Is it Just A Can of Beans?

by Mary Higgins, B.S., M.Ed.

On how many occasions do you serve beans? Red kidney beans in the chili; yellow wax beans; cannellini beans with the pasta? In my family, green beans are a staple at the Thanksgiving table. They accompany the Easter Ham and my mother makes a mean three-bean salad with chickpeas, kidney beans and green beans for summer cookouts. Although green beans may seem mundane, I’ll bet you’ve found delicious ways to eat them, hot or cold.

In tough economic times, it makes sense to eat some canned foods. Do you ever wonder, though, if eating canned will compromise your health? When food is canned, the mineral content including potassium, selenium, zinc and copper is preserved but unfortunately the high heat used during the canning process destroys some vitamins that are “heat labile” or heat sensitive. This happens to two B-vitamins as well as to Vitamin C.

Although viewed by many as inferior to fresh, some vegetables, canned at the height of crispness, may contain more nutrients than unprocessed. Some fresh produce sitting on a truck for hours loses vitamin content. At one time, canned vegetables were filled with much more than the food pictured on the label. Water, sugar, chemicals used to preserve color and texture, MSG, and salt under various other names filled the cans.

Many homemakers rinse canned beans then drain them before serving, removing most of the salt. But since minerals as well as some vitamins dissolve in water; they are throwing away most of the nutrients!

Beans labeled “reduced salt” are now on the market. You’ll see only three ingredients on the label: beans, water and salt. Sometimes the chelating agent, EDTA, is added as a preservative to keep the green color but the sodium content is dramatically lower. (140 mg. compared to 800 mg. that may have been present twenty years ago). Many food companies utilize sea salt which is stronger, therefore less salt is needed.

Canned Dried Beans

The USDA Standard for Grades of Canned Dried Beans states that:

“Canned dried beans is the product prepared from dry

mature beans or peas used for canning but not including

soy beans, sweet peas or early peas.”

Unlike a garden or green bean, picked before maturity, dried beans are loaded with protein and can form a major part of a meal. Just add a grain such as rice or bulgur. It is important to rinse these beans to remove salt and make them more digestible.

The Lining of the Cans

A bigger consumer threat today lurks inside the liner of aluminum cans. Foods with a high acid content, such as tomatoes, reacts with the metal of the cans. Therefore since the 1950‘s, manufacturers coat some cans with a plastic liner. Now new concern arises about a toxic ingredient called Bis-phenol A (BPA) in the liner. This ingredient of plastic, migrates into the food coming into contact with it causing damage to several systems including the heart, the brain and the balance of hormones. BPA acts as a form of estrogen in the body putting pregnant women and children who consume foods in contact with it, at higher risk. Parents may wish to limit the amount of canned and bottled foods given to children.

Good News!

The news is hopeful with one manufacturer. Eden Organic Foods, sells their line of canned foods without this lining. In Japan, the use of BPA in cans is no longer in use. Hopefully more manufacturers will listen to the concerns of American consumers and follow that lead.