Transcription:
Nutrition - Fresh vs. Frozen vs. Canned

Introduction: This is BayCare HealthChat, another podcast from BayCare Health System. Here's Melanie Cole.

Melanie Cole: Hey, this is BayCare HealthChat. I'm Melanie Cole and today we're discussing nutrition. We are going to talk about fresh versus frozen versus canned. This is going to be a great segment. My guest is Genevieve Sanders. She's a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist at BayCare Fitness Centers. Genevieve, it's a pleasure to have you on today. As I said, this is really a great topic. So let's just jump right in with which has the highest nutritional content - fresh, frozen or canned?

Genevieve Sanders: So as far as answering that question, you know, it's a little bit of a loaded question and it's hard to say, you know, one is more nutritional than the other because there's really a lot to consider with this question. So as far as fresh versus frozen versus canned, some things that could influence this can include some processing prior to purchasing. So things like canned items or frozen items can actually be exposed to some oxygen or basically oxidation. Or even heat processing before being canned or even frozen. And in these processes we can lose certain nutrients. And the thing is we can't say that one nutrient is lost, but all of them are lost. So it kind of varies depending on nutrients. So to kind of dive into this a little bit more, as far as frozen items go, they're often frozen at peak freshness. So then they typically go through a blanching process. And in this process it's exposed to a little bit of heat prior to being frozen. And some nutrients can be lost.

And in particular vitamin C and B vitamins, these are water soluble and more susceptible to kind of losses, but the loss is minimal. And if stored at the proper temperature, the nutrients degrade pretty slowly. So it's a really good option. As far as fresh produce goes, then we want to consider that exposure to air, you know, so that oxidation and we want to limit the time of harvest to the time of consumption as much as possible to get the most benefits as far as nutrients go. So anytime that length is longer, we can expect some lessening of certain nutrients. And then as far as canned items go, they might actually lose a little bit more nutrients in the beginning. So through their thermal processing, prior to being canned, they might lose more of those susceptible nutrients like that, vitamin C and B vitamins. But then in the canning process they're, you know, locked out of oxygen pretty much. So they tend to hold their nutritional value pretty well. But then there are other things we want to consider with canned items where there might be certain additives that might kind of add to the overall nutritional value that we would look at.

Host: Well thank you for that answer. That clears it up very well. Now what about bioavailability? Does cooking increase some nutrients and decrease that of others? I'm thinking about things like tomatoes because canned might be better if the lycopene is released or if you're cooking tomatoes. Tell us about heating them. What does that do?

Genevieve Sanders: Yeah, that's an awesome question. So as far as, you know, nutrients go in the cooking process. This also depends on the nutrient and you pointed out a really good one, lycopene in tomatoes. So actually when we heat tomatoes or you know, other foods containing lycopene, this actually enhances that compound in the food. So in that case for lycopene, it increases its availability for us and that bioavailability. But then, you know, we might look at other nutrients as far as again, say that vitamin C and B, you know, these water soluble vitamins and sometimes with cooking they're really sensitive to heat and they might be sensitive to types of cooking methods that might include water. So say if you boil broccoli, there's a high chance of kind of losing more of those water soluble vitamins in that process as opposed to say if you microwaved it so you might lose some of those while enhancing others. So, you know, overall we can get real caught up in the details of, Oh, I should eat raw vegetables or I should cook them and whatnot. But, you know, it really just comes down to eating a variety of produce in a variety of ways that you enjoy to kind of reap the most benefits overall.

Host: Well, I agree with you completely. And boiling vegetables just does not sound attractive to me at all. But let's talk about some specific ones. Because peas, broccoli you mentioned, spinach, some of those come, you know, as frozen perfect little bags of broccoli florets or peas or spinach compared to the fresh as we discussed earlier compared to the canned which could come out mushy and you might not be able to use those in salads. What about things like that?

Genevieve Sanders: Sure. As far as how to use them or kind of their nutrition?

Host: Yeah, their nutrition, which like frozen peas versus canned versus fresh that you pull out of the pot.

Genevieve Sanders: Oh yeah. So that kind of goes back to that original question as far as nutrition content where we just want to have those considerations. So typically, you know, frozen when it's frozen, a little bit of nutrition might be lost, but then it's kind of retained well, if the freezer is kept at the right temperature. Canned, you might lose a little bit more of those nutrients in that initial process. But then they might last longer in the can and then fresh typically have higher amounts, but it can degrade over time if we've kind of, you know, forgotten about them in our pantry or in our refrigerator. So in that sense, it kind of goes back to that as far that goes. But another thing is certain foods actually have susceptibility to losing more nutrients than others too. Just to add more confusion. So you mentioned peas and you mentioned broccoli. And generally speaking, you know, broccoli might be more susceptible to losing nutrients than say peas or like asparagus and things like that. So it just kind of depends on the item.

Host: And I guess you have to think about what you want to use it for when you're deciding between these three as well. As I said, salads, you know, it's not always great when you take something out of the freezer or out of a can, Green beans they're kind of mushy, whereas fresh sautéed, freshly steamed, those ones are going to be a little crunchier. They're going to be a little bit better. But when we're looking at canned, Genevieve, you mentioned additives and things. What other ingredients should we look out for in our canned items? And what about BPAs?

Genevieve Sanders: Yeah, absolutely. So when it comes to canned items, so you know specifically if they were looking at vegetables, a lot of times, we might see excess sodium in that added to kind of the liquids in it. So you want to look out for that, look for lower sodium options. Typically low sodium is considered to, you know, if you're looking at the nutrition label, 5% or less of the daily value is typically considered, you know, low sodium so to speak. But you know, always consider that into your daily needs, and what you need. Generally speaking around 2300 milligrams is a good daily recommendation. So you can kind of pair that to what's in that can. So choosing lower sodium options is always good. And then you can also rinse canned items too, to reduce the sodium even more. So say you have, you know, canned beans or peas, you can rinse that and that'll reduce the sodium. And as far as like things like canned fruits, we want to look at added sugars. A lot of times fruits might be canned in heavy syrup, which is really adding onto the overall sugar content, which we might not necessarily need that day. I like to differentiate that you know, there is naturally occurring sugar and fruit.

So if you're looking at that nutrition label and you see you know, sugar on it, I don't want that to scare you. That is naturally occurring in the fruit which is coming along with lots of fiber, vitamins, and minerals with that. So we don't want to stray from you know, sugar so to speak altogether, but we do want to limit added sugar. So take it a step further. Look at that nutrition label, look for the added sugar line, which they've added that has kind of slowly been mandated into nutrition labeling. And that can tell you the difference there. To give you an idea if it's really high in added sugar or not, the American Heart Association recommends no more than 25 grams of added sugar for women. That translates to about six teaspoons. And no more than 36 grams or about nine teaspoons for men per day. Again, that's to, that's to go no more than that doesn't mean go ahead and have that all the time. So those are some things to look out for as far as the canned items go and with fruit, just look for it to be canned in natural juice or water instead of that heavy syrup.

And then as far as BPA goes, that's also a really good question and something that goes through a lot of controversy.

So BPA stands for biphenyl acetate, if I'm saying that correctly, and that's basically a chemical that's used in certain food contact materials. And basically what that means is it's found in the lining of cans and maybe certain plastic items that come into contact with food. Now the FDA or the Food and Drug Administration looks into this, and you know, and other food additives closely and looks at the research and kind of comes up with what they consider safe or not. And currently the FDA, based on the available evidence, they have deemed it as safe in low levels and the low levels that are essentially potentially escaping the lining of cans into your food. Now that being said, again, it is still an area of a lot of controversy and it is something that they are doing ongoing research with the FDA National Center for Toxicology Research. So they look into all of that. So a lot of companies are kind of ahead of this because they know of this controversy and the discomfort of consumers. So a lot of companies will say, you know, BPA free lining and things of that nature. So if you want to err on the side of caution, definitely a good thing to look out for as far as limiting that.

Host: Well that was a really comprehensive answer and thank you so much. Really a lot to think about. And before we wrap up, different cooking methods, some as we mentioned with the lycopene can be good, but there's heating. Grilling we've heard is not always so great, but I wouldn't want to tell a lot of men that steaming, sautéing, microwaving, baking. Do you have a favorite way to prepare vegetables for example?

Genevieve Sanders: Oh yeah. I mean personally I love roasting my veggies. I can put any veggie in the oven, 400 degrees, varying temperature, olive oil and sea salt or whatever, salt and seasonings, and I'm all about that. So I like the roasted veggies and that's a nice dry kind of cooking method where you're not losing.

Host: I'm the same way. I'm definitely the same way. I love to roast them. And as you say at a really high temperature and salmon as well comes out so well when it's really roasted. But we'll do another show on recipes. Do you have any final advice, final thoughts that you'd like to leave the listeners with when they ask every day about canned versus fresh versus frozen? And how to know whether we're talking about lemon juice or vegetables or fruits, which is best?

Genevieve Sanders: So overall, I would say the most important thing is just to eat, you know, your fruits and vegetables, whether they're fresh, frozen or canned. And you know, we can take all of these things that we discussed into consideration as far as, you know, paying attention to sodium if it's canned or added sugars, if it's canned and you know, all the other considerations as far as BPA goes. But you know, we just want to just take all of these things into consideration. But at the end of the day, what's important is just eating more produce and eating more plants. So if that means, you know, having canned beans on hand and that's easy for you to, you know, add to a dish to increase your fiber and nutrient intake for the day, then by all means incorporate some canned food. If you have access to fresh produce and you have the time to prepare it, by all means, have some fresh produce and you know, and again, the frozen, that really comes in handy for, you know, throwing into smoothies and heating up real quick and mixing in oatmeal just to kind of boost the nutrition of kind of common foods. So really at the end of the day, don't get bogged down by all the little details and just try to eat more plants.

Host: Well, that is great advice and I'm glad you mentioned beans too, because canned beans are so good for you with so much fiber and there's so much easier than soaking beans overnight and then trying to cook them. Canned beans are awesome. Thank you, Genevieve. Great information. That concludes this episode of BayCare HealthChat. To learn more about BayCare Fitness Centers, please visit our website at Baycare.org for more information. Also remember to subscribe, rate, and review this podcast and all the other BayCare podcasts. For more health tips like this, please follow us on your social channels. I'm Melanie Cole.