Avoid the Expensive Convenience Food Fat Trap

Introduction

A friend recommended Michael Angelo's Eggplant Parmesan to me yesterday. I decided to analyze the food and see if it met the criteria for a frugal budgeter.

Cost

The first criteria for a frugal budgeter is the cost. This container is $7.47 at our local Walmart. There are six serving per box with 250 calories per serving.

To estimate the cost in your head, determine how many calories are in the box. Six servings at 250 calories per serving is 1,500 calories. To find the cost per 2,000 calories divide 2,000 by 1,500 and multiply it by the price. The cost is $9.96/2000 calories. I would automatically exclude this item as it is higher than my $5.00 budget/2000 calories.

Fat Content

The nutrition label format is dictated by the government, but it is still deceiving. Notice how it says "Total Fat 15 g     24%". This might lead some to think the dish is only 24% fat. Not true. This is a percentage of the daily requirement for a 2,000 calorie diet.

However, in the line above, it says 140 of the 250 calories are from fat. Few people will do the math, but the dividing 140 by 250 shows the dish is 56% fat! This is higher than most meat sandwiches at McDonald's.

If I'm going to eat Eggplant Parmesan, I'd like to have some garlic bread with it. Let's say I'm conservative and have only two slices with one pat of butter  on each slice. This adds about 170 calories for the bread and 72 calories for the butter. Now the meal is up to 492 calories. Not a bad number yet, but let's analyze the fat content.

There is about one gram of fat in the bread I would buy for garlic bread and 8 grams of fat in two pats of butter. The total fat is 15 grams from the eggplant Parmesan, one gram from the bread and 8 from the butter, or 24 grams.

To determine the number of calories in 24 grams of fat, multiply it by 9. This meal has 216 calories of fat out of 492 calories. It is 44% FAT!!!! Most value meals from McDonald's do better than this.

Don't worry though. It's almost all saturated fats. You know, the kind that gives people heart attacks.

A real meal

The picture on the box shows the meal covering the whole plate. This probably equates to four servings from the package. Let's say a person only eats three servings which would be normal for many. They also eat two extra slices of garlic bread because it tastes so good. Then the meal is up to about 1,300 calories, the same as a large McDonald's Cheeseburger value meal.

Don't forget the wine

At least the wine brings down the percentage of fat. Add about 100 calories per glass.

Conclusion

In general, convenience foods taste somewhat good, cost too much, and have enough fat to kill a person over time.