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Do canned food have the same nutrition as fresh foods?

17 Answers

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  • Anonymous
    11 months ago
    Favorite Answer

    This isn't as straight forward to answer as people seem to think.  It depends on which vegetables as some hold up to cooking better than others, tor example the canning process makes certain nutrients in tomatoes MORE available to our bodies while reducing others.  It depends on how fresh your "fresh vegetables" actually are as well.  Thanks to the wonders of the modern supply change your store-bought fresh veg can be months old before you buy them.  They are sometimes much LESS nutritious than vegetables brought in from your garden, but you'd never know without testing them in a lab.  At least both frozen and canned vegetables are processed within hours of harvest.  It depends on how you were planning to prepare the item too.  A freshly dug up raw carrot chewed on from whole is more nutritious than a cut and cooked one.  If your carrot is destined to be cooked soft you've not lost anything in the canning process.

    Here's just one vegetable you can compare different nutritional values, you may have to give your device permission to use flash to see the charts, also check that you set all the serving sizes to 100g in order to compare like with like, for some reason different entries have different default serving sizes.

    Peas, raw:

    https://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-an...

    Peas, cooked from fresh (no storage time given):

    https://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-an...

    Peas cooked from frozen:

    https://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-an...

    Peas, canned (undrained):

    https://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-an...

    (drained):

    https://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/vegetables-an...

    As you can see there is some loss of nutrients but it's not at an even rate and much of the loss is very small.  You can repeat this research for other vegetables and each will have its own profile of how it responds to the canning process.  To say that canned vegetables are bad across the board is simply wrong.

  • 11 months ago

    When it comes to protein and omega3 yes. They are good supply of both. However, they have much salt, sometimes 40% of daily value per can. So, be careful. Eat them moderately. Also, they have no vitamins. 

  • 11 months ago

    Go Frozen. Fresh is always best, but ****, like you will work that? I'm in that situation. Frozen is "Flash Frozen", so it will last.

    NEVER buy "Canned", that's just nasty unless you're holding out for the Zombie Apocalypse.

  • ?
    Lv 7
    11 months ago

    Slightly less, but are nearly as good as fresh, if you cant get the fresh food.

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  • kswck2
    Lv 7
    11 months ago

    No. Canned foods are cooked in the can at a high temperature-to kill off any bacteria. And then they are 'topped'. So they have Less nutrients in them, but last a Lot longer than any other way.

  • 11 months ago

    No, canned food has less nutrients, because it is cooked and the water soluble vitamins get leeched into the water and thrown away.  I ended up with B and C vitamin deficiency in grade school because mom fed us almost exclusively canned vegetables, not fresh ones.  You can compare nutrient values on various websites on the internet, by cooking method.  A book labeled "Food Values for Portions Commonly Used" is a hard copy valuable resource for nutritionists. You can also search for things like "calories in (whatever food) and check out the websites.  Some offer more detailed info than others.

    Generally its raw foods highest in nutrients, then frozen ones, because they get flash frozen to preserve the nutrients.  Then it depends on your cooking method.  Microwaving retains almost all the nutrients, as long as you cook it right and don't burn it to a crisp.  Steaming is better than boiling, because it uses less water, so less leeching.  Baking or roasting is good if you don't burn it.

  • ..
    Lv 7
    11 months ago

    There's got to be a loss but, what we have today is regulation and its up to YOU to read the details on THE CAN. :-) If the can says BEEF and it turns out to be horse meat, get what I'm saying Bro.

  • 11 months ago

    No. You lose a lot of nutrients canning food.

  • 11 months ago

    No, and they have additive preservatives like sodium, and other chemicals from the can

  • Anonymous
    11 months ago

    fresh is always best

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