I don't think there's anything wrong with frozen meat, fish, or vegetables, and even TV dinners probably aren't that bad. However, they are mostly empty calories, and the article's main thrust was that Americans are pigging out on sweet, salty, and fat carbohydrate-based snacks. Cheeze Doritos, cheeseburgers, chocolates, candy...That doesn't seem like the clientele for diet TV dinners.

Unmentioned is that during scary economic times there is probably an instinctual urge to bulk up. If so, we Americans have been in crisis mode most of this decade.