Healthy Food Choices for Canned Vegetables

Canned vegetables are staples in American kitchens, used for cooking, as side dishes, and for healthy snacks. Try these tips for buying canned vegetables in this healthy shopping video.

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Quick & economical way for healthy calories
Canning vegetables destroys some nutrients
Eat vegetables with no added salt
Check manufacturer's date on cans

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Michelle Cooper has been a registered dietician for more than 10 years. She currently works for the state of North Carolina for the New Hanover County School District in the Child Nutrition Department as the supervising registered dietician on staff. She specializes in child nutrition, child fitness and overall child health. She enjoys her job because it allows her to be a pivotal piece of child development.

MICHELLE COOPER: Next, we are going to talk about canned vegetables. Canned vegetables can be a quick, economical way to get some good nutrition, and it has low calories and low in fat. During the canning process, the food is heated and the temperature that they need to raise it to does destroy about one-third to one-half of the vitamin A, the vitamin C, thiamine, riboflavin that is in the vegetables. However, none of the other vitamins seem to be affected by this. If you are concerned about sodium, you want to buy the vegetables that have no added salt. However, other than that, the nutritional quality is almost equal to that of fresh. Make sure that when you purchase the canned vegetables that you note the manufacturer's date at the bottom. After a year, they start to lose about 5 to 20% of their vitamins, so you want to use up that can in about a year. So remember, number one, canned vegetables are a quick and economical way to get your vegetables and the nutrients that you need from those. But make sure that you are not buying any cans that are dented, rusted or bulging at the top. Number two, store these cans away from the sunlight in a cool, dry place. Number three, after opening the canned vegetables, make sure you refrigerate it. And lastly, make sure you check the manufacturer's date. You do not want to keep them for longer than a year.

Healthy Food Choices for Canned Vegetables Video

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