Wanchai Ferry asian meal kits are a sodium disaster

I’ve seen these advertised on tee-vee lately, and had my suspicions about whether they could possibly be healthy. As with so many asian inspired meals found in the grocery store aisles, you can pay a much heavier price than you might imagine with your families health.

Wanchai Ferry earns a Mavenandmeddler Thumbs Down

Hey, just being able to fit into your ‘normal’ size jeans tomorrow could be a huge challenge - and a morale breaker - after a big sodium filled meal, due to water weight gain.

Wanchai Ferry is no exception, with some of their products offering more than half a days’ serving of sodium in place of honest flavor from real ingredients. This type of thing is all about saving money on the production end to maximize profits, while betting that your customers are in too much of a hurry to read the nutrition information label on the back. You’re eating an ‘asian inspired’ treat of salt with some food coloring and assorted chemicals coating some really cheap protein and vegetables.

The American Heart Association recommends that for every 1,000 Calories of food consumed, the sodium intake should be 1,000 mg and should not exceed the 3,000 mg limit. Note that most of this sodium doesn’t come from adding salt to food, but rather from the sodium levels in highly processed foods we eat. There may be more sodium in less salty-tasting food; ex., high sodium salad dressings versus salty french fries.

Who knew that grandmotherly looking Mrs. Chong would hate the American food consumer so much that she’d try and kill them with massive amounts of sodium! What a nasty old dumpling maker.

I wouldn’t even consider this Orange Chicken product - even for a rare ‘treat’ - unless I wanted to be treated to hypertension and a heart attack. A sodium content of just 49% per serving of Orange Chicken is so far over the top …. ick!

If that isn’t bad enough, check out the Szechuan Chicken:

Ohhh noooo - it’s got 55% sodium per serving!

But hey, they haven’t got trans fats or MSG. Big fucking deal. But when you think it can’t get any worse, along comes the Garlic Chicken!

It’s got 65% sodium per serving!!

And, if that wasn’t bad enough, here the Sweet & Spicy Shrimp from Wanchai Ferry:

Yup, there’s a whopping 67% of your daily sodium intake in a serving! WTF? Just take the lid off the salt shaker and hand it over. What’s Wanchai Ferry got against us?

But, as unbelievable as it may seem, it gets worse!

How about 81% of your daily sodium needs? Are they kidding?

Wanchai Ferry products needed to be dumped off the ferry into the ocean, except I like the fish too much to do that.

Update on Thursday, September 23, 2010 at 20:48 by mavenandmeddler

Wanchai Ferry is basing these bogus sodium numbers on outdated 2005 sodium recommendations - which have been revised in light of the epidemics of sodium and obesity related health problems in the United States.

The new numbers: 1500 mg of sodium daily as part of a 2,000 calorie diet.