My current lifestyle (work) precludes fresh or frozen veggies, so canned is the best I can do. I’m particularly partial to canned peas, and lately have taken to downing the water they come in. Is there any nutrition in this water? I’ve read that canned veggies lack nutrition due to preparation processes, but that some is retained and then lost in the water which is usually poured out.
(I know it does sound a bit icky to drink pea water, and I was rather tentative the first time, but I gotta say, I kind of like it now, nutritious or not :o)
I don’t think it sounds icky at all. I always save the juice from any veggie and use it as a broth or starter for something else. Heck, I’ve been known to have boullion made from Maggi Veggie Cubes for lunch! Not sure about the nutrional value, but there must be some.
The only caution I give you is to check for salt content - if the peas are low- or no-salt then I’d drink the juice with abandon. If they are processed with salt in the water I’d be afraid that it would be high in salt content.
[useless trivia] This ‘juice’ which is created when home-cooking vegetables is called ‘pot liquor’. [/useless trivia]
“Nutritious”? No, in the sense that there’s going to be very little caloric value in the water, mostly just starch and maybe a little protein from the peas themselves, plus whatever processing (salt etc.) has been added. There may well be some water-soluble micronutrients present as well, but these will still be concentrated primarily in the vegetables anyhow. When people talk about canning “leeching” the nutrients out they generally mean that the heated canning process can damage some of the more fragile vitamins, notably vitamin C and B’s.
I wouldn’t worry about it in the least, nor would I expect any noticeable benefits.