200by40 – Weight Loss the Right Way

Hillshire Farm’s Deli Wraps

Hi again. Here’s the extra post I promised.

When it comes to lunch, I’m pretty fond of the choices that Lean Cuisine and Smart Ones offer. In fact those are about the only two things I eat on a regular basis for lunch, save for the occasional salad or leftovers. If I had to choose, I’d lean towards Smart Ones since they boldly place the Weight Watchers Points Value on the front of the box.

But Ann went to the store yesterday and thought I needed a change, so she bought me a few Hillshire Farm’s Deli Wraps:

Looks tasty, no? Well let’s not jump to conclusions just yet. While I was indeed intrigued by the plastic-box packaging and the attractive picture, I wanted to see what I was getting myself into. So I flipped the thing over for the nutritional information and here’s what I saw:

The nutritional information gives you, the consumer, a virtual cornucopia of dining options. Most notably, you can see a column “with dressing” and “without dressing.” Since the thing is a Southwestern Chicken wrap, it would seem downright silly to eat the thing without dressing so the second column seems pretty useless.

So I figured okay, fine. 260 calories, 14g of fat and 2g of fiber. That’s a nice 6 Point lunch for me. Cool.

But wait! Did you see that those numbers are per serving? Egads. And that there are two of them in there? So then that’s 520 calories, 28g of fat and 4g of fiber for a total of 12 Points.

For comparison purposes, chew on this:

• McDonald’s hamburger: 250 calories, 9g fat, 2g fiber* = 5 Points
• McDonald’s small fries: 230 calories, 11g fat, 3g fiber* = 5 Points
• Total: 480 calories, 20g fat, 5g fiber = 10 Points

You could pretty much order a Happy Meal and save yourself a few Points for the weekend. And when you consider the sodium content (1740mg for the wraps vs. 680mg for the burger and fries), in this case you would actually be better off dining underneath the romantic glow of the Golden Arches!

But the real question is, how did they taste? They were acceptable but not exactly the best thing I’ve ever tried. As the sodium content might indicate, the wraps were extremely salty and the chicken didn’t really look like the real thing. In fact, it seemed too “fleshy” to be chicken. (Sorry, but that was about the only thing I could used to describe it.)

All things considered, I’d rather walk down to the local McDonald’s for lunch and burn off some calories in the process than eat another one of these things. And if you think this is bad, wait until you see the nutritional information on the Turkey and Bacon Club variety. It’s even worse!

What’s my point in all of this? Just because the thing contains chicken and not red meat doesn’t automatically mean it’s better for you. If you’re serious about losing the weight and aren’t already a long-distance runner, you should always read the back of the packaging before buying.

Would I recommend: Yes, but only if you have absolutely no choice. You could just order a hamburger Happy Meal and save yourself 2 Points for the weekend.

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*Nutritional information courtesy McDonald’s Web site, June 5, 2008

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