I recently gave up eating takeout every night, but I'm too lazy to cook, which led to me replacing it with basically nothing but canned food. Like I'll mix a can of beans and a can of mixed vegetables together, put half in a bowl and put the other half in a container for tomorrow, put salad dressing on it, and then that's my dinner. I also eat a half can of fruit per day, because I found the shelf life and inconsistencies with produce to be too annoying.
On the one hand, I think I'm eating better than I was when I was doing nothing but takeout. My salt consumption has plummeted, and in general, I think the nutritional facts for my canned meal are better across the board than the takeout meals I was doing.
On the other hand, if there's some long term issue with eating too much canned food, then I'm definitely going to be affected by it. I was thinking cats lead pretty good lives with nothing but canned food, so maybe I'll be ok.
Anyway, am I going to die a horrible canned food death, or am I ok?
"Healthier" is a fuzzy, difficult to define concept in food, but there's minimal nutritional differences between canned, frozen, and fresh fruits and vegetables. Avoid cans with BPA lining and anything with lots of added salt or sugar, but otherwise don't worry about it.
The practical answer is whatever helps you not eat takeout all the time is what you should stick with. If you are worried, prewashed salad lettuce packs are pretty cheap and are a manageable two meals. I really hate juggling the shelf life of produce as well.
Thanks cool, that's good to know that I'm ok with the cans. I just have to start buying the low/no salt versions from now on, it sounds like. I'll probably try to start mixing it up with the other lazy healthy options too, though. If only for a little more variety.