WEBVTT - BrainStuff Classics: Is Canned Food Really Worse Than Fresh or Frozen?

0:00:01.840 --> 0:00:04.360
<v Speaker 1>Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeartRadio.

0:00:06.800 --> 0:00:09.639
<v Speaker 2>Hey brain Stuff Lauren vocal bomb here with a classic

0:00:09.720 --> 0:00:13.440
<v Speaker 2>episode from the Vault. In this fun we get into

0:00:13.480 --> 0:00:17.720
<v Speaker 2>the science of canned foods. Recently, they've been much aligned,

0:00:17.880 --> 0:00:20.320
<v Speaker 2>but they can still be a convenient source of nutrition,

0:00:20.760 --> 0:00:24.000
<v Speaker 2>especially when you don't have access to fresh foods. So

0:00:24.280 --> 0:00:29.520
<v Speaker 2>here are the pros and cons of canning, Hey.

0:00:29.320 --> 0:00:30.840
<v Speaker 1>Brain stuff, Lauren vocal bomb here.

0:00:31.920 --> 0:00:35.280
<v Speaker 2>Let's face it, some canned vegetables are so very different

0:00:35.360 --> 0:00:39.040
<v Speaker 2>from their fresh forms, think asparagus, that plenty of kids

0:00:39.080 --> 0:00:42.760
<v Speaker 2>grow up swearing off otherwise delicious foods forever. So it's

0:00:42.840 --> 0:00:46.159
<v Speaker 2>no surprise that canned foods have a bad rap. But

0:00:46.360 --> 0:00:49.400
<v Speaker 2>the bad reputation goes beyond just the food that comes

0:00:49.400 --> 0:00:52.239
<v Speaker 2>inside those cans. It's also because of things like the

0:00:52.280 --> 0:00:54.440
<v Speaker 2>growth of farmer's markets in the last twenty years and

0:00:54.640 --> 0:00:57.800
<v Speaker 2>influencers like California's Alice Waters and Michael Pollan who have

0:00:57.880 --> 0:01:01.480
<v Speaker 2>encouraged eating locally raised fresh foods over processed foods and

0:01:01.760 --> 0:01:05.160
<v Speaker 2>BPA linings and scary accounts of the dangers of dented

0:01:05.200 --> 0:01:10.000
<v Speaker 2>cans told by well meaning grandparents. So is that bad

0:01:10.040 --> 0:01:14.800
<v Speaker 2>reputation deserved first? Let's back up and talk about canning

0:01:14.800 --> 0:01:17.440
<v Speaker 2>foods as a whole. Canning was born out of a

0:01:17.480 --> 0:01:21.280
<v Speaker 2>search for convenience and efficiency. A French candy maker and chef,

0:01:21.400 --> 0:01:23.800
<v Speaker 2>Nicholas A. Pear developed the process. At the end of

0:01:23.840 --> 0:01:27.200
<v Speaker 2>the eighteenth century. Napoleon was offering a huge prize to

0:01:27.200 --> 0:01:30.119
<v Speaker 2>anyone who could help him feed his troops. A pair's

0:01:30.160 --> 0:01:33.199
<v Speaker 2>original process isn't very different from the canning methods used today.

0:01:34.280 --> 0:01:37.039
<v Speaker 2>A pair put food in bottles and jars, covered them

0:01:37.040 --> 0:01:40.200
<v Speaker 2>with cork and wax, and processed the jars in boiling water.

0:01:40.959 --> 0:01:42.759
<v Speaker 1>The French government paid a Pair to make.

0:01:42.600 --> 0:01:45.440
<v Speaker 2>His process public, and that led to the first recipe

0:01:45.440 --> 0:01:49.520
<v Speaker 2>book on canning. A pair's process spread quickly. Not twenty

0:01:49.600 --> 0:01:52.560
<v Speaker 2>years later, the British Navy fed soldiers the first meat, soups,

0:01:52.560 --> 0:01:55.240
<v Speaker 2>and vegetables that were canned in tin instead of jars.

0:01:56.520 --> 0:01:59.160
<v Speaker 2>During World War II, governments in a number of countries,

0:01:59.200 --> 0:02:01.919
<v Speaker 2>including the USA the UK, promoted home canning.

0:02:02.520 --> 0:02:04.400
<v Speaker 1>The US printed and distributed.

0:02:03.920 --> 0:02:06.920
<v Speaker 2>Circulars and opened thousands of canning centers to help home

0:02:06.960 --> 0:02:11.720
<v Speaker 2>cooks preserve food grown in home gardens. Canning became patriotic,

0:02:11.960 --> 0:02:17.320
<v Speaker 2>supplementing bland and sometimes inadequate rations. In the nineteen fifties,

0:02:17.440 --> 0:02:20.960
<v Speaker 2>commercially canned and other packaged foods were introduced as nutritious,

0:02:21.160 --> 0:02:25.120
<v Speaker 2>time saving modern conveniences. A popular book, The can Opener

0:02:25.160 --> 0:02:28.480
<v Speaker 2>Cookbook by food editor Poppy Cannon, promised readers they could

0:02:28.480 --> 0:02:31.240
<v Speaker 2>open some cans and create a gourmet meal without really

0:02:31.280 --> 0:02:34.880
<v Speaker 2>knowing how to cook. The recipes included roast canned chicken

0:02:34.960 --> 0:02:38.280
<v Speaker 2>flombaiy with black cherries made with a whole canned chicken.

0:02:38.919 --> 0:02:41.760
<v Speaker 2>Another meal was made of canned hamburger patties covered with

0:02:41.760 --> 0:02:44.200
<v Speaker 2>fried onions and red wine, baked in a casserole dish

0:02:44.200 --> 0:02:48.400
<v Speaker 2>for twenty minutes. Canned food was promoted and seen as

0:02:48.480 --> 0:02:52.560
<v Speaker 2>better than fresh, especially as industrial agriculture began to incorporate

0:02:52.639 --> 0:02:56.440
<v Speaker 2>more modern fertilizers and technologies. The author of The can

0:02:56.480 --> 0:02:59.160
<v Speaker 2>Opener Cookbook wrote that the flavor of fresh tomatoes was

0:02:59.280 --> 0:03:01.880
<v Speaker 2>bad and that for real tomato flavor, you should open

0:03:01.919 --> 0:03:06.320
<v Speaker 2>a can. Fifty ish years later, canned tomatoes are still

0:03:06.360 --> 0:03:09.040
<v Speaker 2>an off season go two for tomato lovers and cooks,

0:03:09.400 --> 0:03:11.480
<v Speaker 2>and I certainly can't deny the convenience of a can

0:03:11.480 --> 0:03:14.760
<v Speaker 2>of beans already cooked and ready to go into a salad, soup, dip,

0:03:14.840 --> 0:03:18.399
<v Speaker 2>or whatever other dish. No long soaking or parboiling required.

0:03:19.600 --> 0:03:22.680
<v Speaker 2>From a nutrition standpoint, the canning process today is designed

0:03:22.720 --> 0:03:26.040
<v Speaker 2>to preserve as many nutrients as possible. Fruits and vegetables

0:03:26.080 --> 0:03:28.079
<v Speaker 2>for canning are picked at the peak of their ripeness,

0:03:28.120 --> 0:03:30.000
<v Speaker 2>as opposed to some produce picked.

0:03:29.720 --> 0:03:31.760
<v Speaker 1>For fresh sale, which may be underripe.

0:03:31.800 --> 0:03:35.880
<v Speaker 2>To prevent spoilage during transport from farmed store, crops destined

0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:38.440
<v Speaker 2>for canning are grown close to packing facilities and can

0:03:38.440 --> 0:03:42.520
<v Speaker 2>be processed within four hours of harvest. The heat used

0:03:42.600 --> 0:03:45.760
<v Speaker 2>during canning does decrease some of the water soluble vitamins

0:03:45.800 --> 0:03:49.080
<v Speaker 2>in the finished food, like vitamins B and sea, and

0:03:49.280 --> 0:03:52.640
<v Speaker 2>often salt and sugar are added during the process. Experts

0:03:52.680 --> 0:03:55.040
<v Speaker 2>suggest rinsing canned food to reduce some of the added

0:03:55.080 --> 0:03:58.320
<v Speaker 2>sugar and salt, or buying low salt and low sugar products.

0:03:59.000 --> 0:04:02.040
<v Speaker 2>And of course that heat also changes the texture of vegetables,

0:04:02.200 --> 0:04:04.600
<v Speaker 2>regrettably so in the case of those canned asparagus.

0:04:05.440 --> 0:04:07.360
<v Speaker 1>But that heat is a plus when it comes to

0:04:07.360 --> 0:04:08.080
<v Speaker 1>food safety.

0:04:08.480 --> 0:04:11.320
<v Speaker 2>The heat introduces pressure that helps seal the cans, but

0:04:11.440 --> 0:04:15.120
<v Speaker 2>it can also kill or deactivate deadly germs. Remember when

0:04:15.160 --> 0:04:18.600
<v Speaker 2>we mentioned our grandparents aversions to dented or swollen cans,

0:04:19.080 --> 0:04:22.520
<v Speaker 2>those fears are based in reality. Let's talk about my

0:04:22.520 --> 0:04:26.840
<v Speaker 2>favorite scary condition, botulism. It's caused by a bacterial toxin

0:04:26.960 --> 0:04:29.200
<v Speaker 2>so deadly that just a millionth of a gram is

0:04:29.279 --> 0:04:32.520
<v Speaker 2>enough to kill the United States and other countries even

0:04:32.560 --> 0:04:35.440
<v Speaker 2>explored botulism as a biological weapon during World War II.

0:04:36.839 --> 0:04:40.880
<v Speaker 2>The bacteria that create this toxin, Cloustridium botulinum, are everywhere,

0:04:41.080 --> 0:04:44.400
<v Speaker 2>but people associate botulism with canned foods because the bacteria

0:04:44.480 --> 0:04:50.400
<v Speaker 2>only reproduce in low oxygen environments like a poorly processed can. Today,

0:04:50.600 --> 0:04:53.760
<v Speaker 2>commercial canned foods go through what's called a botulinum cook.

0:04:54.200 --> 0:04:56.560
<v Speaker 2>This is a high heat cook that dramatically lowers the

0:04:56.640 --> 0:05:00.160
<v Speaker 2>chance that any Klaustridium botulinum spores or other organisms that

0:05:00.200 --> 0:05:03.919
<v Speaker 2>can cause food born illness survive. For the record, you

0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:06.800
<v Speaker 2>should discard any can that's puffed out or swollen that's

0:05:06.839 --> 0:05:09.440
<v Speaker 2>caused by germs reproducing inside of it, and it is

0:05:09.560 --> 0:05:12.880
<v Speaker 2>bad news. Cans that are dented are usually fine as

0:05:12.960 --> 0:05:15.600
<v Speaker 2>long as the dent is not along the cans scenes.

0:05:17.120 --> 0:05:19.800
<v Speaker 2>The most recent concern about canned foods, though, isn't the

0:05:19.839 --> 0:05:22.640
<v Speaker 2>food at all, it's the cans themselves and what they're

0:05:22.680 --> 0:05:27.159
<v Speaker 2>lined with, including BPA. Over the past two decades, public

0:05:27.240 --> 0:05:30.360
<v Speaker 2>attention has focused on BPA, the compound used to make

0:05:30.400 --> 0:05:34.120
<v Speaker 2>polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins. In two thousand and eight,

0:05:34.200 --> 0:05:37.479
<v Speaker 2>the US government's National Toxicology Program concluded that there was

0:05:37.560 --> 0:05:40.799
<v Speaker 2>concern about its effects on the brains, behavior, and prostate

0:05:40.880 --> 0:05:45.000
<v Speaker 2>glands of fetuses, infants, and children. Other studies have linked

0:05:45.040 --> 0:05:51.320
<v Speaker 2>BPA to cardiovascular disease, obesity, asthma, and diabetes. BPA exposure

0:05:51.440 --> 0:05:54.720
<v Speaker 2>is widespread. The Centers for Disease Control found BPA in

0:05:54.839 --> 0:05:56.920
<v Speaker 2>ninety three percent of the urine samples of more than

0:05:56.920 --> 0:05:58.760
<v Speaker 2>twenty five thousand people aged.

0:05:58.480 --> 0:05:59.320
<v Speaker 1>Six and older.

0:06:00.080 --> 0:06:03.560
<v Speaker 2>BPA can leach from containers, including cans, into foods and drinks,

0:06:03.839 --> 0:06:06.960
<v Speaker 2>and so plastics and canning manufacturers have worked to develop

0:06:07.000 --> 0:06:11.920
<v Speaker 2>replacement materials. The Can Manufacturers Institute says more than ninety

0:06:11.960 --> 0:06:14.719
<v Speaker 2>percent of food cans today are lined with new BPA

0:06:14.880 --> 0:06:20.080
<v Speaker 2>free materials such as polyesters, acrylics, and PVC. Though note

0:06:20.120 --> 0:06:23.279
<v Speaker 2>that that ninety percent figure just refers to food cans,

0:06:23.520 --> 0:06:27.279
<v Speaker 2>It doesn't include canned drinks or bottle caps, and although

0:06:27.320 --> 0:06:30.359
<v Speaker 2>replacing a known concern is great, the safety of some

0:06:30.400 --> 0:06:32.520
<v Speaker 2>of those substitutes is still being researched.

0:06:33.680 --> 0:06:35.120
<v Speaker 1>We spoke with Sarah Geller, a.

0:06:35.080 --> 0:06:38.320
<v Speaker 2>Senior research and database analyst at the Environmental Working Group.

0:06:38.839 --> 0:06:41.080
<v Speaker 2>She said, we don't have a lot of data about

0:06:41.080 --> 0:06:43.880
<v Speaker 2>how these materials are used because the formulas are protected

0:06:43.880 --> 0:06:47.280
<v Speaker 2>by trade secrets. And even though cans with newer linings

0:06:47.279 --> 0:06:49.919
<v Speaker 2>can help you avoid endocrine disruptors, they may not be

0:06:50.000 --> 0:06:50.920
<v Speaker 2>good for the environment.

0:06:51.320 --> 0:06:52.719
<v Speaker 1>Some materials don't degrade.

0:06:54.240 --> 0:06:57.640
<v Speaker 2>If you're concerned about contamination from canned foods, Galla recommends

0:06:57.720 --> 0:07:00.960
<v Speaker 2>using fresh, frozen, or dried food instead of cane, but

0:07:01.200 --> 0:07:03.240
<v Speaker 2>if you simply can't get away from the convenience of

0:07:03.240 --> 0:07:07.800
<v Speaker 2>canned foods, absolutely don't heat the food in the can. Finally,

0:07:08.040 --> 0:07:11.520
<v Speaker 2>be aware that some compounds, including BPA, have become such

0:07:11.560 --> 0:07:14.400
<v Speaker 2>pervasive contaminants in the environment that it's getting harder to

0:07:14.440 --> 0:07:17.680
<v Speaker 2>avoid no matter what your food is packaged in. Geller said,

0:07:17.960 --> 0:07:21.080
<v Speaker 2>detectable amounts of BPA may make it into otherwise BPA

0:07:21.160 --> 0:07:26.320
<v Speaker 2>free cans from other sources, including the food itself. To

0:07:26.480 --> 0:07:29.280
<v Speaker 2>end on a slightly lighter note, even though food was

0:07:29.360 --> 0:07:32.320
<v Speaker 2>first canned in metal cans around eighteen thirteen. It took

0:07:32.360 --> 0:07:35.120
<v Speaker 2>about forty years for someone to invent a can opener,

0:07:35.600 --> 0:07:38.480
<v Speaker 2>and can openers for home use didn't become popular until

0:07:38.480 --> 0:07:42.080
<v Speaker 2>the eighteen sixties. Before then you'd break out the hammer

0:07:42.120 --> 0:07:52.080
<v Speaker 2>and chisel. Today's episode is based on the article does

0:07:52.160 --> 0:07:55.440
<v Speaker 2>canned food really deserve a bad Wrap? On HowStuffWorks dot Com,

0:07:55.520 --> 0:07:58.800
<v Speaker 2>written by Sean Chavis. Brain Stuff is production of iHeartRadio

0:07:58.880 --> 0:08:00.920
<v Speaker 2>in partnership with how stuff work dot Com and is

0:08:00.960 --> 0:08:04.240
<v Speaker 2>produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts my heart Radio,

0:08:04.560 --> 0:08:07.760
<v Speaker 2>visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen

0:08:07.880 --> 0:08:08.920
<v Speaker 2>to your favorite shows.