Canned Foods Recipes, Nutrition and Cooking Tips

Home Cooking

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Cooking with Canned Foods

Part 1: Canned food can be more nutritional than fresh

More of this Feature

• Part 1: Canned Food Freshness
• Part 2: Canned Food Tips and Hints
• Part 3: Canned Food Recipes

Related Resources

• Canning & Preserving
• Can Sizes and Equivalents
• More Help Articles
• A to Z Recipes & Food

Recipes

• Bourbon Corn Chowder
• Canned Butter
• Country Cornbread
• Pork, Sweet Potato, and Black Bean Stew
• Italian Bean and Tuna Salad
• More Canned Food Recipes
• All Recipes

Related Cookbooks

• Best Recipes from the Backs of Boxes, Bottles, Cans, and Jars
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• Complete Guide to Home Canning, Preserving and Freezing
• The Complete Book of Year-Round Small-Batch Preserving
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• More Cookbooks

Some foodies may look down their noses at commercially-canned foods, but recent studies show that canned foods are just as nutritional, if not moreso, than fresh foods. They can also be a lifesaver for those with little time to cook a nutritious meal. With the potential of a national disaster occuring at any time due to weather or earth movement, it's good to keep your pantry stocked with either commercially or home-canned foods. Before you get to the canned food recipes, let's take a deeper look into the freshness aspects.

Is fresh food better than canned food?
The current trend is pushing fresh, organic foods for nutrition and health, but truth be told, fresh vegetables are not necessarily more nutritious than canned. A 1997 study by the University of Illinois Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition found that canned fruits and vegetables provide as much dietary fiber and vitamins as the same corresponding fresh foods, and in some cases, even more. For example, canned pumpkin provides 540% of the Recommended Daily Intake of vitamin A, while fresh pumpkin only provides only 26%.

Fresh foods begin losing vitamins as soon as they are picked, and often sit in warehouses or in transit for as long as two weeks before they find their way into the market to sit even longer waiting to be purchased. Fresh fruits and some vegetables are harvested before they are even ripe, and depend upon time and other means to reach the ripened state. Canned foods are harvested at their peak of ripeness and normally cooked and processed from the source within hours, thus preserving more vitamins than their fresh counterparts.

Variety is the spice of life
Over 1,500 food products are available in a canned state, lending convenience and diversity to those with a busy lifestyle. The sodium content in commercially-canned foods has been significantly reduced, up to 40% than old canning methods. Most are also now available in low-salt, no-salt, low-sugar, and no-sugar preparations for those with special dietary needs and/or those who want a more natural flavor.

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