Soups are a necessity in winter months!  They are a warm, nutritious comfort food!  Plus, cooking a soup can make the entire house smell wonderful.  Air fresheners are not needed in a home where a soup is simmering on the stove.

Canned soups can save the day when there is illness or when you need to put together a casserole quickly.  They are a staple in many homes because of their time-saving benefits.  All you need to do is to open the can, heat the soup, and eat it.  What could go wrong?  Here are just three reasons to avoid commercially canned soups.

1.  Canned soups contain excessive amounts of salt. 

Soups do not taste good unsalted, but you don’t need as much salt as is in those cans–even if you purchase organic soup.

Salt is good for you when it is a healthy salt (not table salt).  Sea salt and Himalayan pink salt are two good salts.  However, they are to be consumed in moderation.

Excessive amounts of salt can cause obesity, heart problems, and high blood pressure.

2.  Most canned soups contain MSG and other undesirable ingredients. 

MSG is monosodium glutamate and is added to foods to enhance their flavor.  Basically, a terrible cook could add MSG to the food and make it “taste good.”  What is wrong with tasty food?  While no one wants to eat food that tastes terrible, there are safer ways to make food taste good, such as using high quality spices and cooking the food correctly.

While adding flavor, MSG can cause headaches, inflammation, and many other health issues.  The “quick fix” can be quite costly when medical problems are considered.  (This is just my opinion, but in spite of MSG, canned soups taste terrible!)

3.  Canned soups contain BPA. 

BPA (Bisphenol A) is in the plastic lining of canned foods.  BPA imitates estrogen and can impact reproductive and developmental health.

It is especially important to avoid acidic canned soups, such as tomato soup because more of the BPA is leeched into acidic foods.

Go here to learn more foods that should not be in your pantry.

Two other reasons to avoid canned soups are that you do not know the quality of the ingredients.  Chicken noodle soup can be healthy, but did the chicken from that soup come from China?  It may take more time to research than you care to take, and companies are not always willing to disclose that information.  Another reason is that canned soups do not taste good.

Now that I have presented you with a problem, you may ask, “What is the solution?”  First, keep soup ingredients in your pantry and freezer.  It does not take that long to make soup from scratch!  Second, next time you make soup, make double the portion, and freeze half of it.

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