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Canned vegetables(canned things in general) question

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Posted 10/21/2009 10:06 PM (GMT 0)
 

 

Putting aside the sodium and other concerns of canned food, do nutrients survive the canning process?   I don't just mean the vitamins and minerals either, but also the phytoalexins, plant sterols, and that kind of thing.  Can a good canned vegetable soup be used for daily vegetable serving?

I have been trying to eat broccoli, greens etc that I make from frozen(and thus no preservatives and bare minimum sodium) but it's not very tasty in that format. 

Here's the soup I like, for reference:

http://www.healthychoice.com/product-Country-Vegetable_2108.html

Posted 10/22/2009 1:51 AM (GMT 0)
Bump
Posted 10/22/2009 3:22 AM (GMT 0)
In general, the canning process does get rid of a lot of the vitamins and minerals. I don't know about those other things you asked about:) I am sure it is still better for you to eat it than a lot of other things and should still count towards your vegetable servings. However, the ingredients weren't listed on this site, so I would be interested to see those as well.
You could make a good homeade vegetable soup and freeze it. If you like to cook that is. Some of the vitamins and minerals would be lost in the small cooking time it would take to make it, but less than it would take to can it. Also, you wouldn't have all the preservatives and unnecessary ingredients.
Posted 10/22/2009 4:14 AM (GMT 0)
If you incorporate the liquid from the canned vegetables into your meal, that will provide you with the greatest retention of food value. Any vitamins and other substances that are water soluble will be in the liquid; all you would lose is those that are destroyed by heating.

Actually, even if you pick veggies out of your garden and cook them in water you should do the same. Steaming helps retain more of the nutrients in the veggies.
Posted 10/22/2009 10:57 AM (GMT 0)
Check labels on the canned food - there may be unwanted stuff in there, such as corn syrup or other sugars, MSG, preservatives, etc. (for example, most all canned vegetables are treated with sulfite preservatives to prevent discoloration, but these sulfites are almost never listed on the label because of the lax labeling laws we have in the US...)

Making your own soup at home is usually fairly easy and it likely will taste way better than canned (at least to my taste buds...). Using herbs and seasonings can be helpful, too - depending on what type of soup.

Recipe websites are numerous, and some sites enable you to search for gluten-free or other special diet option recipes.

Good luck,
Posted 10/22/2009 12:46 PM (GMT 0)
I bought the Eat This Not That Supermarket Survival Guide and this particular soup has been recommended by this book. I'm the only person that eats vegetable soup in my family so it isn't beneficial for me to make a big pot of home-made soup so I buy canned. If you are going to buy canned soup, I believe that this one is a good one to buy. However, I do agree with the previous posts that it is better to go with home-made.
Posted 10/22/2009 12:57 PM (GMT 0)
I actually started eating this soup based off that book too. But- that book appears to be making its recommendations based only on things like sodium content.

This reminds me of a news article I saw a couple of months ago where they said "organic foods do not contain any more vitamins and minerals than normal food"; and my first thought was that I thought the point of organic foods was that they are grown without pesticides, hormones and other pollutants, not that they actually contained more nutrients...
Posted 10/22/2009 2:33 PM (GMT 0)
You are correct in that this particular soup is recommended by calories, fat, fiber, protein and sodium content.  Any sort of processing such as canning is going to destroy/diminish some nutrients.  When I was at my sickest with Lyme I was actually looking in to buying a juicer and juicing. I found that even the heat from juicers can destroy nutrients.  I agree with you on that buying organic meant the product was free of pesticides and that organic doesn't mean that the food has more nutrients.  I sometimes find that the more research I do, the more confused I get because there can be so much conflicting information out there. Some of my decisions I make are made solely on research plus a "gut feeling".  Well, off to work I go! I hope you have a good day!
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