13 Of The Unhealthiest Store-Bought Vegetable Soups

By now, most of us know that store-bought soups can be pretty unhealthy. While these products may seem unassuming and look fairly low in nutrients like fat, they can also be astonishingly high in sodium, and occasionally have other ingredients we'd rather do without too. For some reason, though, we still give vegetable soups a pass, somehow assuming that just because they're chock-full of veggies that they'll be a little better for us. Well, no dice, folks. Store-bought vegetable soups can be just as unhealthy as other varieties, and crammed full of sodium to give them additional flavor.

All of this sodium is a serious issue. When we regularly consume the recommended daily limit for adults of 2,300 milligrams per day, we increase the risk of developing high blood pressure and associated diseases like stroke and heart attack. One of the best ways to reduce sodium intake is to limit the amount of salty processed foods we eat, and few are as salty as vegetable soups. In this article, we'll show you exactly what we mean, and picked out store-bought vegetable soups primarily based on their sodium content to demonstrate just how unhealthy they can be. We also looked at other nutrients in these soups, like sugar and saturated fat, which could contribute to the overall unhealthiness of the product.

Amy's Kitchen is one of those food companies that seems to have healthier products than it actually does. If you need proof of this, look no further than its Organic Hearty Rustic Italian Vegetable Soup. Just the very name of this soup seems to offer wholesomeness and health, and yet a quick glance at the nutritional label reveals that it's incredibly high in sodium, containing 810 milligrams per serving. Consume just a cup of this soup, and you'll cover 35% of your daily value.

It's a shame, too, because everything else about this soup looks pretty appealing. Although it has some saturated fat content — with just a single gram, which really isn't too much — it's refreshingly high in fiber, with 4 grams per serving. It's also made with purely organic ingredients. Unfortunately, though, all of that organic produce can't make up for the sky-high levels of sodium here. If you want a better option, go for one of Amy's Kitchen's reduced-sodium soup options. Although these soups can still have a fair amount of sodium, they'll usually have way less than the Rustic Italian.

Trader Joe's has built an enormous brand and an enviable reputation thanks to its product range, which is renowned for being high quality and frequently made with organic ingredients. However, its Organic Lentil Vegetable Soup really drops the ball. We'll give this soup points for having a super-generous 9 grams of fiber and a generous amount of protein per serving, but its 700 milligrams of sodium kinda cancels out that virtuousness. By eating one container, you'll consume almost a third of your daily value.

It's important to remember that "organic" doesn't necessarily mean "low-sodium" or "healthy." Organic foods are still more than capable of being high in salt, as well as other nutrients like sugar and saturated fat; and just because they've been grown with slightly more rigorous standards, it doesn't negate these nutritional factors. If you want something from the store that's a bit lower in salt, TJ's Italian-Style Wedding Soup is both full of veggies and contains just 480 milligrams of sodium per serving. It is worth pointing out that this isn't a vegetarian option, though.

The difference between a tasty store-bought minestrone soup and a not-so-tasty one is massive. Store-bought minestrones can often be completely lacking in flavor and full of mushy veggies and pasta, making for a depressing experience. Unfortunately, food companies try to make up for a lack of flavor by pouring loads of sodium into the products, and this is exactly what Rao's has done with its Made for Home Minestrone Soup. Sure, customers may love its full, rich taste, but a lot of that taste comes from its enormous 1,030 milligrams of sodium per serving.

It's worth pointing out that equates to over 2.5 grams of salt, with this sodium content covering almost half of your daily recommended maximum. Given that the joy of minestrone soup is in its rich vegetable taste, it feels a shame to ruin it with that much sodium, and we'd recommend trying reduced-sodium or low-sodium versions instead. Alternatively, just make your own minestrone soup at home. Doing this will help to limit your consumption of processed foods, which is in itself a great way to reduce sodium content, and it's super easy to do.

Amy's Kitchen gets the dubious honor of having two soups in our list — and honestly, we're not picking on the food company, we just couldn't ignore the amount of sodium in some of its soups. Its Organic Chunky Vegetable Soup may not be the saltiest out there, but it's still got a hefty 720 milligrams of sodium per serving, almost a third of your daily value. When you consider that each serving also only provides 80 calories and 3 grams of fiber, you're essentially paying for a big cup of salt with a couple of vegetables inside that'll leave you hungry once you're finished.

Although high levels of salt were traditionally added to food to preserve them, when it comes to canned foods like this that really isn't necessary. Canned foods are already heat-treated to kill off any pathogens that might reduce their shelf-life, and so the choice to add high levels of salt is usually one based on flavor. Luckily, Amy's Kitchen does provide an alternative. Amy's Organic Chunky Vegetable Soup has a reduced-sodium version that delivers 530 milligrams per serving. That's still a fairly high amount, but nowhere near as unhealthy as the regular option.

Campbell's may be the biggest soup maker in the world, but it's definitely not the healthiest. Its soups are often pretty high in nutrients you might not want to consume too many of. The proof is in the pudding — or rather, in the can — with its Condensed Vegetarian Vegetable Soup. In just a ½-cup serving, there's 650 milligrams of sodium, over a quarter of your daily value.

Interestingly, there's also a small amount of added sugar in this soup, with 2 grams per serving. Now, this isn't the highest level of added sugar in the world, but when you consider that most vegetable soups don't have any at all, it does kinda raise a few eyebrows. Food manufacturers absolutely love putting added sugar into their savory foods as a way to augment flavor, and when it's balanced out with sodium we don't really notice it. However, this can create a problem: When these small amounts of added sugar in savory foods add up, we can end up eating way more than we'd like to without realizing it, before we even start thinking about dessert.

Walmart's Marketside Creamy Tomato Bisque seems to be a cut above the rest. Rather than being a canned mass of mushy veg in a thin broth, it's a thick, luscious affair that looks totally appetizing. That's until you see what's inside it, though. Like many other vegetable soups, this tomato bisque (which is slightly different from tomato soup) is massively high in sodium, containing 990 milligrams per portion.

That's nudging up to half of your daily value in one go. Plus, all of that lusciousness has to come from somewhere — and here, it comes from the presence of a massive amount of saturated fat. Each tub of bisque has 10 grams of saturated fat, 50% of your daily value. To top it all off, it also has a small amount of added sugar; and for all of those nutritional downsides it doesn't have a huge amount of positives. Its 6 grams of fiber are pretty appealing, but when that's paired with just 6 grams of protein, it's easy to see that this soup won't be the most filling. To make matters worse, numerous customers have pointed out its unpleasant, bitter taste.

Kroger's Hearty Vegetable Soup may initially seem like its a substantial choice — but appearances can be deceiving. Although the label promises a bulging bowl of veggies and broth, the soup only supplies 100 calories per serving. Combined with the mere 3 grams of protein in each portion, this is a soup that seems to be pretty light on nutrition.

That's all before we get to its sodium content, too. As with so many other vegetable soups, Kroger's Hearty Vegetable Soup is high in sodium and provides 770 milligrams per serving, 33% of your daily value. Its fiber content, too, is far from the highest out there: Each serving has 3 grams, which isn't insignificant but also could be way better. This is especially when you consider that increasing your fiber intake may help your body process sodium more efficiently, but in the case of this soup, the relatively meager amount of fiber will mean that it could have a greater impact.

In our book, lentils are a superfood. These tiny nuggets of nutrition are full of protein, fiber, vitamins, and minerals, making them a must-have in any diet. Unfortunately, while some of those nutritional goodies make their way into Progresso's Lentil with Roasted Vegetables Soup, there are some aspects to it that we really don't like. For starters, this soup is just as salty as a lot of other store-bought soups out there, containing 690 milligrams of sodium. It also only has 100 calories per serving, making it more of a snack than a full meal.

The lentils in this soup do give it a fairly good protein content, with 6 grams per portion. The 4 grams of fiber in it are also pretty welcome (although we'd like to see a little bit more in there — just sayin'!). However, it's that sodium content that really puts us off. It's also worth noting that this soup looks slightly low on vitamins and minerals, with seemingly none of the calcium that's usually in lentils making its way into each can.

For a soup that prides itself in being "chunky," it doesn't seem like Campbell's Chunky Savory Vegetable Soup will be particularly filling. This soup has a mere 90 calories per serving, and within that caloric amount, you get 3 grams of protein. When you consider that adult females need on average 1,600 calories per day to maintain their weight and adult males need approximately 2,000 per day, and both need approximately 50 grams of protein daily, it's easy to see how lacking this soup actually is.

We can't forget about that sodium content, either. In every portion of Campbell's Chunky Savory Vegetable Soup, there's 770 milligrams of sodium. This covers a third of your daily value, in barely any calories. Serve it alongside two slices of bread, and you may be adding hundreds of milligrams of sodium on top of this — and that's before you consider any other toppings to the soup, like cheese or croutons, which can add further sodium content. Save yourself the sodium, and make your own hearty vegetable soup at home.

Split pea soup is a firm favorite, and so it's no surprise that Amy's Kitchen has jumped on the bandwagon. However, while its Organic Split Pea Soup may be made with carefully-sourced ingredients, that doesn't make any difference to its sodium content. Each serving of this soup has 720 milligrams of sodium, just shy of a third of your daily value, and that's in a mere cup of soup.

This soup does have a few positives, with its protein content of 7 grams looking pretty pleasing to the eye. It's also great to see that there's no added sugar, and the 4 grams of fiber is fairly appealing. When Amy's Kitchen offers exactly the same soup in a lower-sodium version, though, why would you go for this one? Its Light in Sodium option not only has just 310 milligrams of sodium, but it also somehow raises its fiber content, delivering you 5 grams per portion. Grab this one instead, and you can season it to your heart's content, using herbs and spices to give it extra flavor so you don't have to resort to using loads of salt.

Trader Joe's knows how to make its products look pretty classy, and it does this with its Garden Vegetable Soup in one simple way: By putting it in a jar instead of a can. This clever packaging choice somehow gives the soup the illusion of wholesomeness, and prevents it from seeming like a standard canned option. On a nutritional level, though, it doesn't seem to have much difference from all the other choices out there. Trader Joe's Garden Vegetable Soup is still super salty, having 790 milligrams of sodium per serving, 34% of your daily value.

Plus, for all Trader Joe's talk about the wholesome ingredients that are in its soup, that doesn't seem to translate too much into its other nutritional aspects. This soup has just 2 grams of protein per serving, making it one of the most protein-deficient options of all the vegetable soups we found. It also has 3 grams of fiber, which may be better than a lot of other processed foods, but is still pretty low in comparison to some of the other soups at the store.

Progresso's Vegetable Classics Minestrone Soup promises a hearty affair on its packaging, with a picture of a heaving bowl of veggies, pasta, and broth on the outside of every can. Somewhat disappointingly, that doesn't really translate into its nutritional content. Every portion of this minestrone soup has 110 calories, and while its 5 grams of protein does go some way to making it a bit more filling, it's still likely gonna leave you wanting more.

Plus, how could we not mention its sodium content? In every portion, there's 690 milligrams of sodium, 30% of your daily value. This may not be as salty as some of the other minestrone soups out there, but it's far from low-sodium. Plus, there's a small amount of added sugar in this soup, which may not be the worst thing in the world but is still worth noting, especially if you're trying to follow a lower-sugar diet. Skip this standard option and go for Progresso's Reduced Sodium Hearty Minestrone, which has the same amount of protein and fiber but just 480 milligrams of sodium per serving.

Cream of mushroom soup is a classic veggie option, and it doesn't need to cost the world. This is exactly why we love Walmart's Great Value Cream of Mushroom Soup's price, with the soup coming in at less than $1 per can. You know what we don't love about it, though? Its sodium content. Every 1/2-cup portion of Great Value Cream of Mushroom Soup has a massive 830 milligrams of sodium, covering 26% of your daily value in a tiny amount of food.

It doesn't look that exactly healthy elsewhere, either. In every portion, there's just 1 gram of protein, and no fiber whatsoever to speak of. Given that mushrooms themselves are a source of fiber, it's disappointing to see all of it processed out. Additionally, every ½-cup has a gram of saturated fat in it. These fats contribute to the soup's smooth, rich flavor, and they aren't exactly present in wildly high quantities — but we'd love to see a slightly healthier fat source in this store-bought option. We'd opt for a different brand instead. Even if it doesn't taste as good, you can always upgrade your cream of mushroom soup with some exciting additions.