Is frozen/canned food junk food?

[Leothebear]

DH and I have a recurrent discussion regarding canned and frozen food.

We are talking about basic ingredients, not the pre-made, pre-seasoned stuff

E.g. canned beans, canned tomatoes or tomato sauce, canned chickpeas etc
Frozen broccoli, frozen spinaches, frozen peas

And so on

I think frozen, basic ingredients are a perfectly healthy alternative to fresh stuff, and while I find canned stuff not on the same level, i think using basic canned ingredients is a great alternative to cook cheaper, quicker but still healthy meals.

DH thinks canned and frozen food are a step closer to junk food and we should limit the consumption as much as possible.

AIBU?

I use frozen and tinned, hate the waste with fresh, the fact it has been stored longer from harvesting and the flaff. Live is too short for peeling carrots and preparing onions and the like.

What strange logic

Fruits and veg starts to deteriorate the moment they're picked. By the time you put fresh in your trolley it already has fewer vitamins and nutrients than frozen - which gets frozen within hours, locking in the nutrients.

I think most of us have been guilty of buying fresh and not using it until it's looking a little bit sad in the fridge. By that point there's hardly any goodness left. You never get that problem with frozen and zero waste.

Canned and frozen is sometimes better nutritionally, rarely significantly worse, and not a worry if you also eat fresh food too. Often cheaper, much easier to avoid food waste.

But almost always time and effort saving compared with fresh, so as long as it's him that's putting in the effort in shopping more regularly, doing more prep and the mental load to avoid waste, then he can crack on with his fresh food only diktat.

He seems very confused about nutrition and what the term 'junk food' means.

Of course canned and frozen fruit and vegetables are not a step nearer to junk food. Maybe he's confusing convenience with junk.

A lot of frozen and canned vegetables can be a bit unpalatable compared to fresh and personally, except for one or two exceptions, I tend to steer clear of them as they are often a bit mushy but nutritionally, as pp have said, are often better.

He really needs to educate himself before pontificating on things he clearly knows nothing about.

Someone on Twitter was criticised for a food parcel he had provided to a family in need - for including tinned new potatoes as they were “unhealthy” and “expensive” and why had he not provide raw potatoes? Quite apart from the meanness of criticising someone’s kind action - no thought to the fact that tinned potatoes in water are perfectly healthy and old require heating through compared to around 20mins boiling on the hob for raw. Could even be eaten cold from the tin if there was no credit on the meter plus they keep for ages so no worries about them spoiling. Tins are often a good choice I think.

Absolutely not, for reasons PPs have stated, and TBH the term 'junk food' is suspect and a bit meaningless. It's most often (as in this case) based on snobbery or subjective dislike of certain brands or types of food, rather than science. It's better to focus on foods that are high in salt or added sugar and things like that.

I watched a documentary once where they compared tinned tomatoes cos fresh. Turns out that tinned tomatoes had higher quantities of lycopene because they were tinned immediately after picking instead of being sat on a shelf / being transported.

Tinned kidney and cannellini beans as well as green lentils, well I use these for cooking as they are more convenient compared to normal ones. They hardly fall into the category of junk food or any other lesser status.

Yep. A good example would be Brussels sprouts. Fresh is very different to frozen and I can see why you would prefer one over the other. But there's no way that fresh is objectively "better" or that frozen is "junk".

Frozen veg - definitely not junk food.

Canned veg - as long as its not filled with extra salt, sugar etc then also not junk food.

It shouldn't be news to any adult that frozen and tinned vegetables often have higher nutritional value than fresh.

I assume you've tried to explain it to him in simple terms, and he still can't understand? That's quite unusual.

He’s very misinformed! Canned/frozen veg is just as healthy if not more than fresh -plus cheaper and less waste. Same for canned toms and beans/pulses. Even canned soups are healthy, most only have the ingredients you’d use if you made it.

Is he not very bright?

I would not call canned food junk but it is certainly not the healthiest. Tins contain BPA which has been linked to cancer, especially canned tomatoes. Some higher end producers specify if the tins are BPA free. I always prefer fresh food to canned or frozen also because the taste is not the same. But agree some items like frozen peas are full of vitamins and easy to cook!

He is clearly confusing the words preserved with processed.

Food is preserved to extend its shelf life. Canning, drying and freezing are all safe ways of maintaining nutritional value.

Food is processed by adding unnecessary ingredients, adulterating it with colouring agents and other chemicals, adding sugars ( often more than one ) and salt in large quantities, including items such as palm oil.

I always think frozen peas are better than fresh. I think you’re right. Store cupboard ingredients are fine. Who has time to make home made tomato sauce from scratch?

There was a good programme on last year about frozen v fresh fish. The expert they used tested supermarket fish to see how fresh it was, and found most of it really wasn't - wouldn't kill you - but wasn't fresh. Whereas frozen is really fresh.

Often healthier when it comes to basics.
Nutrients are sealed in. Less waste too.

Buying frozen veg means we eat a much wider variety than we would fresh and that has to be a good thing, quite apart from the freshness.

Canned plain vegetables are not junk food, they are a conserved/preserved raw ingredient.

In the old days people would pickle and preserve the things they grew, to use throughout the winter. Buying cans is no different from this.

Your DH is talking blithering bilge.

Frozen veg is great and preserves vitamins. Much better than some of the sad looking supposedly "fresh" specimens we get in our supermarket around here. Apart from that, I live alone so buying frozen means nothing ends up wasted because it sits in the freezer until I've eaten all of it.
Tinned veg is fine too. As are canned beans - ie. just the beans, not baked beans in sauce which might have a lot of sugar and salt in them depending on the brand. I won't eat any tomato sauces because they have too much sugar in them but the chopped or pureed tomatoes in cans or cartons (better because not stored in metal) are fine and I just use them to make a quick sauce - with frozen herbs usually.
Love frozen herbs! Better than dried stuff or having to buy very expensive fresh in portions which are too large and then end up in the bin.

I’ve just started using tinned potatoes in stews and casseroles. Game changer for me. I always end up up with some horrible soft potatoes rolling around my cupboards.

Canned potatoes are also supposed to be really good in curries.

I use them to make Spanish omelettes if I don't have leftover cooked potatoes or chips to make them with.

I’m glad I came across this thread. I’ve always struggled with potatoes for a number of reasons but I think the tinned potato suggestions might fix my issues completely!

Throw him a (non-frozen) bone, he’s barking.

He's a wally.