Rant for Today (4 Comments)
A friend (yes, I have one…. maybe two) and I talked the other day about canned vegetables. (Note to self: Clue right there about lack of friends – could it be your stimulating conversational skills? I mean really! Can’t you think of something else to talk about besides canned vegetables?) We discussed that they are higher in carbohydrates than fresh or frozen because there is added sugar in them. I am not sure why they add sugar to canned vegetables but apparently they do. (Quick- run to the pantry and read some labels- I’ll wait.) Personally, I buy fresh or frozen pretty much exclusively because I prefer the taste.
Fast forward to the next day when I was making a Three Bean Salad to take to pot luck. I tried a new recipe and I liked it but will have to fiddle with it because it had a lot of sugar in it. There I go again- fiddling with a recipe! Anyway, because I have such an interesting life, I stopped to read the label on the dark red kidney beans (Great Value- because I am cheap thrifty.) First ingredient: prepared kidney beans. No surprise there.
#2- water
#3- cane syrup- what? why?
#4- salt- I knew there is lots of salt in canned beans.
#5- high fructose corn syrup!! Why?
There were more things added that help promote color retention- I probably really don’t want to know about them.
But why the sugary stuff added? I mean, kidney beans? Sweet?
I rinse them before adding them to things in hopes of reducing the salt content and so I hope it helps with the sugar too but how much have they absorbed sitting in the can?
Sigh. So, I’ll have to read more labels in the store and suck it up and buy more expensive brands.
Or go all homestead like and boil up my own.
Sigh… I hear ya. Welcome to my world. I think I spend 50% of the time in the grocery store reading ingredients of products. I especially hate the high fructose corn syrup and hydrogenated crap. Of course I have to check labels anyway for dairy ingredients so I might as well make it worth my while. I try to buy as much organic and “natural” as possible, but even in those products they sneak in crap. I am finding it hard to find whole grain bread that doesn’t have HFC syrup or hygrogenated crap (and taste good!). Its ridiculous… its crappy… we need to have a food revolution!! So who’s with me?
Comment by Liesel — March 4, 2008 @ 7:02 pm
Or, you could be like Mom and spend half your life canning everything that grows, and some things that I am not sure was ever actually alive. Yes you too can make sure you have enough canned “natural” stuff that you can sit out the next ice age and not go hungry. There is stuff out there that I am sure I picked when I was in high school.
I do feel your pain, but since I was raised on Army food, I don’t pay much attention. As long as it is quick and doesn’t make many dirty dishes, it works for me. I mean, what’s the point? After 20 years of MRE’s, I am sure I have enough preservative in me to outlast even Mom’s canned wax beans.
Comment by Eric — March 4, 2008 @ 8:53 pm
Liesel- did I hit a nerve here? 🙂
I know- we try to eat healthy but then they sneak stuff in on us. Then the experts wonder why Americans are over weight. We don’t buy much processed stuff so I think that helps. I have a pot of black beans going for soup tonight right now (from dried beans). I make our own bread in the bread machine- I don’t make it by hand- triple batches at a time, like Mom still does. The bread machine makes it easy- and healthier!
Ah Eric, you had to bring up images of Mom- didn’t you? I know- I see the dates on some of that stuff and cringe. All that work…..
I am so not looking forward to having to clean the place out. I think we’ll have to call in some help- like cousins. 😉
Comment by JustMe — March 5, 2008 @ 10:23 am
Hahahaha! You guys crack me up about your Mom’s pantry…Its really that bad huh? Mom and Dad have to ration out their canned goods, especially when it comes to their pickles and marionberry jam. yummmmm. No worrying about dates on those jars 🙂 Eric, I’ve actually had MREs before, and they were decent… but then again that was when I was in college (an age where you eat anything!) and before I knew that products listed ingredients (also an age of oblivousness).
But anyway, of course I would be a good cousin and help you out at anytime (not that you are short on cousins…)
Comment by Liesel — March 5, 2008 @ 10:46 am