Canned fruits and veggies - are they healthy? (adapted from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics)

Canned fruits and vegetables are often more appealing because they have a longer shelf life and are less expensive than if you were to buy the same fruits and vegetables fresh. But what compromises, if any, are you making in terms of nutrition when you choose the canned option?

Does the long shelf life mean that they aren't as nutritious?

Not necessarily. During the canning process, the food is heated to very high temperatures in sterile containers, which kills any organisms in the food that would cause the food to go bad. Besides that, the food has the same amount of nutrients that the same food in its fresh form would have!

One nutrient in particular that canned foods are shown to have MORE of than fresh foods is lycopene, which is found in tomato products. Cooked tomatoes (canned tomatoes, pasta sauce, pizza sauce, etc.) will offer you more lycopene, because it becomes more available to the body once the tomato is cooked. Lycopene has shown to lower risk of certain cancers.

Canned foods do show a use by date, meaning even though the food lasts a long time, it won't last forever. Throw away canned food after a year of purchasing.

Read the nutrition labels

Make sure that when you're choosing to buy canned fruits and vegetables instead of fresh ones, you read the nutrition label on the can. Some canned fruits are kept in a sugary syrup, which can add unwanted calories to your diet. So, look for fruits canned in water versus the syrup. When buying canned vegetables, watch out for sodium content. Again, just read the nutrition label. Don't add extra salt and sodium to your diet when choosing canned options!

Canned foods are more convenient in some cases

If you're looking for convenient, quick food choices, canned foods can save you lots of time. For example, beans. I've tried buying the dried bags of black beans from the grocery store, but these can take hours to prepare because you have to let them soak in water before you can use them. I prefer to buy beans in a can (watch for sodium! Buy low sodium beans if you can!) because you can just pop open the can and use them in your food. This can be true for any kind of dried beans/lentils. The canned options are much more convenient.