Ask Lemmy

26702 readers

3000 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Please don't post about US Politics.

Rules: (interactive)

1) Be nice and; have fun

Doxxing, 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 spam

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

4) NSFW is okay, within reason

Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either [email protected] or [email protected]. 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 [email protected]. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.

Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

Is eating a lot of canned food bad? (sopuli.xyz)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/asklemmy

42 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Theoretically canned food is fine, if you account for nutritional loss during canning process (vit c hates heat, some other vitamins too) and ingredients added (sugar and salt content can be huge).

There is one practical problem with canned food I didn't see anyone mention. Bisphenol A or BPA consumption can have neurological consequences in diets with a lot of tinned food. Most manufacturers now (location dependent) use BPA-free cans, but not all.

This is why I added more frozen food to my diet. Chopped Frozen broccoli, frozen spinach, peas, beans, carrots etc. Are really quick to thaw and reheat without needing much time and can be dumped into most meals without ruining them. Split red lentils also take maybe 7 mins from dry, no soaking required.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thanks, this thread has been highly informative for me. I now know there's a little bit of vitamin loss from the canning process, so I should look into that.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

No problem! I had the same questions for the same reasons once, so I'm just glad my research can benefit someone other than me.

Here's a good article with more info on how processing affects food, including a list of vitamins you want to watch for, the tl;dr is water soluble vitamins (B-group and C) https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/food-processing-and-nutrition

Thankfully they're very common and easy to compensate for. Low levels of vitamins can cascade into a bunch of different issues too, so it's definitely something to watch.