Frozen Vegetables & Fruit - Worse for You Than Fresh?

[musclebeauty]

Between prepackaged highly-processed convenience meals and cheap fast food, it's hard to justify "spending so much" on healthy foods... Right?

So why don't we eat enough fruits and veggies?

Is it because you don't know how to prepare them? Maybe you don't know how to tell if they are ripe enough. Whatever the excuse, I can help you get more fruits and veggies into your diet.

The Great Debate: Fresh vs. Frozen

Traditional wisdom says that fresh is always going to win vs its frozen counterpart, right?

As the process of blanching and flash freezing fruits and vegetables improves, popular recommendations are changing as more studies show no significant difference in nutrition between fresh and frozen.

I've always liked to cook, but I never really threw down in the kitchen until I started buying frozen fruits and veggies along with some fresh.

For me, choosing the right foods can be broken down into four categories. They are unconventional, but it works for me.

Buying

The first thing I ask myself is: "Do I know what to look for to find the best produce?"

For me, bananas are the easiest to tell. There are different stages in a banana's life, and you can see them pretty easily.

For other fruits and veggies, there are many caveats; the stiffness of the produce, the colors, the shapes, etc.

If I'm unsure if I can pick out the best (or good enough) fresh produce, I may buy the flash frozen version.

Preparation

Before you cook them, what does the preparation look like?

If you need to cut, dice, or julienne your veggies, do you have the proper cutlery? What about the knife skills?

I take all of this into account before I buy. If I don't have enough time to try my hand at knife skills, I am more than happy to buy the frozen counterpart.

Cooking

Do you know how to cook your veggies?

Buying fresh veggies and turning them into a tasty dish can be pretty straightforward, however, there may be some things that you are unfamiliar with cooking.

If you are not feeling adventurous enough, sometimes buying some frozen corn or mixed veggies to heat up in the microwave works better.

Storing

How long does your food last? Fresh veggies have a shelf life, so if you aren't planning on consuming them within a reasonable amount of time, you may want to buy frozen.

Is Fresh or Frozen More Nutritious?

In order to get the most nutritious "bang for your buck," you gotta buy fresh, right?

Varying from food to food, one study showed higher levels of lutein, which is a carotenoid that prevents macular degeneration and eye problems, in uncooked spinach versus its cooked counterpart.

Vitamins can degrade in fresh produce over time, but many nutrients are hardier than most people would assume. Iron is practically bulletproof, while fiber doesn't care if it's heated or frozen.

Ali Bouzari runs studies comparing fresh and frozen produce and runs a culinary research and development company out in Sonoma County, California.

Dr. Bouzari has been noted saying "the differences in nutrient levels between fresh and frozen are so minor that they would be unlikely to have an impact on overall health, and dieticians generally encourage people to eat as many fruits and veggies as they can, in whatever form they enjoy."

Fresh vs. Frozen Cheat Sheet

Foods with high amounts of vitamin B and C are best fresh due to the fact these vitamins are water-soluble.

Processing these foods will leach nutrients out of them.

Veggies in the brassica family like cabbage, kale, Brussels sprouts, and cauliflower are typically better fresh than frozen since they retain their phytochemicals and antioxidants.

Foods high in fat-soluble nutrients like vitamin A, carotenoids, and vitamin E are more stable during food processing and storage.

Wrapping It Up

Getting a variety of fruits and vegetables into your diet should be priority number one.

Spend time finding recipes or creating your own recipes that will give you a wide variety of colors and flavors. If that means you need to buy frozen Mirepoix for your soup instead of standing there cutting up fresh produce, go for it.

If you like eating fresh fruits but frozen veggies, that's okay.

There is minimal impact on nutrients in fresh versus frozen produce. Choosing what works best for YOU is important.

Buy yourself a cookbook and start creating some tasty, healthy dishes.

[Lionsfan4]

Interesting read. I save a ton of

time with prep as I bought a vitamix blender and blend everything. They are absolutely amazing and worth the money. 

[Lionsfan4]

^^^ I’m also like a dog  can eat the same thing everyday. Don’t have time to worry about making fancy meals

[OLYMPIC]

9 hours ago, Lionsfan4 said:

^^^ I’m also like a dog  can eat the same thing everyday. Don’t have time to worry about making fancy meals

your mrs must be happy haha

[Carbone]

frozen blueberries and spinach everyday, still working as intended

[Dude_wheresmycarbs]

On 10/23/2018 at 3:39 PM, Carbone said:

frozen blueberries and spinach everyday, still working as intended

I've heard that spinach should not be frozen, any idea what's up with that?

[Carbone]

On 7/14/2019 at 1:43 PM, Dude_wheresmycarbs said:

I've heard that spinach should not be frozen, any idea what's up with that?

Probably due to nutrient loss during blanching, which is necessary to freeze most vegetables properly. To avoid this buy fresh spinach in bulk blanch yourself and include all the liquid from the blanching process when you freeze it. 

This is the only reason I can think of. 

Edited July 27, 2019 by Carbone

[Francis "Frank" Castle]

Actually, this is another area where technology has changed the entire dynamic.

Most fruits and vegetables that are sold frozen now are harvested while at their peak and then flash frozen which means that they are literally locked in time, but more importantly they are locked in their nutrient rich state. That will only start to degrade after they have been in that state for roughly a year, give or take a bit depending on the fruit or vegetable. The flash freezing is th extent of the processing. They are no longer blanched, a process that was seriosuly detrimental to the nutrient state.

So go right ahead and buy good quality frozen fruits and vegetables as you aren't missing out on a thing.

Now this does not apply to growing your own and freezing them. The flash freezing process is critical to the conservation of the nutrient rich state!

[Francis "Frank" Castle]

Sort of a side note.

I've always loved smoothies for breakfast but have never been very fond of just the protein powder liquified and whizzed up. So I add frozen dark cherries to mine. I have at least one every day. The dark cherries are full of great stuff but they are also the lowest GI fruit that I am aware of, and much lower than most so you get good mileage out of them and they don't spike your blood sugar like many fruits do.

I'm waiting on Agmatine from a new supplier to come in and am going to try adding that to the smoothie as with the new production process, natural fermentation sourced from corn, vs the old chemical method, the agmatine doesn't taste like ass any longer, lol...