Are canned vegetables and canned soup really nutritious?

Question

I have heard that the vitamins and stuff are mostly depleted by the canning preservation process. Is this true? Also I wonder how many unhealthy preservatives or chemicals there are in there.

It sure is easier though to pop open a can of vegetable soup as opposed to preparing something from scratch with fresh vegetables. Anybody with any knowledge or expereince with this?

Answer 1

Canned soup is ok from a nutrition standpoint but you could do a lot better. Try this....take a bag a fresh frozen veggies (thawed out) and add a can of tomato soup, season to taste and cook until hot and serve. This cuts down on sodium and increases the nutrients from the veggies. (and its easy)

Answer 2

It is always better to have fresh. The canning process does alter some of the vitamins that are heat labile. But there is plenty of nutrition in the canned food. Read the label to see what preservatives might be in there. If it is canned properly it does not need any but some are added to retain color.Go fresh when you can or frozen. You may have noted on the shelves that you can choose cans with less salt in them(sodium). Also try for variety because it gives you a better chance to get all the nutrients that you need.

Answer 3

There's a great book out there called "Preserving the Harvest". You should read it. The generalities are that the least nutritious way to preserve is canning, then freezing and then dry. The most nutritious is cold preservation (not frozen). However, some types of food are just better suited to certain types of preservation. Foods start losing nutrients as soon as they are picked so flash freezing would seem to be the best, but the freezing process itself can cause loss of nutrition. The trade-off seems to be that the longer the shelflife for the food, the less nutritious it will be. If you can use cold storage to preserve your food (root cellar etc.) that is the most nutritious, but least effective preservation...next would be dry preservation (good for 2-4 months), next freezing (6-8 months) and canning (up to a year....longer in some cases). Hope that helps.

Answer 4

Fresh fruit and veg is always better than anything else. Canning does destroy a lot of vitamins as the food is boiled in the can andheat destroys many nutrients. Frozen vegetables however tend to have more nutrients than the "fresh" stuff from the supermarket as it is frozen very quickly after harvest.

Answer 5

caned is better than not eating them but not as good as fresh, try to choose ones with low sodium. there are also frozen veggies that are fast frozen with out all the sodium etc added that you can pop in the microwave and they steam in the bag. get in the habit of reading labels and you may be shocked as to what goes into processed food. sure popping a canned is easier, but it's worth the time to to fresh when possible

Answer 6

they do contain lot of sodium and sugar, and if you read the labels I think the biggest % of vegetables you get is 50%. I dont think the canning process depleats too much, I know for a fact that tin tomatoes are better for you than fresh tomatoes that you would buy in the supermarket (although not freshly picked from the garden)

Answer 7

Anything canned is consider processed food and is not good for you. Canned soup is loaded with alot of sodium. Just stay away from this stuff.

Answer 8

I always wonder the same, it is probably best to eat just fruit and veg by itself when possible. Although saying that canned veg and soup is probably better than chocolate and no veg at all!

Answer 9

the canning process does delete much of the nutrients. canned foods also contain a lot of sodium. but it is much more convenient to just pop open a can. i do it myself .

Answer 10

I wouldn't say that they're not nutritious whatsoever.... definetly a rip off though. If its all the green you got, go for it. Its better than nothing.