13 Unhealthiest Banquet Frozen Meals You Can Buy

Who doesn't love the convenience of having Banquet meals stuffed in the freezer? They're a hearty source of lunch or dinner deliciousness that come in handy when your desire to cook has all been drained from your busy working life. Like other frozen meals from around the world, Banquet gives convenience eaters a stout array of familiar flavors to choose from, everything from classic Salisbury steak to Kansas City BBQ chicken, usually with sides and sometimes even a sweet treat for dessert. Banquet, indeed.

But if you've ever flipped over the box to see exactly what you're consuming in these meals, you may have had a little nutritional sticker shock, especially the ones that claim to be high protein frozen meals. Whether it's based on quantity or the quality of ingredients used, many of these frozen feasts take a savage bite out of your healthy intentions. I scouted around for some of the unhealthiest Banquet meals on the market to make sure shoppers know exactly what they're getting themselves into when they crack open the box and microwave up an easy yet potentially health-defying tray of regret. Sure, they taste good, but they're not doing your digestive system any favors.

Odds are you won't be finding mac and cheese on a nutritionist's top 10 list of recommended meals anytime soon. But Banquet Mac and Cheese compromises your nutritional sensibilities as little as possible, which is really saying something for a food stuff that offers white flour pasta robed in milky cheese sauce. Though it may sound like a peak dining purchase, there aren't enough healthy components here to make this tray a wise choice.

A respectable 320 calories isn't the worst count you'll encounter in the Banquet collection. The 10 milligrams of cholesterol and 10 total grams of fat are a little more concerning for sure, especially since 3 grams are saturated. But the 1,050 milligrams of sodium are definitely higher than desirable for a single serving meal. And the 8 grams of sugar are hopefully from the lactose in the cheese sauce; otherwise, there's no reason to sweeten this scenario in that way. If cheesy noodles are summoning your appetite and can't be dissuaded, you're much better off whipping up a homemade mac and cheese recipe from scratch instead.

Old-fashioned Salisbury steak is one of those confusing foods that turns out to be ground beef mixed with chicken and pork molded into a patty shape. It doesn't taste like steak in the least, but it's a savory ride just the same. Regardless of its non-steak status, Banquet Salisbury Steak with Mashed Potatoes is a meal best avoided if you want to keep your systems working at optimal capacity.

What does this meal anchored by financially-affordable yet nutritionally-dodgy steak net you? The calculations tally your intake at 370 calories, thanks to 17 grams of total fat including 5 grams of saturated fat. Your sodium goes up by a crisp 1,030 milligrams, and your cholesterol gets a bonus of 40 milligrams, not just from the steak but also from the real cream used to make the mashed potatoes extra tasty. And don't forget the sugar, which at 17 grams takes up more than half your daily recommended allowance. Sure, it comes in the form of a baked apple dessert, but how many times has a frozen meal provided a sweet treat that's worth the nutritional expense?

Why settle for the usual chopped chicken, pork, and beef steak-like Banquet meal when you can toss a Mega Meal Creamy Provolone Salisbury Steak meal into your grocery cart and get even more deluxe satisfaction out of your shopping budget? This deluxe remix of the basic tracks adds a new layer of cheesy flavor by introducing provolone to the recipe, which does nothing to help in the nutritional aspects of an already-sus frozen meal.

What do you get for the double "steak" doused in creamy cheese sauce? How do 490 calories with 32 grams of fat, 11 of which are saturated, sound to you? Pretty dicey, for sure. And you haven't even heard about the 1,200 milligrams of sodium, 80 milligrams of cholesterol, or 4 grams of highly unnecessary sugar yet. Pile it all together and you're giving your body a pulse-pounding meal that's destined to raise your blood pressure while lowering your disciplined dietary practices.

If your microwavable dinner consists of items that can be found on a fast food menu, you can be sure that it won't make your nutritionist's top 10 list of recommended meals. The Banquet Chicken Strips meal is a dinner that can demolish your hunger for crispy fried poultry, but also may do damage to your internal parts in the process. Even the best chicken strips aren't a sound decision for the thoughtful diner. There's also a scoop of mac and cheese plopped onto the tray, which doesn't help matters. You do get a little corn to level the playing field, so that's ... something, maybe?

Down this deviously delicious yet nutritionally depleting arrangement of bits and pieces and you'll be stocking up on 430 calories, thanks in part to 18 grams of fat, 3.5 of which are saturated. At 920 milligrams, the sodium here stays just shy of the 1,000 milligram club. But the 30 milligrams of cholesterol and 8 grams of sugar do their best to fill in the gap. The down-home goodness comes at a dietary cost you're not likely willing to pay. There's no denying it's a tasty way to curb your appetite, but there's more to eating than just satisfying a growling stomach with a frozen collection of poor choices.

The comfort of country fried chicken may be relatively tolerable to your physiology if it arrives in your digestive tract in more modest portions. But if you've purchased something like Banquet Mega Bowls, you're likely expecting a super hearty serving that might actually qualify as two servings for another brand's frozen dinners. And that's exactly what you'll be getting, a brimming dish of chicken fritters sitting atop a hill of cheese-covered mashed potatoes drenched in gravy. Corn is the only innocent vegetable in sight, and even that ends up embedded in the starchy base.

For this undeniably enticing mass of frozen foodstuffs, you'll be docking your healthful eating tally 440 calories, 21 grams total fat with 5 grams coming in saturated form, and 50 milligrams of cholesterol clogging up the works. The 1,460 milligrams of sodium sounds like there may be a salt lick hiding under the potatoes. And somehow, 5 grams of sugar work their way into the pile. Overloading on a tasty creation that's already questionable in the nutrition department is like throwing oil on a house fire if you're keeping an eye on the dietary scale and hoping to come out on the winning side. Doing it in mega-fashion turns the fire into an inferno.

Banquet gets into the regional flavor game with its spicy Mega Bowls Nashville Hot Chicken meal, a fun and fiery flame-up of Southern spirit that makes Music City a dining destination for foodies from around the world. But it's one thing to sample the specialty from the heart of the U.S. when you're on site and taking in the local character; it's another thing entirely to pop one of these nutritionally indiscreet selections into your push button cooker and hope to keep your fitness aspirations in motion — especially when it comes sunk into a bog of cream-laced mashed potatoes while wearing a robe of gooey mozzarella.

This chicken meal may feature Nashville-hot pieces in the Banquet bowl, but it won't be hot enough to burn through the 450 calories, 19 total grams of fat (with 5 of those saturated), and 50 milligrams of cholesterol you'll be digesting. And unless you're behind on your sodium intake, the 1,380 milligrams in this mix won't be helping with your health. The 10 grams of sugar coming along for the ride are likely a blend of what's in the sauce and what comes naturally from the corn peppering the potatoes. Not that it matters, since breaking open this box has enough inflammatory dietary violations to warrant a visit from the nutritional fire inspector. Stop, drop, and roll away from this culinary conflagration before it torches your fitness goals.

When neither chicken nuggets nor mac and cheese on their own are enough to get you through a meal, finding a Banquet Chicken Nuggets with Mac and Cheese meal takes a swing at the task by doubling up the questionable vittles. But if each of these inventions is a nutritional sand trap when enjoyed on its own, is there any chance that putting them both in the same box is going to lead you in the right direction for the clean running of your internal engine? If you said "no," move ahead two spaces; you really know what's good for you and what isn't.

These nuggets may look cute and innocent, but taken as a team they harness the power of 470 calories, due in part to the 19 grams of fat they contain; 3.5 of those grams are saturated. Prepare your systems for the 45 milligrams of pesky cholesterol that's headed their way, too. Surprisingly, at 580 milligrams, the sodium is somehow less than most of the other meals in the Mega Bowls category, a deficit that's more than compensated for by the 24 grams of sugar that shows up in the shape of a brownie — yes, a brownie, because why wouldn't you want a super-sweet dessert after downing nugs and mac? Anyone who doesn't want to add extra reps and sets at the gym the next day, that's who.

Who could resist grabbing what amounts to a barbecue in a box when they stumble upon a Mega Meats Kansas City BBQ Boneless Strips meal when they see it shivering in the freezer section, begging to be released into the warmth of a waiting microwave oven? Smoky sweetness in unique Kansas City barbecue style turns this meat-only option into a celebration of original American culinary culture. It sounds like a tasty warm-up, but it comes with an icy nutritional touch that's more like cold comfort to your healthy ideals.

Cautious eaters should be leery of this abominable snow critter looking for a chance to shake off the frost and deliver mayhem to a sensible diet. With 520 calories, 24 total fat grams and 5 saturated grams lying in wait, and a wallop of 80 milligrams of cholesterol, it's an ambush of Mega Meats proportions. And if you didn't see the 1,240 milligrams of sodium and 7 grams of sugar coming before they smack you right in your nutritional well-being, you'll be too far gone to turn around and head for safer ground. It's best to let this frozen monster sleep and find better eating elsewhere.

Banquet meals don't usually go too far afield of domestic American favorites, but Mega Bowls Kung Pao Chicken makes an exception to the standard. It's more than likely a highly flavorful take on the Chinese classic, but it's also a takeout temptation that you'll wish you hadn't taken out once you learn what it's delivering to your bloodstream once it digests.

This frozen creation fills the little plastic dish in the box with 520 calories that hold 19 grams of fat, 3 of which are saturated. It's actually one of the better Banquet counts as far as saturated fat goes. But the 35 milligrams of cholesterol, 1,290 milligrams of sodium, and 14 grams of sugar dance their way into whatever wiggle room the lower saturated fat freed up, leaving you wondering if you couldn't have come up with a better option to make your hangry feelings go away. But you already know that you could have, don't you? Of course you do.

Like a classic double burger without the bun, the Banquet Mega Meals Bacon Cheddar Patty meal piles on the bar bites enjoyment in a tray that takes the bread out of the equation while leaving all of the delicious center parts in place. If you're a carb watcher, this may sound like a supreme prospect. But if you're aiming to reduce your intake of all the other dodgy components of the human diet, this is one massive meal you'll want to put the kibosh on, regardless of the 23 grams of protein boasted on the box.

It shouldn't be surprising that a bunless double burger smothered in bacony cheese sauce with a side of potato wedges brings in a load of calories — 570, to be exact, contributed to by 36 grams of fat, 12 of which are saturated, and are accompanied by 90 milligrams of cholesterol (almost ⅓ of your recommended daily intake).  Pour on 1,160 milligrams of sodium, and 8 grams of sugar, and the missing bun turns out to be the least of this meal's problems. It's a lot to saddle your systems with, especially if this turns out to be your last meal of the day. Stick with something more beneficial and your cells will thank you.

Look away from the luscious photo on the front of the box! It's enough to make you think Mega Bowls Sweet & Sour Chicken is a prime pick, even though it's one of the most egregious mistakes in the entire Banquet selection set. Sure, the tempura-fried chunks of pressed chicken look harmless nestled with veggies and rice, wearing a glossy sheen of tangy sauce. But the breakdown of components in this sly creation brings in questionable quantities of the things you're hoping to minimize in your macros intake.

The innocent-appearing single-serving bowl in the package carries with it 610 calories and 16 grams of fat, 3 of which are saturated. Give Banquet props for keeping the sodium down to 520 milligrams, but that feather in the company's cap is snatched away by the 33 grams of sugar that come in the sauce that gives the dish its name. Tack on 30 milligrams of cholesterol, and you find out this sweet and sour sleeper has the power to overwhelm your dreams of healthy blood work at your next check-up.

Nobody's fooled into thinking chicken without bones is any healthier than chicken with bones; we don't eat the bones, anyway. But Mega Meals Boneless Fried Chicken makes it easier to consume as much of the main course as possible by leaving the parts you'd eat around on the packaged meal assembly line. What you get instead of whole chicken pieces are strips of meat fried in crispy breading that you're generally advised to avoid.

Just how wary should you be of these crafty cutlets? Wary enough to recognize the 620 calories and 28 total grams of fat, 6 of which are saturated, making ready to put a sizable dent in your daily eating. And that doesn't take into consideration the 1,400 milligrams of sodium and 90 milligrams of cholesterol that could slide in under the radar if you don't have your nutritional alarm turned on. Sprinkle on 5 grams of sugar just to round things out and you have the makings of a spy in the house of dietary wisdom that can set all your hard-earned fitness spinning out of control. But hey, at least there are no bones to choke on.

Scooping up a Mega Bowls Sesame Chicken Lo Mein meal might seem like a way to avoid the less healthy fried versions of protein that Banquet features prominently in its products. The eye-opening truth is that this sizable selection has one of the least favorable nutrition profiles of any items in the Banquet single meals collection. Considering so many of the other meals contain processed meats and creamy sauces, that's really saying something.

Finish the entire meal and you'll have racked up 630 calories with 21 grams of fat, 3.5 of which are saturated, and a blood pressure-soaring 1,420 milligrams of sodium to go with it all. There are also 35 milligrams of cholesterol and 21 grams of sugar, which keep things moving in the direction of non-nutrition. There are reasons why you should never order lo mein at a restaurant, and many of them appear in this Banquet box. Rather than tossing this tempting Asian selection into your kitchen reactor, you might be better off making your own homemade veggie lo mein from scratch. What you lose in time, you'll more than make up for in dietary sensibility.

Banquet provides individualized profiles for the nutrition on each of its meals on its website, which made isolating the unhealthiest options a simple matter of online research. I used calorie count as an initial criterion, since that usually indicates the presence of other questionable elements that point to higher fat, sodium, and sugar counts as well.

If you have a relatively considerable fat content in the box, you're also likely to have saturated fat present. Sometimes sugar comes along for the ride, even though it seems out of place. I followed the trail from calories to these other elements and found profiles in which at least three aspects rise above advisable levels. Taken as a whole, the intake offered by these meals are the least nutritionally sound among the Banquet meal portfolio. The bottom line, of course, is that only the person doing the purchasing knows what their systems are prepared to handle, which is why reading the labels when shopping is key to making the most informed choices possible.