6 Ways to Avoid Eating Canned Food

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In this fast paced lifestyle, canned food as our main source of meal is getting very convenient….whip it open, heat if up, and voila! meal is served! But is there something wrong with eating canned food?

Consumer Reports reveal that almost all of the 19 name-brand canned food including soups, juice, tuna, and green beans, tested contains Bisphnol-A (BPA). Its noted that these canned organic food tested did not always have lower BPA levels than non organic brands of similar food tested. BPA was also observed to be present in some products in can that were labeled at BPA-free.

BPA is a synthetic estrogen and is commonly used to strengthen plastic and line food cans. More than a hundred peer-reviewed studies reveal that BPA is toxic even at low doses.

Nicholas D. Kristof points out in an Op-Ed in The New York Times, scientists have linked it, though not conclusively, to everything from breast cancer to obesity, from attention deficit disorder to genital abnormalities in boys and girls alike. It also has a negative effect on your libid, Kristof commented.

Consumer Reports mentioned that a 165-pound adult eating one serving of canned green beans from the test sample, could ingest about 80 times more BPA than their experts’ recommended upper daily limit. Children eating multiple servings per day of canned foods with BPA levels comparable to the ones they found in some tested products could get a dose of BPA approaching levels that have caused adverse effects in several animal studies.

These findings are quite alarming. So how do we really avoid canned food when it becomes an indispensable item in our pantries?
Here are six simple ways to beat the cans.

Use fresh or frozen produce as much as possible. Fresh and local produce is always the best option. Fruits and vegetables that are picked at the peak of their ripeness and freshness, quick frozen in controlled approriate temperatures are far more superior in terms of nutritional value than if bought fresh.
Buy fresh produce and freeze it for future use. If frozen produce aren’t readily available, buy fresh produce at your supermarket or farmer’s market when it is in season and freeze it for later use.
Use dried beans instead of canned beans. Don’t you know that beans are the most-consumed canned product.
Cook from scratch. Along with beans, soup is all too convenient to buy canned. But like beans, it’s cheap and easy to make–and can be frozen for later use.
Buy prepared foods in jars. Glass is always the better option than canned when buying prepared foods. Especially with any tomato products–as the acid in tomatoes help to leach BPA into the product.
If you use plastic for storing fresh food, know what is best. If possible avoid No.7 plastics especially for children’s food. Plastics with recycling labels no. 1, 2, and 4 on the bottom are safer to use and do not contain BPA.