Is Tomato Soup Good for You?
SPOTLIGHT: A can of soup isn’t as innocent as it might seem.
BIG PICTURE: According to the low-fat dietary advice we’ve all received, tinned tomato soup is positively virtuous. The nutritional labeling on the three brands stocked by my local grocer reveal that even if I consume an entire can on a blustery winter’s day, my fat intake will be less than 4 grams. Hardly worth mentioning.
But if I’m diabetic, or if I’m trying to lose weight by limiting my carbohydrate intake to 50 net grams per day (carbs minus fiber), the picture shifts dramatically. A tin of Aylmer’s tomato soup has 36 net carbs. A tin of Campbell’s has 45. The local store brand has 50.
Yikes. That’s how quickly a food can be booted off the ‘insanely healthy’ list onto the ‘eat-sparingly’ list. The Campbell’s label tells us there are “4 tomatoes in every can.” This is probably a good time to recall that tomatoes are technically a fruit – and that fruit is high in sugar.
An article on a slick-looking website says that tomato soup is good for diabetics due to the fact that it contains chromium, a trace mineral. But the benefits of chromium for diabetics is hotly debated. What is well known is that carbs are guaranteed to spike the blood sugar of every diabetic on the planet. Somehow that gets overlooked.
Until a few years ago, tins of Campbell’s tomato soup here in Canada displayed a Health Check logo from the Heart & Stroke Foundation. When deciding which brand and flavour of tinned soup to purchase, consumers were advised that the contents of some tins were especially healthy. But that logo was purchased by Campbell’s. In the food industry, it’s called licensing. A 2013 news story about a different product reported that its manufacturer had paid $19,500 in licensing fees that year.
Campbell’s runs a kids-orientated website that gives parents all the traditional advice. Healthy equals low-fat. Healthy is “a bowl of fresh fruit on your kitchen table.” Healthy snacks include Goldfish crackers and V8 vegetable cocktail – both manufactured by the Campbell’s food company and both high in carbs.
That website says a school lunch comprised of tomato soup, a sandwich, and fruit is healthy. But only until you start doing the math. If a child consumes half a tin of tomato soup (22 net carbs), a sandwich made with two slices of bread (40), and a banana (25) the carb load for that meal alone totals 87 grams.
One in three Canadian kids are overweight or obese. For those children, Campbell’s chicken noodle soup – which contains only half the carbs – is actually a better idea.
TOP TAKEAWAY: ‘Healthy’ is being defined in radically different ways, by different interest groups. Health logos on food packaging should therefore be treated with skepticism.
LINKS:
- A 2014 article published in the World Journal of Diabetes, Chromium does not belong in the diabetes treatment arsenal, explains the shaky nature of the chronimium-is-good-for-diabetics claim.
- According to a 2013 lawsuit accusing the American Heart Association (AHA) and the Campbell Soup Company of misleading consumers, companies pay three separate fees to the AHA before they’re allowed to display heart healthy logos.
- The main Campbell’s website boasts that a package of Goldfish crackers has “0g Trans Fat!” But its “Large Single Serve 2.25 ounce pouch” misleadingly displays nutritional labeling for a serving half the size. Anyone consuming the entire package is ingesting 38 net carbs. If you believe weight control is about cutting carbs rather than cutting fat, this popular kids’ snack isn’t as healthy as it first appears. No wonder we’re all confused.
Read more at nofrakkingconsensus.com
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Physicist
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The sugar spikes can be controlled with the drug metformin which is not only for diabetes but also for weight loss. Since I started it 12 months ago I have lost 9Kg bringing my Body Mass Index down to 22.5 which is nicely within the normal weight range, namely 18.5 to 25. Metformin helps prevent cancer and also slows the rate of human aging: http://www.lifeextension.com/Magazine/2017/4/Metformin-Slashes-Cancer-Risks/Page-01
You don’t mention that tomatoes contain lycopene that has preventive properties and about which you can learn more from articles like this:
http://www.lifeextension.com/Magazine/1999/8/report1/Page-01
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cedarhill
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Still, chemistry is chemistry. Carbs are merely pasted together sugar chains that are nearly instantly broken into sugar when they hit the digestive system, thus the “sugar” spike and related insulin spike and, over time, insulin resistance along with diabetes 2.
One, then, could simply eat sugar and take a supplement/pill and be healthy.
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Physicist
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Having studied tertiary courses in both nutrition and natural medicine, and also studied these subjects privately since the early 1990’s, I would also dispute the negative claims about chromium and suggest you read about how a chromium deficiency has indeed been linked with diabetes and obesity. http://www.lifeextension.com/Magazine/2004/8/report_chromium/Page-01
I quote an excerpt:
“Dr. Anderson writes, “Insufficient dietary chromium is associated with maturity-onset diabetes and/or cardiovascular diseases.” This alarming pronouncement takes on still greater significance in light of his observation that “Dietary chromium intake in the US and other developed countries is roughly half of the minimum suggested intake of 50 micrograms.”[reference 21] Scientists, including Dr. Anderson and his colleagues, are actively seeking to understand precisely how chromium renders assistance. It is clear, however, that chromium, regardless of the details of its activity, enhances insulin’s activity, and is crucial to normal glucose and lipid metabolism.
Given the alarming rise in cases of insulin resistance and diabetes in the US, it may be prudent to increase one’s level of chromium to stave off symptoms of metabolic syndrome, such as increased glucose intolerance, excess weight gain, elevated blood lipids (cholesterol and triglycerides), and low levels of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. All of these parameters are potentially harmful if left untreated. [references 30-34]”
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Physicist
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Furthermore, you cited an article on chromium which I would suggest has been superseded by more recent research in 2016:
I quote:
“Magnesium and Chromium Fight Insulin Resistance
“A study conducted by Medical College of Qingdao University has found an improvement in indicators of insulin resistance in middle-aged individuals who supplemented with magnesium and chromium.*
“One hundred twenty insulin resistant subjects between the ages of 45 to 59 were divided into groups who received 160 mcg per day of chromium, 200 mg per day of magnesium, chromium plus magnesium, or a placebo for three months. Fasting blood glucose, fasting insulin, insulin resistance index, and T-lymphocyte messenger RNA levels of glucose transporter 4 (GLUT4, a protein that transports glucose) and glycogen-synthase-kinase-3β (GSK-3β, an enzyme) were determined before and after treatment.
“In the group that received both magnesium and chromium, fasting blood glucose, fasting insulin, insulin resistance index, and GSK-3β were significantly lower at the end of the study. Additionally, a 2.9-fold increase in GLUT4 was observed only among those who received both minerals.
Editor’s Note: “GLUT4 and GSK-3β are important components in an insulin-induced signal transduction pathway that plays a key role in glucose metabolism,” authors Mei Dou, PhD, and colleagues explain. “Increased expression of GLUT4 has been associated with enhanced glucose translocation from the exterior to the interior of cells in insulin-sensitive tissues and repression of GSK-3β has been shown to enhance insulin receptor activity.
“The results of the present study suggest the therapeutic potential of combined chromium/magnesium therapy in insulin resistant individuals.”
Reference
* Asia Pac J Clin Nutr. 2016 Dec;25(4):747-753.
Source: http://www.lifeextension.com/Magazine/2017/7/In-The-News/Page-01
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tom0mason
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Or is it just a case of —
You say either and I say either,
You say neither and I say neither
Either, either, Neither, neither
Don’t call the whole thing off!
You like potato and I like potahto
You like tomato and I like high in lycopene, a protective carotenoid to fight cancer, heart disease, etc., fruit.
Potato, potahto, Tomato, high in lycopene, a protective carotenoid to fight cancer, heart disease, etc., fruit
Please let’s not precipitously abandon this comfortable union of minds.
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Sheri
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Tomatoes contain some sugar—but the soup, if you read the label and ALL good diabetics do, contains high fructose corn syrup. If one switches to Progresso Tomato Basil, the carb count goes way down. One should not blame the tomato for the sins of the HFCS.
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