How to Make the Canned Food Diet Work for Your Health
By Brandi Goodman
Canned food is often discouraged. Many say it's bad for your health, unsafe to eat, and packed in too much sodium and chemicals. Though this may be true in some cases, not all canned food is bad. For some, it's also one of the only options. Canned goods are often affordable where other foods are not. If you're on a canned food diet, you just have to make it work for you.
Search for Low-Sodium
You don't have to eat canned goods that are high in sodium. Search for low-sodium options that keep the salt content down. You can always sprinkle on a little later if you're really missing it. Other seasonings are usually more beneficial to try, however.
Get Fruits and Vegetables
Not everything in a can should be consumed. Avoid the canned beans loaded with sugar and calories. The fruits and vegetables, however, are some of the better options to eat. They can be almost as nutritious as whole food. Just be sure you're draining the juices since this is where a lot of sugar is present.
The advantage of canned fruits and vegetables over whole is that they can be consumed any time of year. Lots of produce is only available in certain seasons. Vegetables and fruits also diminish in quality quickly, and they can lose some of their nutritional factor as days go by. Canned options will retain their value for some time.
Choose Water or Juice Over Oil or Syrup
Tuna is a popular canned food option. You should be choosing the version in water, though, and not the one in oil. It has fewer calories. It also retains more of the omega-3s provided by the fish. When looking at canned fruits you'll see options in heavy syrup and some in juice. Choose the juice. You can also get some in lite syrup. These choices have fewer calories and less sugar than the heavy syrup offerings.
Go Organic
There are organic options for canned foods as well. These choices are often healthier because they are not packed in chemicals. You can get things such as organic coconut milk in a can and even organic soups. They're typically light in sodium.
The canned food diet is an affordable one. These items may not be as healthy as eating whole foods, but sometimes they're the only option. As long as you're looking at the labels and considering which types you're buying, you can do what you can to maintain your health.
To learn more about your health, wellness, and fitness, see your local chiropractor at The Joint Chiropractic in Evans, Ga.