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Quality, taste and nutrients are, of course, all important factors when it comes to picking which food you might eat. But for many people, things like convenience and speed — or even just less time spent in the kitchen — are important when it comes to cooking.
When it comes to making sure you’re not slaving away over a stove for hours on end for each meal, canned foods are great pantry staples that can help you manage your time effectively. Moreover, they can often be help in helping you avoid breaking the bank — or severing your tastebuds.
Still, canned food often gets a bad rep. Sometimes, they can be seen as over-processed or less flavourful than their fresh counterparts.
That’s not always the case, however. Some canned foods even have more nutrients thanks to heat-activated preservation techniques. For example, canned tomatoes have more lycopene, according to Unlock Food Canada. That antioxidant can help protect against serious health risks such as heart disease and cancer.
However, not all canned foods are as healthy as you might think. Below, read more about seven types of canned foods you should avoid picking up during your next grocery store trip.
1. Canned fruit in syrup
Calling fruit unhealthy might sound like an oxymoron, but the canned version of sweet peaches, pineapples, tangerines and fruit medleys are something you should skip eating. The Food Bank of Waterloo recommends avoiding canned fruit packaged in syrup due to its high sugar content.
According to Health Canada, canned fruit in light syrup has around 21 per cent of your daily recommended sugar intake. When looking at nutritional labels, anything over 15 per cent is a lot regarding sugar.
Moreover, the canning process can impact nutrients that are otherwise present in fresh fruit. According to Livestrong, the amount of water-soluble vitamin C and most vitamin B in fruits is reduced when canned.
2. Canned soup
Soup is healthy, right? It has meat or beans, vegetables and broth — all what you’d consider healthy foods. However, many canned soups contain way too much salt. One study from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) shows condensed and ready-to-serve soups have some of the highest sodium levels in the Canadian packaged food industry.
That study also found soup is one of the biggest contributors of sodium to Canadian diets — along with canned and pickled vegetables. That said, canned soups can be convenient and accessible ways to eat nutritionally balanced meals. Fortunately, most soup companies make lower-sodium options.
3. Canned vegetables
When CIHR researchers tested the sodium content in various packaged foods, they found almost 30 per cent of canned vegetables exceeded maximum sodium levels. That said, the sodium content in canned vegetables varies widely, often between zero and 2,800 mg per 100 g of food. If eating canned vegetables helps you get more produce in your diet, look for labels indicating they have lower sodium content.
According to Unlock Food, the following labels indicate less than five mg of sodium per serving:
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Free of sodium/salt
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Salt-free
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Without salt
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Contains no sodium
The second-best labels are those indicating less than 140 mg of salt per serving:
Double check the salt content of any packages marked with “reduced” or “lower” salt or sodium. These labels only mean the product contains less sodium than the original version. Similarly, “no added” sodium or salt means the manufacturers didn’t add salt. The original product might still be high in sodium.
4. Canned pre-cooked pasta
Pre-cooked pasta in sauce is one of the unhealthiest canned foods. While they might be tasty meals, the reason they have that addictive flavour is due to high levels of sugar and salt. For example, a can of Heinz Alphaghetti contains 1,490 mg of sodium and 18 g of sugar. That’s 65 per cent and 18 per cent of your recommended daily intake, respectively.
Considering the amount of poor nutrients in these canned foods, it’s probably a good idea to stick to making your own pasta and sauce.
5. Canned chili
When you’re tired or too busy to cook, it’s tempting to grab a can of chili and heat it up for dinner as an easy fix for a meal. Unfortunately, canned chili performs the same as canned pasta nutritionally. In the CIHR study, more than 43 per cent of canned and other shelf-stable meals exceeded the recommended sodium maximum.
Chili is a significant culprit. The nutritional label for the Stagg Chili shows 1,000 mg of sodium per 300 g serving. That’s 43 per cent of your recommended daily value; the same serving also contains 10 per cent of your recommended daily sugar intake.
6. Canned baked beans
Canned beans are a toss-up when it comes to nutrition. If you choose well, they’re a quick and easy way to make high-protein dishes with or without meat. Dry beans require soaking and pre-cooking, but canned beans come ready to eat.
Some canned beans have high sodium content, mainly from the liquid in the can. Unlock Food recommends It’s a good idea to choose no-sodium-added versions or draining the liquid before cooking, per Unlock Food. If you’re careful about your choice of beans, they’re not so bad.
Canned baked beans are harder to justify. The manufacturing process involves cooking them in a sweet syrup that you don’t drain away. According to FatSecret Canada, Heinz Baked Beans have 520 mg of sodium per serving, 23 per cent of your daily value. They also have nearly nine grams of sugar.
7. Canned meat
Between sausages and corned beef, to Spam and other hams, canned meats are one kind of food that aren’t great. While they’re not the worst of the worst, with many containing low to no grams of sugar, there are other aspects of the nutrition label you should be analyzing when picking these foods up.
Within most canned meats, the sodium content brings these options to the dark side. Vienna sausage has roughly 1,095mg of sodium per serving, which is almost half your recommended intake. Spam does better at 560mg — 24 per cent of your daily value. Still, these aren’t things that should always be entering your grocery cart when you’re out shopping.
Choosing the right canned food
Did you notice a pattern? All of the “bad” canned foods on this list have high levels of sugar or sodium. It’s not the food itself, but how it’s prepared.
The canning process isn’t the problem. There’s a widespread myth that preservation strips foods of their nutrients. But according to Canadian Food Focus, most canned foods are nutritionally intact.
Too much salt and sugar make canned foods problematic. Fortunately for consumers, you can filter out the worst options and choose lower-salt and lower-sugar options to get the best health benefits from the food you eat.
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