CAN YOU EAT HEALTHY FROM CANS?

I don't know if they eat exclusively out of cans at the South Pole...

...aren't some things going to be frozen? :wink:

Freeze-dried? MREs?

Let's ask cicerone imposter; he just cruised there.

I bet he had some pretty fresh lobster, come to think of it...

I think the main problem with many canned foods is the high salt content.
But, apart from that, you can get a more than adequate variety of food--vegetables, fruits, fish, meat, beans, juices etc. from cans. If you wash off the vegetables and beans, and buy fruit in water pack (or reduced sugar syrup), and make wise and balanced choices, I think one could enjoy a fairly good level of nutrition from cans. Just watch salt (and fat content in some canned meat products) and include beans for fiber and protein. The only thing that might be missing is adequate calcium, but you can get powdered milk and drink that.

I have no idea what they eat in the Antarctic.

The problem with eating from cans is that you have no idea how much the food inside was cooked, what it has come into contact with etc..
Veggies are delicate in the sence that if you OVER cook, wich people make the common mistake of doing all the time, you remove almost all vitamins and minerals and it becomes filler food.. not healthy food.

As to any diet, strict rules have to be obeyed, but so should enorporating a large variety of foods. You can not ... let say... go completely with out protien. You would die. You cant go completely with out sugars.. you would die .. etc . etc. A healthy diet is one that consists of large amounts of fruits / veggies , balanced amounts of protien and carbs.. little fat and little to no granulated sugars. ( granulated sugar isnt essential for the body. Sugars are essential but you get exactly what you need from fruits and other sweet veggies with out having to resort to granulated sugar ) A good diet shows on the body. Your hair will be healthy, your fingernails wont be flakey, your eyes will be bright, your skin wont have a grey, yellow, or any other unnatural tint to it.

The easiest diet to follow is one you yourself like. But to get the maximum out of what you eat, you should go organic for veggies/fruits, free range hormone free for meats and just steer clear of granulated sugars.

At random, I just grabbed two cans from my pantry.

Mango slices in light syrup have 20% of the daily requirement of Vit A, 15% of the daily requirement of Vit C, and 4% of the daily requirement of Calcium, per serving.

Fat Free Vegetarian Chili has 13 gr Protein (26% RDA), 12 gr fiber (48% RDA), 100% RDA Vit A, 20% RDA Vit C, 20% RDA Iron, and 4% RDA Calcium, per serving.

So, just because things come in cans, does not mean that they lack vitamins and minerals. Those two items seem to offer quite good nutrition. But, one should always read the nutritional labels on cans to see what one is getting.

It's nice to say that people should eat organically grown veggies and free range chickens, but I'm not convinced those foods are really much better than regular fresh veggies or fresh chicken. And many people can't afford to buy fresh fruits or vegetables, or they might find shopping or cooking difficult. While I personally think fresh food tastes better, I can't see where anyone would actually suffer poor health by eating a sensible balanced diet of canned items.

Right now, the supply of fresh fruit seems rather limited. The weather conditions have increased the price of citrus fruit and tomatoes, so bananas, grapes and apples are generally the only reasonable available choices. So, I've stocked up on all kinds of canned fruit, some of which (like canned pineapple and canned apricots) I actually prefer to the fresh variety. And, when I want a fast tuna salad sandwich, I'll always reach for a can.

Canned food is generally less expensive, it's handy, it can be stored for a long time, and it's just plain convenient. One could live out of cans and probably be very healthy if they made wise choices in their selections and aimed for a well balanced diet.

You can get a good buzz from Sterno and Miracle Whip cans. Was I helpful?

Miracle Whip comes in cans?

You can also use heavier food cans as weights. Just hold one in each hand and go through a work-out. Then you can burn your calories in advance of eating the contents.

SOURCE: FDA/CFSAN Food Safety A to Z Reference Guide, Sept 2001

Little-known fact:

Did you know that there is more nutritional value in a can of dog food than in over 90% of the canned foods that humans eat?

Because of the travel time involved from field to market - canned is often a better choice than fresh. Frozen is almost always a better option than either. Odd, but them's the facts if you're not going to get the stuff from the fields yourself.

That wouldn't surprise me at all, kicky.

Canned dog food is meant to be a nutritionally complete meal in a single can. It (supposedly) contains all the nutritional elements necessary to support growth and maintain health.

Most canned foods that humans consume (with the exception of products like Ensure or Slim Fast) are not meant to be nutritionally complete meals--at least not from a single can. That's true of fresh food also--we have to combine a variety of foods to get a "complete" and balanced diet.

Probably most people use canned food for things like fruit, soup, and vegetables, and those sorts of things, when eaten alone, are not nutritionally complete. Even a can of tuna, which is loaded with protein, is incomplete by itself because it lacks many vitamins, minerals and fiber which you must get from other sources. But that's just as true if you eat fresh tuna rather than the canned.

From what I've read about diet at the South Pole bases, one of the reasons that incoming flights are welcomed is the fresh food--produce and meat.

Before WW II most American diets were severely limited by the local growing season and whatever food was available in cans.

In Australia, the Australian Government Analytical Laboratories (AGAL) has undertaken major nutritional studies on canned food, using methods specified by the Australia New Zealand Food Authority. Its findings? There are no practical differences between the nutritional value of fresh and canned foods.
http://askmen.com


Q: I was raised on canned foods, and I often find myself feeding them to my family. Are there any that are as good for you as fresh produce?

A: Contrary to popular opinion, canned foods can be a very nutritious choice. According to research from the University of Massachusetts that compared the nutritional values of canned, frozen and fresh vegetables, canned products definitely hold their own. The study's authors found that the same recipe made with fresh, frozen or canned ingredients delivers an almost identical nutrition profile in each case.

Canned foods can actually be better than the "real" thing because of the lag time between fresh produce being harvested and displayed in supermarkets. The food is usually hauled long-distance and stored in centralized warehouses first, so store-bought produce often loses some of its just-picked nutritional value. The canning process takes produce at its nutritional peak and freezes it at that point. Sometimes canning even adds nutritional value to a food. Take tomatoes: The process of cooking them helps release the lycopene (a disease-fighting phytochemical that occurs naturally in red plants) embedded in their cell walls. Because canned tomatoes are cooked at high temperatures and are promptly sealed, processed tomato products beat out fresh tomatoes as the best sources of lycopene.

Of course, another benefit of canned foods is practicality. They tend to be considerably cheaper than fresh, and they keep indefinitely, allowing you to buy in bulk and maintain a pantry stocked with vegetables, fruits, beans and fish. Having cans on hand makes it less likely that you'll depend on fast food when you need to prepare dinner in a pinch!

There are some potential drawbacks to canned foods. For starters, they tend to have a very high sodium content ?- as much as 60 times more than the raw product! Sodium has traditionally been used to preserve foods and enhance their flavor, but today many foods can be packed effectively without it. Whenever possible, opt for low-sodium or "no added salt" canned goods. Other pitfalls come in the form of sugars and fat. Fruits packed in heavy, high-calorie corn syrup are more decadent than diet-friendly, so stick to fruits packed in their own juice. And keep an eye out for fat content, especially in canned foods such as chili, stew and oil-packed tuna. Check nutrition labels before you buy, and look for foods with no more than 3 grams of fat per serving.

http://lifetimetv.com

Great!

Thanks everybody.The more I know about canned goods the better.I'm a cheap and easy fanatic and I need to know about canned goods.

spendius.