Attention! Class is about to begin.
Let’s get started with today’s lesson in healthy living. Operation Take Back Your Health is now underway:
Step 1: Walk to your kitchen pantry and open the door.
Step 2: Remove all canned foods especially canned soup. Yes, even the organic ones.
Step 3: Throw them in the trash.
Yes, the trash. That’s where they belong. Don’t give them away as this is simply passing on the curse of ill health to another unsuspecting soul.
Step 4: Do your very best to never, EVER buy anything in a can again.
Well done. Class dismissed.
Canned Soup Risks Toxic Chemical Exposure
If you’ve been a reader of this blog for any length of time, you know that canned food is something that is very much a detriment to your health. The reason is not just because the food is nutritionless due to the high temperatures and pressures required during processing.
Possibly the most worrisome problem of all is that almost all brands of canned food, except for a very few organic ones, contain the endocrine disruptor bisphenol A. This chemical, better known as BPA, is part of the can lining. It is a byproduct of the chemicals used to prevent corrosion. Those that don’t contain BPA contain a very similar chemical known as BPS, which is just as dangerous!
Why are BPA and BPS such a HUGE, HUGE problem, particularly for our children?
Because they are linked to massive hormone disruption with the serious problem of early puberty, ADHD, obesity, Type 2 diabetes, and the list goes on and on and on.
Think this problem is overblown? Consider this.
Currently, as many as 10 in 100 white girls, 15 in 100 Hispanic girls, and 25 in 100 African American girls are experiencing breast development as early as 7 years old! The earlier a girl goes into puberty, the higher her chances of breast cancer later in life.
Canned Foods Much Worse Than Previously Thought
Now comes the news that the BPA in canned foods raises urine levels of this dangerous chemical much more than previously believed.
In a study published yesterday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, participants who ate canned soup every day for only five days had urine levels of BPA that were 1,221% higher than those who instead ate soup made with fresh ingredients and homemade broth.
Karin Michels, an associate professor of epidemiology at Harvard University and leader of the study, said, “To see an increase of this magnitude was quite surprising.”
Michels added, “We are concerned about the influence of [hormone-disrupting] chemicals on health in general, and BPA is one of them.”
The study included 75 people whose average age was 27. Progresso was the only brand of soup that was tested. This is the first study to actually measure the BPA levels in urine using randomized participants eating food that was either canned or fresh.
BPA in Mom’s Urine Risks Health Problems for Unborn Children
Study researcher Jenny Carwile, a doctoral student at Harvard made the following observation.
We’ve known for a while that drinking beverages that have been stored in certain hard plastics can increase the amount of BPA in your body. This study suggests that canned foods may be an even greater concern, especially given their wide use.
A number of studies have linked BPA with a host of health problem. In 2008, a study of 1,455 participants showed that higher urine levels of BPA were linked with higher cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and abnormal liver enzymes even when factors such as smoking and age were taken into account.
Other studies have shown a correlation between BPA in a pregnant woman’s urine and resultant health problems in her child.
How much more evidence is needed? Wise shoppers who are truly concerned about the health and the potential for estrogen dominance from exposure to BPA will consistently bypass all canned foods on their trips to the supermarket or the health food store!
Have no idea how to make fresh soup? Relearn this traditional culinary wisdom by learning how to make homemade stock and bone broths as an important first step.
Just had soup last night.. guess i’ll have to go find some soup recipes..
Don’t forget to never order soup at a restaurant either unless you have talked to the chef yourself to confirm how it’s made. Asking the waiter is pointless in my experience.
The last time I opened a can of soup, my daughter and I thought that it smelled like barf. With a slow cooker, you can make it yourself so much easier.
Leslie, keep up the good work and don’t let your husband bring you down. You obviously know a great deal about health and nutrition and he doesn’t. I don’t know why some men can’t be more supportive 🙁
As our family moves away from processed foods, the first thing for us to go was canned soup as well as canned chicken stock, vegetable stock and beef stock. We also refuse to use bouillon cubes of any kind. I much prefer my homemade soup stock and I’m becoming even better at it each time I make it. This Thanksgiving we won’t be eating turkey, but we will be eating cornish game hens. The stock I’m making for the gravy as well as for the stuffing is made from what I’ll be making today. It does take me a full 24 hours to make my stocks, but I’m learning how to allot the time before hand and also to keep stock in the fridge for the week.
We simply don’t buy canned foods of any kind anymore and we don’t miss it either. 🙂
Great info! Unfortunately, if I did this, my husband would have me committed for sure! He already describes my commitment to avoiding packaged and prepared foods as an eating disorder (nothing wrong with eating crap apparently, as long as it’s in moderation); however, eating that stuff results in a very unhappy gut for me … which would not happen (he maintains) if I just ate crap regularly so my body can adapt, because that’s what humans have been doing for eons. He characterizes home made stock (chicken or beef) as “your witch’s brew”, recoils from liver, game meats, and vegetables from the garden (grocery store veg is superior because why?), and gets upset when I cook in the oven because it will make it dirty (better to microwave a prepared packaged roast in a plastic dish–sigh).
Sorry for the rant! I’d love your blog and appreciate that you take the time to source and publish this research–just wish it wasn’t so darn hard to incorporate into my life.
Wow Leslie! You’ve got your work cut out for you!!
Actually humans haven’t eaten ‘crap’ for eons.. just the last century or so – especially the 20th and onward. Can he not remember his grandmother or his great grandmother? They probably had farms, gardens, cooked from scratch, etc…
As to the oven vs microwave cooking, does he clean them? If not, why does he care which one you use? If he does clean them, maybe you can take over that task and he can do something else??
Fortunately my DH grew up eating home cooking (mostly) from scratch so he’s okay there. But he does like his occasional ‘junk’. About the only can I buy anymore is some tomatoes (about to go glass-only on that front) and some refried beans for DH (like twice a year – I do make my own, but for emergency cases I keep a can around).
DH clean the oven hahaha! Thanks for the light moment of the morning 🙂
It’s a relief to be able to seek reassurance from those who don’t think it’s lunacy to be aware that the quality of what we ingest affects our health.
Having an unsupportive spouse is clearly one of the biggest obstacles to making healthy changes in the home, no doubt. Be persistent. Do your own thing in a quiet and determined way … just because he doesn’t want to comply doesn’t mean you have to go along with it.
wow leslie…. wow….
-jason and lisa-
Unfortunately, Leslie’s recounting is not unusual. I would venture to say most households react in much the same way. I agree with Sarah – slow and steady keep on your course, and eventually husbands and other family members get the idea. Husbands, though, are usually last because they are stubborn. ; ->)
I have always cooked for my family, but over a year ago when I started cooking pretty much everything from scratch and eliminating all processed foods, my husband really sunk his heels in. A few months ago, out of the blue he thanked me for all of the effort I put into making sure that our family eats healthy. It was a slow road and he still rolls his eyes occasionally, but I bet your husband will soften to the idea eventually.
Leslie – trying making broth with chicken feet! That will really get your husband crazed; it did mine! But seriously, I agree with Sarah. Slow, steady and determined will get you to a good point. I leave books in the bathroom for my husband to read. I send emails about nourishing foods and the dangers of canned foods and the like. It’s helped and I’ve gotten to a point where he’ll eat my food…
Send your husband to read this: http://www.modernalternativemama.com/blog/2011/9/10/helping-husbands-adapt-to-real-food-part-i.html My husband wrote it. He’s pretty tough, but, in his opinion, a man who flat-out refuses to try real food or even ridicules his wife (however “gently”) is wrong, bottom line. It doesn’t go so well when wives say that…but maybe he’d listen to another man.
Thank you for this information! What about cans that are lined? Are there any brands of tomatoes and beans that are safe?
No. All canned tomato products even organic are loaded with BPA. Eden canned beans might be ok as Eden has committed as a company to get rid of BPA. HOWEVER, soaking/cooking your own beans is a much better choice. I make huge batches of beans and freeze them … easy and convenient that way.
Sarah,
Beans are one of the only things I still buy in cans (besides tomato products) and I want to learn how to use dried beans. Would you consider maybe doing a video on preparing dried beans? Or maybe putting a chart together on your blog about soaking times and cooking times and such? Your site is my go-to for all things natural 🙂
I love when you take time to cover “simple” things. It’s really helpful to me!
Ideally, one would can his/her own tomatoes in glass jars during tomato season. But for the lazy like me, there’s a great company I found called Bionaturae that sells both tomato paste and strained tomato sauce – both certified organic – in glass. Here’s the website: http://www.bionaturae.com/tomatoes.html. Middle Eastern cooking uses a LOT of tomato paste, so I had been trying to find an alternative to cans for a while and that’s the best I found. Here’s a post I wrote on my other blog, midEATS, of a recipe that uses this tomato paste: Hope this is helpful! In the meantime, I’m also looking for a local source …
What about canned wild sardines and salmon/tuna?
I would only have them in the pantry for an emergency.
Vital Choice cans are BPA free
Wild Planet Tuna cans are also BPA-free … They also have ones packaged in glass jars!
THANK YOU!!!!!!
My DH and I ordered a whole case of Wild Planet tuna from Vitacost several years ago. Ended up feeding it to the dog because it was sooooo grossly fishy – smelling and tasting. Is it better now? I made a tuna casserole and it stunk up the whole dern house. Smelled like fish in here for days, which after day two is downright nasty. I burned candles and sage and everything, to no avail. Short of setting the place on fire we just had to let it run its course. I would really like opinions on the quality and taste of Wild Plant nowadays. Maybe they’ve improved since we had it.
Will try it tomorrow and let you know 🙂
I agree BPA is a concern. However, is it only in cans? What about Ziploc bags? Or other plastic containers – where I store bone broth in the freezer? All our meats come wrapped in plastic from the stores as well. I heard that stainless steel water bottles – which we switched to to get away from Nalgenes – also contain BPA. I would like to see scientists do the studies to help us prioritize areas of most harm to least harm. For example, microwave ovens, reverse osmosis water filters, conventional vs. organic, pastured vs. confined, plastic vs. stainless steel, too much time on wifi laptops, etc. etc.
Yes, it is all about exposure. Eliminating processed foods – especially cans – goes a very long way toward reducing the problem as the urine samples from this group of folks suggests. The ones eating canned soup had astonishingly high levels compared with the others who were very likely getting exposure from the sources you listed in your comment. If you want to prioritize, getting the cans out is a huge first step.
Good point Charlene. I hate cans, and do my best to avoid them, but how easy is it to avoid ziplock bags – which are most convenient for packing kids’ lunches? Granted, these bags don’t stay with the food preserved in there for months and years like cans, but it’s still a concern. Also, meat and dairy from the co-op come in plastic … it’s almost a waste (in my opinion) to put such a high-quality food as pastured raw dairy in a plastic jug! As for the studies you mention, these won’t likely happen in the near future because “scientists” are paid by large pharmaceuticals, and of course they don’t care about this kind of research … because it doesn’t promote their drugs and doesn’t make money (i.e. they don’t care to promote small family farms that produce nutrient-dense foods … instead they’re working on more “high-tech” junk and expensive pills that supposedly make life more convenient, but that turn out to be poisonous over the years)! An independent, non-profit agency has to do the kind of research that you and I are interested in … but those who have the money to start that kind of thing are spending it on other stuff … Anyway, for now, I think it’s safe to assume from what we do know that most things that emit radiation (phones, wireless internet, body scanners, microwaves, etc) should be kept at a distance and used less frequently, and that our food should be as fresh and as unprocessed/untampered with as possible. The more we can go “back to basics”, the better!
Thank you for this crucial knowledge. Along with being full of BPA, canned food is just about worthless from a nutritional standpoint, and is often made from the worst factory ingredients.
We have had no canned food in our home for years now, and we do not miss it. Not at all.
BPA should be banned. Instead, the FDA goes after raw milk.
I encourage everybody to do just what you suggested, and throw out every can in the house.