Is tinned soup unhealthy?

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Depends what you put into HM soup.

Personally, I put in vegetables (fresh or frozen), herbs (usually fresh) and blitz with fresh stock. I don't bother with flour, roux, fat or use dairy products, as a potato does the same job.

In comparison to, say, two leeks, one potato, thyme and some HM chicken stock with a small pinch of sea salt in a full saucepan, I suspect that a tin of 23% potato, 8% leek, 7% onion and the remaining 68% being whipping cream (which is around 35% fat), Modified cornflour, cornflour and salt has considerably more calories, less vitamins, more sodium and doesn't really taste of much.

Essentially, one is eating vegetables and water with a small amount of salt and one is eating cream with some added vegetables and starch with 40% of your recommended sodium intake for a day before you get to considering how much salt is in the piece of bread and butter most people will have with it.

I know one is better. And one, whilst it could fit into a healthy diet, makes it harder to keep within healthy limits.

candygirl

I can't stand tinned soup these days, after making my own for ages

THIRZAH

I keep a few tins of Heinz tomato in for days when I have a cold or am tired and just want something quick and hot-takes me back to my childhood.

buildersdaughter

Carrying on a theme: There are very few foods that are 'healthy or 'unhealthy'. I dislike this very simplistic way of looking at food.
Home made soup is better as long as you don't overload it with salt, sugar or cream. If you have the freezer space, the time, and ability to organise, you can make soup in batches (it ill keep in the fridge for 3 days) and take to work. Lots of MSEers do this - and lots of us keep tins by us for the days that doesn't work out.
Your colleague can only have a discussion if they are comparing it to something: home made soup is the obvious, but I bet there's plenty of people in your office eating crisps, pasties etc.
Also - a helpful discussion about the merits of different foods is fine, we do it a lot on here. But a comment that something is 'unhealthy' is unhelpful. Lots of help here to eat healthily, cheaply, and save time as well, so ignore your colleague and turn to us!

trailingspouse

I find some of the organic soups (the ones that come in boxes) are phenomenally salty!!


Some foodstuffs are simply unhealthy (fizzy pop, cheesy wotsits, flumps...) - but tinned soup doesn't fall into this category. It's probably healthier than a turkey twizzler, not as healthy as a salad sandwich in a wholemeal seeded bap. And any food would be unhealthy if it was the only thing you ate! It's all about balance - chocolate and red wine can form part of a healthy balanced diet (thank God!!)

Happy_One

In my world it’s “horses for courses” I love to make soup, leek and potato being one of my favourites but if I just want something quick to warm us up in the kind of weather we are having now I open a tin to go with some toast or crackers, or dare I say it we sometimes have a Cuppa soup!

PasturesNew

Some people are overly bothered about salt/sugar... without actually reading the label or knowing how much is enough/too much. Some people think that if you didn't start something with a raw carrot, then it must be "unhealthy" as only fresh things + cooking from scratch is "good for you", which is utter nonsense.

I recently made a flapjack and as I poured in a HUGE PILE of sugar I thought "that won't be good will it". Made it anyway. After I'd eaten every last piece .... I looked it up - and it would appear that, even though I'd made/eaten something drowning in sugar, that was a "once a year or so" thing I make ... it was one day's worth of sugar. So I'd gone out of my way to PILE on all that sugar.... and eat the lot .... only to discover "that's actually OK".

It's about what's eaten over the course of a day/week/month, not one meal, or one tin, or one bowl.

Out,_Vile_Jelly

I love soup in all its forms:


-Packet cup-a-soups. I keep some at work to have with my home-made sarnie to avoid the inevitable queue at the kitchenette microwave. Also reassuring to have a couple of boxes in the Zombie Apocalypse Cupboard as they are cheap, lightweight and keep for ages.

-Tinned. Again, keeps for ages so useful to have some in storage "just in case". Handy if ill and you can't cope with too much effort. Never been able to recreate Heinz Vegetable in a home-made version.

-Home made, usually with veg from my garden and as spicy as I want it (very). Obviously this is the cheapest, healthiest and usually tastiest, but when stored in marge tubs in the freezer it takes a while to defrost (I don't have a microwave), and a marge tub portion is too big for one person.


All soup is good. Feel the soup love.

Mistral001

I make traditional vegetable soup when I have visitors. It has carrots, parsley, celery and some barley with a vegetable stock cube. It can work out very inexpensive per portion if you make large quantities. My local super market sells ready made up packets of these ingredients, but they are rarely fresh when I want them and I usually buy all the ingredients separately and chop them up.

Others have referred to leek and potato soup. This is a soup I also make on occasions. It is a bit more demanding to make than the vegetable soup and costs more now that potatoes are quite expensive, but very filling and a bit special if you get it just right.

stressedoutmumof1

Hmm - I was only having the discussion the other day about how expensive it seems to be to make soup these days :rotfl: