this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2024
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[–] [email protected] 58 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Have you tried reading the label? I find that sums it up rather nicely.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Well, your question as asked has the answer of yes, and then no.

Canning absolutely does not destroy or otherwise remove "nutrition" totally. And, as such, if the food that is canned was not empty calories to begin with (which is a kinda bullshit term tbh, since the only thing that covers is sugars only, and maybe fats only, which nobody cans), then the food inside the can is not empty either.

As others have said, the process of canning does break down some nutrients. However, so does cooking to some degree. But, cooking also makes some things easier to extract from the food as it goes through digestion, so it isn't like raw things are inherently better than their cooked versions by virtue of being raw.

So, in general, canned foods are going to be "good enough" on average, when it comes to vitamins and minerals. Some things will be better than others in that regard, so you'd have to look things up as you go and figure out what is going to be reduced enough to merit going through extra effort to obtain and store frozen/raw.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 10 months ago

Somewhere in between. The canning process does alter the ingredients, but not by a whole hell of a lot compared to something like, say, cooking them.

So, they still can have good nutrition. The bigger thing to worry about are things like extra salt and sugar added, which can add up with other things in your diet to reach an unhealthy amount.

All that said, frozen is usually better these days, pretty much across-the-board.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Just because it's tinned doesn't mean it's not nutritional... Most things in a can aren't changed or added to in any way other than pasteurization after being sealed to kill anything on the food in the can.

At worst, canned soups and meats and sometimes vegetables with added salt have too much salt and canned fruits have added sugar when they are packed in "syrup" instead of water or their own juice.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

It has most of the nutritional value it had before it was canned but some vitamins degrade pretty rapidly.

One of the factors in food preservation and nutrition is the stability of different vitamins. Specifically, there are water-soluble and fat-soluble vitamins.

Water-soluble vitamins dissolve in water. They are less stable and more affected by processing and include folate, thiamine, and vitamin C. Fat-soluble vitamins dissolve in fat. They’re more stable and include water, vitamin A, D, E, and K. Fat-soluble vitamins are less effected by cooking and preserving.

Basically it depends on what the food is and how it is preserved

If I'm honest with you though there is no harm in eating canned food and no such thing as "empty calories" all of your daily nutrients are important and you should get them but not meeting you daily quota isn't such a huge deal as long as it isn't especially consistent. Calories are your fuel but you can think of vitamins and micro nutrients as your oil that keeps things running smoothly.

If your diet is primarily canned goods I would recommend taking a multivitamin or altering your diet to include fresh produce containing those water soluble vitamins.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

I would argue that anything with more carbs, sugar, etc than fat and protein is by definition empty calories and in the case of soda and juice (yes even fruit juice) it's even worse because of the complete lack of nutrients and what sugar does to your insulin response, hunger response, etc.

You can and people do make breads that are heavier and packed with more nutrients. I don't remember the specifics but simply letting dough rise for longer than you usually would does add some nutrients but it's still not outweighed by the negative effects of a carb heavy diet.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

Canned foods tend to have less nutrients compared to fresh or frozen fruits/veggies.

IIRC, frozen actually has the most nutrients because its harvested when its ripest versus fresh produce thats harvested earlier than it should be and "ripens " as its delivered and shelved. Could be wrong, just something I remember hearing.

I prefer fresh to frozen, because of the texture changes.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago (1 children)

That's part of it, but I believe the other part is the canning process further depletes some of the nutritional value.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago (2 children)

Makes sense, raw produce is more nutrient rich than cooked produce

[–] [email protected] 4 points 10 months ago

Yes, but the nutrients in raw are not as available as cooked. They're present in higher quantities, but a lot will pass through undigested.

Calculating how much is destroyed by cooking vs how much is made available is going to depend heavily on the food and nutrients in question.

But I will say that if you need more or less of a nutrient, you will get much further by changing the food vs how it's prepared.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 months ago

Mostly, but sometimes cooking them can actually increase some values by breaking down cell walls and making nutrients more available (to a point, anyhow).

[–] [email protected] 8 points 10 months ago

Don't know why you're downvoted so much.

Yes there will be vitamins and minerals.

Maybe nutritiondata.org has more info if you want to check.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 10 months ago

Depends whats in the tin.

Fruit and veg? Sure

Custard? Mostly sugar (empty calories)