MindfulEats loves soup, so when Progresso asked if we wanted to participate in their promotion, we said sure. After all, we ate a lot of canned soup in school. Because not only do we like soup, we are also lazy - and nothing's easier than opening a can for dinner.
So Progresso sent a big box with lots of different flavors of soup, and a giveaway for you guys. Naturally, we won't make any recommendations to you without actually trying the product. In the meantime, we also asked Progresso a couple questions: 1) is there bisphenol-A (BPA) in the cans, and 2) are the ingredients organic?
Progresso kindly answered our questions, and you can see the full letter below. However, in a nutshell:
- Progresso uses BPA in their can liners (like most other canned foods). MindfulEats is staunchly anti-BPA even though it's not yet proven to be bad. Why absorb chemicals into your body if you don't have to? A scientist that studies BPA won't go near canned tomatoes. Progresso's working on finding alternatives and hopes to find some soon.
- Progresso soup ingredients are not organic.
Before we got the answer about BPA, Jean ate several cans of soup over the course of two days. She reports that she got a black tongue a few days later (this may be purely coincidental and have nothing to do with the soup, but she's never had a black tongue), and didn't feel great. The soups themselves were tasty. They tasted very salty, but Progresso has a low-sodium line. They also offer a "Light" line that is 100 calories and under for calorie counters.
Bottom Line: MindfulEats does not recommend regularly eating any canned soup. If you want packaged soups, look for glass jars or BPA-free cans. That being said, we do have some canned chicken noodle soup in case we get sick because chicken soup helps you get over colds, and canned soup is super easy to make - critical for when you're sick.
Oh - and the giveaway. Progresso has provided us with a gift box that contains a Progresso digital jump rope that keeps track of jumps and calories burned, a Progresso soup mug, and a couple cans of soup. MindfulEats will pick a random winner on April 1, 2010 - leave a comment on this post, on our Facebook page, or tweet us by April 1. We'll throw all names in a hat and pick a winner.
Here's the letter from Progresso:
What I ate: vegetable juice, latte, Nancy's Cottage cheese + ground flax seeds, nycheese raw milk cheddar, 1 cup coffee, 6 squares dark chocolate, Margarita personal pizza, salad, 3 dried mango slices, LifeThyme Market Raw Vegan Pizza (awesome and much tastier than the "real" pizza), Gopal's raw goldenberry cookie, hot chocolate, 50 oz. water
Exercise: Ran 4 miles
