Nutritionist and television presenter Amanda Ursell has joined forces with Canned Food UK to highlight the changes to canned food, which includes less sugar and salt and also details the contents of spam!
What is corned beef and spam? Is it really a product you want to put in your body?
Corned beef is called this because the beef is preserved with ‘corns’ better known as coarse grains of salt. It is then chopped and pressed and canned in the familiar rectangular shaped cans. Each 100g gives us 205 calories and 11g of fat.
A typical beef burger on the other hand provides 326 calories per 100g and 24 of fat which is significantly more on both fronts. Both give us 26g of protein needed to build and maintain muscles for example. So I guess you could ask the same of beef burgers; are they a product you really want to put in your body?
A lot of people say yes to yes to one, the other or both corned beef and burgers. As part of a generally healthy and well-balanced diet, it seems a bit harsh to deny someone the odd burger or serving of corned beef.
It is worth noting that it is possible to buy corned beef with a reduced salt content these days.
Spam, like corned beef, is another canned meat product that came to the fore in the Second World War, when people were grateful to be able to eat this finely ground pork product which had been flavoured with salt and sugar.
While people may turn their gastronomic noses up at the product these days, Spam contains 89% pork which is more pork than is found in many pork sausages. Both Spam and pork sausages also contain additives like stabilisers, preservatives, flavourings and antioxidants and while 100g of Spam gives us 289 calories and 24g of fat, a typical 100g worth of grilled pork sausages gives us 294 calories and 22g of fat.
As with corned beef, you could ask the same question of pork sausages, are they really a product you want to put in your body? Again, for many people the answer appears to be ‘yes’ and in moderation as part of a healthy balanced diet. Should we be seeking to ban such foods? Personally, I don’t think so.
Again it is worth noting that ‘healthier’ versions of Spam are available as with corned beef. In this case you can, if a Spam fan, opt for Spam Lite which has 227 calories per 100g and 17g of fat.
Does canned food contribute to your 5-A-DAY?
Absolutely. The same rules apply as for fresh fruit and vegetables with a portion equalling 80g of fruit or veg’ in weight. This is equivalent to two peach or pear halves for example, six apricot halves or eight segments of canned grapefruit.
Could you substitute fresh fruit and veg for canned food?
My advice would be to eat what is most convenient at any given time. If you want to make a quick Spaghetti Bolognese and haven’t got any fresh tomatoes, canned ones make an excellent choice and nutritionally, lycopene, the red pigment in tomatoes and one of its main super nutrients is still intact whether canned or fresh.
When it comes to fruit, canned products provide useful amounts of vitamin C, though in reduced levels compared with fresh. For example, an 80g portion of canned strawberries still gives us over half the 40mg we need each day of this vitamin. If you have a can to hand and want to blend it with yoghurt and milk to whip up a smoothie, it can still be a nutritious choice and if it is a case of canned or nothing, I would much prefer seeing people opting for the former choice not least because canned fruits also still provide fibre and have their colourful antioxidant pigments like orange carotenes in apricots and peaches still absolutely in tact.
Which are the best canned food products you should buy to top up your vitamins?
I always think baked beans are a great stand-by. You can have them for breakfast with tomatoes and mushrooms on toast; on a baked potato for lunch or add them to a soup at dinner time to turn it into a more substantial evening meal. Baked beans, like other pulses give us folate, a B vitamin which is important for healthy nerves and they are great for the mineral iron, a nutrient which we need for keeping our energy levels up.
Sweet corn is another really useful canned food to have in the cupboard. You can add it to tuna to make sandwiches, to omelettes to get one of your five a day or just have it straight in a salad. An 80g serving, which is about three heaped tablespoons, gives us over a quarter of the vitamin C we need for the day.
Does canned food have an indefinite shelf life?
Canned foods do last for a very long time but it is always wise to eat them before the ‘best before’ date provided.
Added sugar and salt – why is this added to canned food and is it necessary?
Neither ingredient was added for preserving reasons because the heating process a can undergoes is sufficient to kill off bacteria. They were added for taste and as our tastes have gradually changed over the years, manufacturers have been able to lower the amounts of sugar and salt added which is a good thing from a nutritional point of view. Obviously, you can opt for many canned fruits in natural juice these days and many vegetables come in unsalted water.
How do you store canned food once it’s been opened?
You need to put any remaining contents into a bowl of plastic container, cover and store in the fridge and then treat this as you would fresh food.
What's in the tin?
Beans – are they really full of nutrition?
Beans are great for fibre, often have good amounts of the B vitamin folate, some iron and give us a fair bit of protein which we need for developing and maintaining all cells in our body including those in all of our important tissues and organs including everything from our muscles to our skin.
Spaghetti hoops – is it nutritious to feed the kids spaghetti hoops?
Spaghetti hoops are fine for children to have as part of an overall healthy, balanced diet. They can for example, provide the carbohydrate part of a meal by serving them with grilled chicken pieces and peas. I wouldn’t give them to children everyday, but that is true of most foods since variety in everyone’s diet is important.
Tuna – how does this compare to a fresh tuna steak?
Fresh tuna contains more omega 3 oils than canned tuna but the levels of protein for example are absolutely comparable.
Tomatoes – are these as nutritious as fresh tomatoes?
Lycopene, the red pigment in tomatoes which is believed to have important antioxidant roles in our bodies is actually better absorbed from canned tomatoes which have effectively been cooked, than from fresh tomatoes. This is because the cooking process helps to make the lycopene less tightly bound to the cell walls and easier to digest.
While fresh tomatoes have 17mg of vitamin C per 100g, canned tomatoes have 12mg which means that you do lose some of this heat sensitive vitamin, but they do still provide a useful amount.
Mushy peas – are they really good for you and what about the colouring?
Mushy peas provide us with around 77 calories per 100g and just 0.2g of fat. They also give us about 5g of protein (women need a total of 45g daily and men, 55g). In addition they give us almost 3g of our daily 18g target for fibre, most of which is ‘soluble’ fibre, the type that helps to lower ‘bad’ cholesterol and helps to keep blood sugar levels steady. On this basis, I would say that yes, mushy peas can be said to be pretty ‘good’ for us.
About the colourings. Yes, mushy peas do still contain two so-called ‘azo’ dyes including tartrazine and a blue coloured dye, both of which have been linked in children with problems like hyperactivity.
Up until now, manufacturers have not been able to find alternative colours which remain stable enough during processing and shelf life to maintain the colour that consumers expect and want from their mushy peas. Without them, mushy peas would be grey.
That said, as part of the voluntary removal of these particular of colourings, manufacturers are exploring the use of alternative colours. This is not as simple a process as changing colours in for instance, celebration cakes or drinks because during the canning processing natural colours fade away relatively quickly.
Interestingly, research shows that the majority of mushy pea products are actually eaten by adults rather than children for whom the colours have in a certain percent, been identified as a potential problem.
How do canned soups compare with fresh soup?
Canned soups can be very nutritious. Lentil soups for example can give us 9g of protein per 300g bowl. This makes a good contribution towards the 45g women need each day and the daily protein target of 55g for men. It also supplies 2.4mg of iron, a mineral which many women in the UK eat too little of and is needed to avoid anaemia and to keep energy levels up and stress levels down. This is the same as the amount found in a 5oz lean grilled steak.
It would be fair to say on the other hand that a freshly prepared home-made gazpacho soup is likely to contain more vitamin C and B vitamins than a canned version.
To a large extent it depends on which nutrients you are comparing when answering this question. There would be very similar amounts of the orange antioxidant pigment beta carotene believed to be good for our skin and lungs whether you bought a ‘fresh’ orange and coriander soup or opened a canned version.
Ultimately, canned soups are a convenient and good value for money addition to your store cupboard and because they have a long shelf life, if you have some in, you can rely on them as part of a quick lunch or supper anytime.
Canned fruit – are there nutrients left in this or not?
The heat treatment which fruit undergoes in the canning process does mean that some of the heat sensitive vitamins like vitamin C are reduced. For example, while 100g of fresh strawberries give us 77mg of vitamin C which is important in our bodies to support our immune system and skin quality, the same weight of canned strawberries provide us with 26mg.
Antioxidant pigments like a range of carotenes in apricots and mangoes on the other hand are not diminished on canning and neither are minerals. In fact, while 100g of stewed prunes give us 1.5mg of the 14.8mg of iron that a woman needs each day, 100g of prunes canned in fruit juice gives us 2.2mg.
Canned potatoes – surely there is no excuse for this?
In what sense? If you are in a hurry and do not have any fresh potatoes at home, you can open a can and put them into soups, stews or casseroles to add some extra energy or use them to make a potato salad. In these examples, had you not had canned versions of potatoes, you would not be having any at all. I can’t see the problem. Plus many canned potatoes now contain no sugar or salt.
For more information on canned food, visit www.cannedfood.co.uk.
