GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. (KKCO) - A lot of us reach in the freezer for a quick dinner but do you really know what you're eating?

TV dinners may be handy in a hurry, but they're not all as lean as you may think. While your healthy choice TV dinner may mean fewer calories, you were still eating all kinds of preservatives, a lot of sodium, and ingredients that could increase your chances of developing heart disease.

Nutrition experts say these quick fixes are better than a fatty hamburger, but Dr. Christopher Lepisto, a naturopathic doctor, says dinners called things like eating right, healthy choice and lean cuisine are a bit deceiving.

Lepisto says, "Eating right. Now, here's a perfect example of green washing. Nice green label. 'Right' sounds like maybe even the story is 'hey this maybe a natural food healthy for me'."

Lepisto says you should learn to read the nutrition and ingredient labels on your food before putting it in your mouth.

He says, "Now we go to this label. First of all, it's very hard to read and very lengthy. That's the first red flag. How far from Mother Nature are we? But I've already picked up partially hydrogenated oils. Hydrogenated oils are ones that potentiate heart disease."

Lepisto says to look for things like hydrogenated oils, natural flavoring which could be MSG and other preservatives on the list of ingredients.

"There are also artificial flavorings here and I caught corn syrup solids in here earlier- that's a highly refined form of a sweetner, very prevelant in our sodas and soft drinks. That's another part of obesity and diabetes."

When you're scanning over the nutrition label, you want a lean meal to have 300 calories or less, but that's not the only thing you should be counting.

Lepisto says, "There are a couple of items in here that may be concerning. Number one being the sodium content. If you go over and look at amount sodium containing and a lot of people know this story especialy if they have blood pressure issues these types of prepared meals often have very high amounts of sodium."

He says too much sodium can cause water bloating and is dangerous to people with kidney and heart problems.

Dietician Marcy McLaughlin agrees, and says too much sodium can lead to other unhealthy habits.

McLaughlin says, "One thing is the high sodium content of some of these meals will make you very thirsty and if you tend to drink sugary sodas and things like that you'll probably drink most of those things."

Right below sodium on the nutrition label: carbs.

Nutrition experts say you don't need to cut them out, but warn that you should know what type you're eating.

Lepisto explains the difference. "Total carbohydrates 33 grams but 24 grams from sugar and only of those three grams are from fiber. We have a fiber defiency in our culture in general."

Look for at least three to five grams of fiber and lower amounts of carbohydrates from sugar because those high sugar numbers lead to bigger problems.

Lepisto says the problem with sugars is, "We're talking about a national issue with sugar amounts in diabetes and obesity. There's a known correlation between sweetners and their effects on the body."

But both Lepisto and McLaughlin say they understand life is busy so a Lean Cuisine every once in a while isn't the worst decision you can make.

McLaughlin says,"If people choose to take the frozen meal as a replacement meal and choose a light meal with less than eight grams of fat. Add a fresh salad to that. Easy on the salad dressing."

Just be sure to read the label and know what you're putting in your body.

Other options instead of a pre–packaged meal could be making your own frozen dinners in advance. If you cook it, you know what's in it.

You can also increase the boxed meals nutritional value by mixing in some more vegetables.

Lepisto says the Lean Cuisine brand is the best choice out of all the TV dinners because 80 percent of them don't have preservatives.