Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hey brain Stuff Lauren vocal bomb here with a classic
Speaker 2: episode from the Vault. In this fun we get into
Speaker 2: the science of canned foods. Recently, they've been much aligned,
Speaker 2: but they can still be a convenient source of nutrition,
Speaker 2: especially when you don't have access to fresh foods. So
Speaker 2: here are the pros and cons of canning, Hey.
Speaker 1: Brain stuff, Lauren vocal bomb here.
Speaker 2: Let's face it, some canned vegetables are so very different
Speaker 2: from their fresh forms, think asparagus, that plenty of kids
Speaker 2: grow up swearing off otherwise delicious foods forever. So it's
Speaker 2: no surprise that canned foods have a bad rap. But
Speaker 2: the bad reputation goes beyond just the food that comes
Speaker 2: inside those cans. It's also because of things like the
Speaker 2: growth of farmer's markets in the last twenty years and
Speaker 2: influencers like California's Alice Waters and Michael Pollan who have
Speaker 2: encouraged eating locally raised fresh foods over processed foods and
Speaker 2: BPA linings and scary accounts of the dangers of dented
Speaker 2: cans told by well meaning grandparents. So is that bad
Speaker 2: reputation deserved first? Let's back up and talk about canning
Speaker 2: foods as a whole. Canning was born out of a
Speaker 2: search for convenience and efficiency. A French candy maker and chef,
Speaker 2: Nicholas A. Pear developed the process. At the end of
Speaker 2: the eighteenth century. Napoleon was offering a huge prize to
Speaker 2: anyone who could help him feed his troops. A pair's
Speaker 2: original process isn't very different from the canning methods used today.
Speaker 2: A pair put food in bottles and jars, covered them
Speaker 2: with cork and wax, and processed the jars in boiling water.
Speaker 1: The French government paid a Pair to make.
Speaker 2: His process public, and that led to the first recipe
Speaker 2: book on canning. A pair's process spread quickly. Not twenty
Speaker 2: years later, the British Navy fed soldiers the first meat, soups,
Speaker 2: and vegetables that were canned in tin instead of jars.
Speaker 2: During World War II, governments in a number of countries,
Speaker 2: including the USA the UK, promoted home canning.
Speaker 1: The US printed and distributed.
Speaker 2: Circulars and opened thousands of canning centers to help home
Speaker 2: cooks preserve food grown in home gardens. Canning became patriotic,
Speaker 2: supplementing bland and sometimes inadequate rations. In the nineteen fifties,
Speaker 2: commercially canned and other packaged foods were introduced as nutritious,
Speaker 2: time saving modern conveniences. A popular book, The can Opener
Speaker 2: Cookbook by food editor Poppy Cannon, promised readers they could
Speaker 2: open some cans and create a gourmet meal without really
Speaker 2: knowing how to cook. The recipes included roast canned chicken
Speaker 2: flombaiy with black cherries made with a whole canned chicken.
Speaker 2: Another meal was made of canned hamburger patties covered with
Speaker 2: fried onions and red wine, baked in a casserole dish
Speaker 2: for twenty minutes. Canned food was promoted and seen as
Speaker 2: better than fresh, especially as industrial agriculture began to incorporate
Speaker 2: more modern fertilizers and technologies. The author of The can
Speaker 2: Opener Cookbook wrote that the flavor of fresh tomatoes was
Speaker 2: bad and that for real tomato flavor, you should open
Speaker 2: a can. Fifty ish years later, canned tomatoes are still
Speaker 2: an off season go two for tomato lovers and cooks,
Speaker 2: and I certainly can't deny the convenience of a can
Speaker 2: of beans already cooked and ready to go into a salad, soup, dip,
Speaker 2: or whatever other dish. No long soaking or parboiling required.
Speaker 2: From a nutrition standpoint, the canning process today is designed
Speaker 2: to preserve as many nutrients as possible. Fruits and vegetables
Speaker 2: for canning are picked at the peak of their ripeness,
Speaker 2: as opposed to some produce picked.
Speaker 1: For fresh sale, which may be underripe.
Speaker 2: To prevent spoilage during transport from farmed store, crops destined
Speaker 2: for canning are grown close to packing facilities and can
Speaker 2: be processed within four hours of harvest. The heat used
Speaker 2: during canning does decrease some of the water soluble vitamins
Speaker 2: in the finished food, like vitamins B and sea, and
Speaker 2: often salt and sugar are added during the process. Experts
Speaker 2: suggest rinsing canned food to reduce some of the added
Speaker 2: sugar and salt, or buying low salt and low sugar products.
Speaker 2: And of course that heat also changes the texture of vegetables,
Speaker 2: regrettably so in the case of those canned asparagus.
Speaker 1: But that heat is a plus when it comes to
Speaker 1: food safety.
Speaker 2: The heat introduces pressure that helps seal the cans, but
Speaker 2: it can also kill or deactivate deadly germs. Remember when
Speaker 2: we mentioned our grandparents aversions to dented or swollen cans,
Speaker 2: those fears are based in reality. Let's talk about my
Speaker 2: favorite scary condition, botulism. It's caused by a bacterial toxin
Speaker 2: so deadly that just a millionth of a gram is
Speaker 2: enough to kill the United States and other countries even
Speaker 2: explored botulism as a biological weapon during World War II.
Speaker 2: The bacteria that create this toxin, Cloustridium botulinum, are everywhere,
Speaker 2: but people associate botulism with canned foods because the bacteria
Speaker 2: only reproduce in low oxygen environments like a poorly processed can. Today,
Speaker 2: commercial canned foods go through what's called a botulinum cook.
Speaker 2: This is a high heat cook that dramatically lowers the
Speaker 2: chance that any Klaustridium botulinum spores or other organisms that
Speaker 2: can cause food born illness survive. For the record, you
Speaker 2: should discard any can that's puffed out or swollen that's
Speaker 2: caused by germs reproducing inside of it, and it is
Speaker 2: bad news. Cans that are dented are usually fine as
Speaker 2: long as the dent is not along the cans scenes.
Speaker 2: The most recent concern about canned foods, though, isn't the
Speaker 2: food at all, it's the cans themselves and what they're
Speaker 2: lined with, including BPA. Over the past two decades, public
Speaker 2: attention has focused on BPA, the compound used to make
Speaker 2: polycarbonate plastics and epoxy resins. In two thousand and eight,
Speaker 2: the US government's National Toxicology Program concluded that there was
Speaker 2: concern about its effects on the brains, behavior, and prostate
Speaker 2: glands of fetuses, infants, and children. Other studies have linked
Speaker 2: BPA to cardiovascular disease, obesity, asthma, and diabetes. BPA exposure
Speaker 2: is widespread. The Centers for Disease Control found BPA in
Speaker 2: ninety three percent of the urine samples of more than
Speaker 2: twenty five thousand people aged.
Speaker 1: Six and older.
Speaker 2: BPA can leach from containers, including cans, into foods and drinks,
Speaker 2: and so plastics and canning manufacturers have worked to develop
Speaker 2: replacement materials. The Can Manufacturers Institute says more than ninety
Speaker 2: percent of food cans today are lined with new BPA
Speaker 2: free materials such as polyesters, acrylics, and PVC. Though note
Speaker 2: that that ninety percent figure just refers to food cans,
Speaker 2: It doesn't include canned drinks or bottle caps, and although
Speaker 2: replacing a known concern is great, the safety of some
Speaker 2: of those substitutes is still being researched.
Speaker 1: We spoke with Sarah Geller, a.
Speaker 2: Senior research and database analyst at the Environmental Working Group.
Speaker 2: She said, we don't have a lot of data about
Speaker 2: how these materials are used because the formulas are protected
Speaker 2: by trade secrets. And even though cans with newer linings
Speaker 2: can help you avoid endocrine disruptors, they may not be
Speaker 2: good for the environment.
Speaker 1: Some materials don't degrade.
Speaker 2: If you're concerned about contamination from canned foods, Galla recommends
Speaker 2: using fresh, frozen, or dried food instead of cane, but
Speaker 2: if you simply can't get away from the convenience of
Speaker 2: canned foods, absolutely don't heat the food in the can. Finally,
Speaker 2: be aware that some compounds, including BPA, have become such
Speaker 2: pervasive contaminants in the environment that it's getting harder to
Speaker 2: avoid no matter what your food is packaged in. Geller said,
Speaker 2: detectable amounts of BPA may make it into otherwise BPA
Speaker 2: free cans from other sources, including the food itself. To
Speaker 2: end on a slightly lighter note, even though food was
Speaker 2: first canned in metal cans around eighteen thirteen. It took
Speaker 2: about forty years for someone to invent a can opener,
Speaker 2: and can openers for home use didn't become popular until
Speaker 2: the eighteen sixties. Before then you'd break out the hammer
Speaker 2: and chisel. Today's episode is based on the article does
Speaker 2: canned food really deserve a bad Wrap? On HowStuffWorks dot Com,
Speaker 2: written by Sean Chavis. Brain Stuff is production of iHeartRadio
Speaker 2: in partnership with how stuff work dot Com and is
Speaker 2: produced by Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts my heart Radio,
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