this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2023
48 points (98.0% liked)

Ask Lemmy

26890 readers
1751 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Please don't post about US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
 

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?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Hillock@kbin.social 33 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Canned fruits are often placed in a ton of syrup and sugar. So they aren't all that great for you. Even if you don't drink the syrup.

Canned vegetables on the other hand are perfectly fine and no different from frozen vegetables. There are rarely preservatives added since the heat and vacuum is enough to keep them from spoiling.

It's important to buy just vegetables. If you buy pre-made canned food then the quality drops significantly due to the amount of sugar, salt, and fats added. So canned peas are fine, canned pea soup not so much.

Canned vegetables have a worse reputation than deserved and it mostly comes from taste rather than health issues.

But mixing up your diet is never a bad idea. So instead of just going canned goods you can consider dried goods. Dried fruits don't have the same issue as canned fruits while still having a long shelf life. There are dried apple or banana chips, dried plums, mangos, apricots, also nuts and seeds are great alternatives.

And even dried vegetables are an option. They require a little bit more planning because some of them need to be soaked over night. And beans usually need to be cooked in addition to the soaking as they are poisonous otherwise. But not all dried vegetables need soaking, lentils can be cooked immediately. And offers, such as dried peas can even be eaten as snack in dried form.

[–] yarn@sopuli.xyz 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Haha yeah, the canned fruit is loaded with sugar from that extra syrup they add. I've been rationalizing it as at least I'm not drinking soda anymore, but I need to fix that too.

This is great info, though. Dried fruit is a good idea about ditching that sugary syrup. Plus, it's easier than canned fruit anyway. I have been avoiding the premixed canned stuff and I do eat a lot of nuts and seeds, but I don't do any dried vegetables. I'll start looking into trying those. They do sound like they'd be a good way to get more variety.

[–] Hillock@kbin.social 7 points 1 year ago

With some dried fruits you just need to be a bit careful as they can really speed up your digestive system if you eat too many of them. Dried plums and apricots are the main culprits for me. They are so delicious and I could eat 10 or more in one go. Treat them as fresh fruit and eat 1-3 at a time and you will be fine.

Also get non sulfured variants. They don't look as nice and don't last as long but the taste is so much better.

[–] fiat_lux@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

no different from frozen vegetables

Canning frequently requires processing and heating. These have consequences for some vitamin levels, so they're not exactly the same. Vitamin C is one of the bigger losses in canned food, often 60% or more because it hates oxygen and heat. Frozen fruit and vegetables are typically better for that reason, but canned is still fine if you account for it and your cans are also BPA free.

Assuming both canned and frozen foods are manufactured in ideal circumstances otherwise.

[–] xkforce@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

Canned veggies often have a lot of salt in them which is the main issue with them healthwise. Canned fruits you can reduce the sugar content by draining the liquid and washing them gently with tap water but like most fruits, theres still going to be a fair amount of sugar in them even if you manage to remove the sugars added to canned fruits.