Is Canned Tomato Soup Good For You? Here's What We Know

A big bowl of hot tomato soup can warm your belly on a chilly day. Soups make great appetizers to help fill you up so you don't indulge too much at your meal. But as you know, soup can make a nice meal on its own paired with a good sandwich or salad.

Although your favorite creamy vegan tomato soup might take considerable time in the kitchen, canned soup can be ready in a few minutes. Besides, you can always stash a few cans of tomato soup in your pantry for those days when you just don't feel like cooking. However, with people these days stressing fresh over processed foods, you might wonder if canned tomato soup is just as good as fresh.

According to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, you'll still get many of the same nutrients in canned vegetables as fresh because they are picked and sealed at their peak. Although the heat from the canning process might reduce the vitamin C in your tomato soup, it boosts the power of the tomato's main antioxidant, lycopene. Given tomato's lycopene and other ingredients, canned tomato soup is a healthy way to reach your daily intake of vegetables.

The big benefit of tomatoes is the carotenoid and antioxidant lycopene, which gives the tomato its beautiful red color, according to a 2019 article in The Pharma Innovation Journal. If you consume tomatoes with some sort of fat, it makes the lycopene more easily absorbed by the body. Lycopene may also be able to lower your LDL cholesterol. A 2022 article in Nutrients found that 72 studies showed that lycopene can help fight cancer, particularly prostate cancer. Lycopene reduces inflammation and oxidative stress, and it prevents cancer from spreading throughout the body.

Tomatoes also have vitamin C, beta-carotene, and ferulic acid that can help fight cancer and reduce plaque buildup in your arteries, according to a 2022 article in Biology. Tomatoes can also reduce age-related inflammation and protect your nervous system against degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. The carotenoids in tomatoes may also help with insulin resistance to protect against type 2 diabetes. Tomatoes improve your immune system, fertility, and the diversity of bacteria in your gut.

A ½-cup serving of Campbell's Tomato Soup is just 90 calories with zero fat and cholesterol. The 20 grams of carbs in this canned tomato soup come from 12 grams of sugar, including 8 grams of added sugar. The added sugar accounts for 16% of your recommended amount for the day. Canned tomato soup will provide you with 2 grams of fiber to help you feel full before your meal. Although the canning process reduces some of the vitamin C content, you'll still get 10% of your daily vitamin C and potassium in a serving of this tomato soup. However, If you're trying to watch your sodium levels, you might want to look for another brand. Campbell's Tomato Soup has 480 milligrams of sodium, which accounts for 20% of your daily total.

A 2020 article in Plants stated that vegetable soups are an easy and healthy way of getting your daily vegetables. Canned soup is simple to prepare, and it has a long shelf life in your pantry for those cold nights. Tomato soup, like other vegetable soups, is typically low in calories, and the water from your soup can also maintain your hydration levels.