The nutritional value of vegetables

According to Barbara Intermill, a registered dietitian nutritionist, fresh veggies certainly are best if available…and if they don’t lose precious nutrients by overcooking or languishing too long in the fridge. Frozen and canned varieties are picked at the peak of ripeness and generally processed right away, which helps maintain nutrients. The current 2020–2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans encourage people to eat a variety of vegetables including “fresh, frozen and canned.”

While frozen and canned veggies both have their place, they may save your life in an emergency when refrigerated food is not available.

What about sodium? According to the Canned Food Alliance (mealtime.org), salt or sodium is not used to preserve canned food. That’s done with heat and cooling. So it’s OK to look for lower sodium versions if needed. Or beans and other canned vegetables can be drained and rinsed to get rid of 40% or more of the added sodium.

Interestingly, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the major sources of sodium in our food are pizza, cold cuts, cured meat, bread, rolls, burgers and sandwiches. Canned food is not even in the top 10.

What about nutrients and other beneficial substances? Some, such as lycopene (the healthful red pigment in tomatoes) and beta carotene (which converts to vitamin A in the body) are actually enhanced in heat-processed canned vegetables.

Vitamin C is another story. It is the least stable of all vitamins and is easily destroyed by heat and exposure to air. However, according to a 2021 review in the journal Antioxidants, new technologies can now preserve the vitamin C content in many canned foods.

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