I recently gave up eating takeout every night, but I’m too lazy to cook, which led to me replacing it with basically nothing but canned food. Like I’ll mix a can of beans and a can of mixed vegetables together, put half in a bowl and put the other half in a container for tomorrow, put salad dressing on it, and then that’s my dinner. I also eat a half can of fruit per day, because I found the shelf life and inconsistencies with produce to be too annoying.
On the one hand, I think I’m eating better than I was when I was doing nothing but takeout. My salt consumption has plummeted, and in general, I think the nutritional facts for my canned meal are better across the board than the takeout meals I was doing.
On the other hand, if there’s some long term issue with eating too much canned food, then I’m definitely going to be affected by it. I was thinking cats lead pretty good lives with nothing but canned food, so maybe I’ll be ok.
Anyway, am I going to die a horrible canned food death, or am I ok?
Theoretically canned food is fine, if you account for nutritional loss during canning process (vit c hates heat, some other vitamins too) and ingredients added (sugar and salt content can be huge).
There is one practical problem with canned food I didn’t see anyone mention. Bisphenol A or BPA consumption can have neurological consequences in diets with a lot of tinned food. Most manufacturers now (location dependent) use BPA-free cans, but not all.
This is why I added more frozen food to my diet. Chopped Frozen broccoli, frozen spinach, peas, beans, carrots etc. Are really quick to thaw and reheat without needing much time and can be dumped into most meals without ruining them. Split red lentils also take maybe 7 mins from dry, no soaking required.
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No problem! I had the same questions for the same reasons once, so I’m just glad my research can benefit someone other than me.
Here’s a good article with more info on how processing affects food, including a list of vitamins you want to watch for, the tl;dr is water soluble vitamins (B-group and C) https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/food-processing-and-nutrition
Thankfully they’re very common and easy to compensate for. Low levels of vitamins can cascade into a bunch of different issues too, so it’s definitely something to watch.