Canned or fresh?

[thecatspajamas1]

I prefer to buy my vegetables fresh, because canned vegetables are mushy and salty in my opinion. The only things I get in cans are beans and sometimes tomatos. I also buy cans of Amy's soup sometimes, it tastes pretty good.

[harpy]

I checked my cans after reading this thread and the tomatoes are just tomatoes and tomato juice, with no added sugar or salt. Some of the beans have salt added but the Suma butter beans (which are particularly good IMO) don't, they seem to be just beans and water.

My canned-food biz friend once told me they need to put salt in the water, I think, because if they don't the naturally occurring salt leaks out into the water, leaving the beans insipid - but Suma seem to have overcome this problem

[Vgirl]

Usually just Amy's Soups, which are wonderful!
No chicken noodle soup is great when you are feling under the weather.

[Klutz]

The only thing I ever buy in a can is coconut milk. Can't get it fresh and when it's in powdered form, milk is added to it.

[cobweb]

All we have is tomatoes and baked beans, and very occasionally peaches for an easy dessert. I just don't like the thought of preserved food I suppose - though i do eat other kinds of (vegan) junk .

[insubordination]

I don't use cans that much but have no objections to them. Fresh food just tastes better. In my cupboard, I have canned artichokes, tomatoes, chick peas, coconut milk and borlotti beans. Also a can of Amy's black bean soup.

[Robert]

I use canned tomatoes because if I had to buy the volume of tomatoes I need to make some of the sauces I consider indispensible in the vegan kitchen I would be bankrupt by now (not to mention that anything out of a tin tastes better than those greenhouse rubberised tomatoes we get in shops here).

Other than that the only other product I use from a tin is waterblommetjies (water flowers) and that is only because you cannot get them fresh outside of South Africa.

[BlackCats]

I use tinned plum tomatoes, baked beans, kidney beans, sweetcorn and borlotti beans.
I rinse off kidney beans, sweetcorn and borlotti beans in water before using them to get rid of sugar and salt.

[Robert]

An easy, and cheap way around the reliance on tinned beans is to cook up batches yourself (presoak in water with bicarb, then boil with a pinch of bicarb in the water, pour off the water, refresh and add a slice of lemon - reduces gassiness and tenderises the bean skins) and freeze them - I always have a selection of beans in the freezer to use (currently kidney, fava and haricot) and they are sugar/salt free.

[sugarmouse]

Only tomatos for makin soup or wahtever. I always use dried beans cos its cheaper and they seem to taste and look nicer.

[thecatspajamas1]

Last time I was at the supermarket, I had trouble finding black beans that didn't have High Fructose Corn Syrup. What's with that? Why just the black beans in particular? The organic brand didn't have that though, I'm pretty sure.

[cedarblue]

canned beans and tomatoes etc are good to have as a standby in the store cupboard imo - beans on toast, hummus etc can be made in an instant and are good nutritional foods.

fresh or frozen are better nutritionally though again imo.

[=Sarah=]

I've never seen any varieties of canned beans that weren't loaded with salt here. A serving of one brand I've seen of chickpeas had 30+ percent of the dri of sodium. I was also once making a big batch of hummus and had to use half cooked and half canned chickpeas. The difference in appearance was shocking. The cooked beans were a nice colour and shape, and in comparison the canned ones looked sickly and swollen. From now on I make sure have it frozen in bulk in my freezer!

I do agree, for certain recipes, like gigantic batches of chili, say, it's handy to use canned tomatoes. And the coconut milk I buy comes in cans.

[Yogini]

I don't eat any canned foods because I think they taste yucky. I'm not super-fond of jarred stuff, either. Except for nut butters.

It does keep me from eating beans and chickpeas as much as I would like to, but I still get them in because I like them and I know they're really good for me. I just have to plan ahead.

[Hemlock]

Cooking beans from dry is pi**ing me off I'm off to get a pressure cooker tomorrow (Corum likes his hummus ).

[tipsy]

i dont use canned anything except soup (rarely) and coconut milk for myself...

but i buy my beans/lentils/sometimes vegetables for my dog food from in cans... not that her food is less important than mine (its still organic!!), but she eats poo, so i figure the taste of tinned beans and lentils wont bother her!

[Gorilla]

i use tinned tomatoes, baked beans and other pulses such as chick peas and kidney beans. i'm not organised enough to buy dried beans and do all the soaking and cooking. i buy organic tins of these foods and none of them contain any added salt or sugar (except the baked beans but i still buy organic low-salt ones).

i don't really use any other tinned vegetables because i think they taste funny. maybe sweetcorn occasionally but that's about it.

[Cup'O'Tea]

I buy canned beans, as I eat a lot of beans and am too impatient to go through the cooking process. I also buy Amy's soups and chili. Those are pretty much the only canned foods I eat, with a few occasional exceptions (like sauces, or canned vegetables on camping trips =/)

[LGBunny]

I couldn't do without tinned chickpeas, marrowfat peas and tomatoes. Plus I love braised tofu out of tins

[ivandurago]

I don't have a preference between the two taste wise:
When I can I buy fresh local produce to counteract energy wasted through shipping/packaging I attempt to do so ;D

[Korn]

As for B12, there is no reliable plant source for this.

Can you please post the studies that document this?

On the other hand, there is no such thing (to my knowledge) as a 'vegan' tribe or society.

The guy who wrote the article about the tribe in the Himalayas that eat vegan food, claim to have visited several other vegan tribes in India.

Veganism as an idea has only been around since 1944 when Donald Watson coined the term.

The word has been around since 1944. Veganism as an idea has been around for a long time. Check this thread: Buddhist and accepting meat/animal products? But anyway, if there wouldn't have been any vegan tribe anywhere, that wouldn't be a stronger anti-vegan argument than saying that we should not fighting against violence, rape and murder, because "there has always been violence, rape and murder" or 'there has never been a tribe that hasn't had violent conflicts'.

Tempeh, mushrooms, spirulina, and other plant foods claimed as sources either don't contain enough or have B12 'analogs', that not only don't provide the vitamin but inhibit the absorption of the real thing.

B12 analogues are everywhere - some B12 analogues are active and some are not. Some are known to block absorption of real, active B12, while others are not. The only thing we really know is that we need more studies on B12!

BTW, we already have threads about tempeh and spirulina...

Whether this B12 problem is due to modern lifestyles or not is immaterial.

It's extremely important for all those animals that are killed and harmed because meat eaters believe that they need to eat them in order to get their B12, after having read non-sense about B12 and veganism which isn't backed up by relevant studies at all.

I know of too many stories of vegans becoming seriously ill due to ignoring this issue to dismiss it as unimportant.

Don't forget the millions - no, billions of people that aren't vegan due to the hysterical way some sources present their "information" about B12 and the 'un-naturalness' of eating vegan. Even if vegans 'only' would be B12 deficient as often as non-vegans, there would be thousands of B12 deficient vegans out there, some of them with very serious symptoms. According to many studies, we are more likely to become B12 deficient than non-vegans, and non-vegans are more likely to have deficiencies we don't need to worry about. It's time to put things into perspective!

We, as vegans, have a duty to ensure that anyone trying this diet don't suffer as a result.

As vegans, we also have a duty to provide balanced info about what nutrients vegans and non-vegans need to pay extra attention to, as opposed to the ridiculous pill-propaganda that is going on on some vegan sites.

Meat eaters who consider going vegan expect non-vegan sources to keep old myths about non-vegan diets being more nutrient rich than vegan diets, but when visiting a vegan site, they expect to find viewpoints and facts from a different perspective. Unless these vegan sources include info about all the nutrients non-vegans normally are short of, and info about the many reasons we may develop a B12 deficiency, and stop posting non-sense about "there is no reliable plant source for B12" as long as extremely few been tested properly for B12, the meat eaters who visit these sources will continue to live in the myth that "vegan good can't be healthy/natural, because if they don't they will become B12 deficient, but we meat eaters have no deficiencies / are deficient in less nutrients than vegans". Right now, Al Qaeda is better at marketing jihad than some of these sites are at promoting veganism...

[KrissStress]

I like fresh simply because it tastes better. Canned is more out of necessity when there's nothing fresh laying around...

[Mila]

I like fresh for most things, but canned for beans. I'm not even sure how to work with non-canned beans.

[cherrywisp]

I also use fresh for everything except for beans. And I've actually been thinking that the next time I go buy beans I'm going to get the dried ones.

Oh wait I use a lot of frozen vegetables/fruits as well.
Frozen berries = cheaper than fresh. :/

[heat13]

Can you please post the studies that document this?


The guy who wrote the article about the tribe in the Himalayas that eat vegan food, claim to have visited several other vegan tribes in India.


The word has been around since 1944. Veganism as an idea has been around for a long time. Check this thread: Buddhist and accepting meat/animal products? But anyway, if there wouldn't have been any vegan tribe anywhere, that wouldn't be a stronger anti-vegan argument than saying that we should not fighting against violence, rape and murder, because "there has always been violence, rape and murder" or 'there has never been a tribe that hasn't had violent conflicts'.



B12 analogues are everywhere - some B12 analogues are active and some are not. Some are known to block absorption of real, active B12, while others are not. The only thing we really know is that we need more studies on B12!

BTW, we already have threads about tempeh and spirulina...


It's extremely important for all those animals that are killed and harmed because meat eaters believe that they need to eat them in order to get their B12, after having read non-sense about B12 and veganism which isn't backed up by relevant studies at all.

Don't forget the millions - no, billions of people that aren't vegan due to the hysterical way some sources present their "information" about B12 and the 'un-naturalness' of eating vegan. Even if vegans 'only' would be B12 deficient as often as non-vegans, there would be thousands of B12 deficient vegans out there, some of them with very serious symptoms. According to many studies, we are more likely to become B12 deficient than non-vegans, and non-vegans are more likely to have deficiencies we don't need to worry about. It's time to put things into perspective!



As vegans, we also have a duty to provide balanced info about what nutrients vegans and non-vegans need to pay extra attention to, as opposed to the ridiculous pill-propaganda that is going on on some vegan sites.

Meat eaters who consider going vegan expect non-vegan sources to keep old myths about non-vegan diets being more nutrient rich than vegan diets, but when visiting a vegan site, they expect to find viewpoints and facts from a different perspective. Unless these vegan sources include info about all the nutrients non-vegans normally are short of, and info about the many reasons we may develop a B12 deficiency, and stop posting non-sense about "there is no reliable plant source for B12" as long as extremely few been tested properly for B12, the meat eaters who visit these sources will continue to live in the myth that "vegan good can't be healthy/natural, because if they don't they will become B12 deficient, but we meat eaters have no deficiencies / are deficient in less nutrients than vegans". Right now, Al Qaeda is better at marketing jihad than some of these sites are at promoting veganism...

OMG Korn you are so wise!!! I think I luv you Every post I read from you, I learn so much... THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[bryzee86]

Praise the almighty Korn!

[heat13]

Korn Is Like My New Idol

[bradders]

The list is from a book about homocysteine (called 'The Heart Revolution', by Kilmer S. McCully, M.D., and Martha McCully on Harper Perennial):


Some excerpts:

this explains why I feel great after eating at vitaorganic and not after eating in other places and why the chilli I make makes me feel better before it's simmered through for hours

[*live*&*let*live]

And I just love tomatoes in any shape or form OP!

[Korn]

From http://www.independent.co.uk/life-st...d-1932742.html


Revealed: the nasty secret in your kitchen cupboard
18 of 20 most popular tins made with controversial bisphenol A in lining


A mixture of folic acid, vitamin B12, choline and betaine is said to eliminate the negative effect BPA exposure has on pregnant rats' offspring.

(And yes, it's kind of strange to refer to refer to animal studies as a vegan, but I'd rather do that than hold back info that can help more people become remain healthy vegans, and/or inspire further studies on humans...)

[Sgable84]

I myself prefer to eat more fresh items, but things like corn and some beans I will buy in a can.

[TXvegan]

I have to admit that I use a variety of fresh, dried, frozen and tinned - I try to do the most with fresh and dried, but I do use frozen and tinned. I try to restrict myself to buying tinned when it is on sale, but that is purely economic.

I also love fresh, because I can make my own veg stock.

[RubyDuby]

other than olives, tomatoes, beans and artichokes I don't like canned food anymore.

[leedsveg]

I'm sure it's been said before but canned is sometimes fresher than "fresh". It certainly keeps longer.

lv

[Back-Space]

I got a quick question if someone doesn't mind answering

I've almost never eaten canned foods, and I know there's certain things you need to know to avoid botulism and that... I'm going to try and make a bean soup tonight for dinner, and all the beans are canned with water and sea salt. I'm not going to be able to eat all three cans, so how should I store them? Just drain them and keep them in the can and in the fridge? Rinse them and store them in something else? I figure they'll be eaten completely within the next 2 or 3 days. Thanks in advance

[RubyDuby]

Rinse them and store them in the fridge in an air tight container.

[DiaShel]

^ I've wondered about that too. They seem to dry out that way. Do you store them with water?

[RubyDuby]

no, but i wouldn't leave them more than a day or 2.

[Back-Space]

I rinsed them out and left them in the can, I only opened 2 cans so that I can use them up faster, so I'll have soup for lunch tomorrow Is leaving them in the can alright or is that dangerous/unhealthy?

[RubyDuby]

ewwww
My mom always told me not to, and I never knew why, but my boss leaves open cans of fruit in the fridge sometimes and the fruit turns gray.

[Back-Space]

Mmmmmm

They seem alright this morning, I'll be eating them in only a couple of hours.