From childhood, one dietary fact is impressed above all others: five servings of fruit and vegetables are key to a healthy lifestyle. While produce alone can't give us enough of the nutrients required for a balanced diet - like calcium, fiber, and protein, to name a few -- it plays an undeniable role in keeping our bodies in tip-top condition. Making our fruit and veggie consumption easier is the fact that we can now purchase it in so many ways. Grocery stores are packed with fresh, frozen, and canned produce, with the latter in particular going a long way in helping us sneak extra veggies into our meals.

But not all canned veggies are built equal. We're firm believers in anything that makes cooking, especially healthy cooking, cheaper, faster, and more convenient. Even so, we couldn't help but wonder if we were blindly stumbling into making meals that were less tasty or less nutritionally dense by strictly relying on the canned variety of vegetables. To find out, we spoke to experts who immerse themselves in the veggie-verse daily. These are the canned vegetables you may want to avoid, according to chef Supreme Dow, founder of The Harvest Academy; Clare Wilson, the vice president of culinary R&D at Jason's Deli; and chef Brooke Williamson, who published the cookbook "Sun-Kissed Cooking: Vegetables Front and Center" in 2024.