Not since cereal has a meal in a bowl been so popular. Grain and power bowls are showing up on restaurant menus and lining the supermarket freezer shelves. They claim to pack a nutritious punch - but is that really the case?
Nutrition experts put 26 different frozen grain bowls to the test – for both nutrition and taste.
“The ones we recommend have less sodium and more fibre than many frozen meals. And we were pleasantly surprised, most of them tasted really good,” said Consumer Reports' Amy Keating.
Recent studies say that replacing refined grains in your diet, like white rice and white bread, with whole grains like the ones in these bowls, can actually help you manage your weight.
How? The whole grains can help to speed up metabolism and decrease the number of calories the body holds on to during digestion.
Many of the bowls offer a serving of veggies too and they come in all sorts of combinations and flavors.
So which ones came out on top?
Amy's Light & Lean Quinoa & Black Beans with Butternut Squash (240 calories, five grams of fat) was a top pick. It was enhanced with hints of garlic and ginger.
If you like Indian food, try Luvo’s Planted Power Bowl Great Karma Coconut Curry (330 calories, 13 grams of fat). It has plenty of veggies, chickpeas and lentils in a flavorful spicy curry sauce.
If you can handle the heat, Healthy Choice Simply Steamers unwrapped burrito bowl (270 calories, four grams of fat) brings a lot of it, with flavorful rice, beans, and corn. The tomatillo sauce adds a bit of citrus taste.
And Kashi's Chimichurri Quinoa Bowl (260 calories, eight grams of fat) is a bold, spicy mix of red quinoa, lentils, beans and veggies in a tangy chimichurri-style sauce. Like the others, it supplies at least a third of your daily fiber needs.
