's a .....sandwich.

 

 

I absolutely rely on Lean Cuisines for lunch at work, but I probably shouldn't.  They are loaded with sodium.  I have really low BP, so the doc actually tells me to eat extra salt.  It still bloats me up though.  Extra water seems to help.  The low calorie content and taste (a hot meal with less than 300 calories) are what keep me going back to "old reliable". 

If I didn't have to cook for DH and the kids, I'd be tempted to eat them every night.  But how are you gonna' eat a Lean Cuisine when the kids are eating "regular" food.  ?  So hard to do.  I'm not that strong. -- When I don't eat Lean Cuisines for lunch, I usually eat tuna fish with crackers or a turkey sandwich, as suggested by skdanek.  Today, I'm having 1/2 a grilled chicken pita left over from Chic Fil A last night.

I'm not a sodium fan, as a preface. If I rise above 1700 mg of sodium a day, I get alarmed. Your body doesn't need nearly that much to stay alive, so I'm not going to give it a billion more mgs a day if it doesn't need it.

ANYTHING in a frozen box or a can is going to tend to be salty. I avoid them at all costs. Sure, you can drink tons of water and flush it out, but some bodies don't work that way. You can retain water for days because of too much salt. That's just a dieting nightmare, if you ask me. For some, that retained water would break their willpower.

There are usually low sodium frozen foods...look for them. They usually taste fine, and you don't have to worry about the salt. And besides, salt will just make you hungrier. If you can find a low-sodium, high-fiber dinner, you're golden.

I am addicted to the Chicken, Spinach and mushroom paninni. I love all their stuff, the garlic chicken pizza, the spinach muchroom deep dish and the thin crust muchroom pizzas. I work in an office and eat at my desk and the food is really good. It doesn't taste like diet food.

I swear by these things!! I have one for lunch and one for dinner when I get home from work... I eat healthy snacks in between, and have 3 cooked egg whites for breakfast.

The lean cuisines are great I find for portion control