Whats healthier: Canned Veggies, Frozen Veggies, or Fresh Veggies?!

Canned are at the bottom of the list. There is so much salt in canned vegetables that it practically negates any healthful aspects. Too, vegetables that are canned are already cooked ... so when you cook them further (rather than just reheating) you've killed any nutritional value.

Fresh is best ... but frozen is as good as fresh, especially when you can't get the best quality vegetables fresh. Frozen are picked at the peak of freshness and flash frozen, locking in all of their vitamins, minerals and nutrients. As long as fresh or frozen vegetables are cooked properly you can assure the best quality and best nutrition.

Save canned vegetables (and fruits for that matter) for the bomb shelter or the next deep freeze

Personally, I avoid canned as much as possible because often they are not just good either in taste, texture or nutrition. High heat is applied in the caning process so even "fresh cut, new harvest" canned vegetable have been cooked beyond recognition. The only exception I find acceptable are canned tomatoes.
There is no real nutritional difference between frozen and fresh. In fact, some frozen vegetables are higher in nutritional value because they were flash frozen ( at approx -18 degrees) right after harvest (and cleaning/sorting) whereas some "fresh" vegetables have been harvested days before they reach the market. They have been washed, sorted (read extensively handled) packed into boxes, trucked or shipped hundreds if not thousands of miles then washed again before being displayed at the store shelves. Often they are sprayed with a chemicals so that they artificially retain their natural colors. Natural sugars and nutrients also degrade over time (as early as 15 minutes for some fruits) so much of the nutrients are lost during travel.

Your best options in my opinion is 1) check the label of frozen veggies. If you are satisfied with what you see, why not? 2) If you have access to small "farmer's markets" type stores, where the produce was likely to have been harvested that very morning, go for it. Not only are the produce really fresh, the farmers have probably taken better care of their produce.3) don't buy more than what you can use in a day or two. As I have said, produce nutrients degrade over a few days and keeping veggies (and fruits) in the "crisper" section of your ref for long periods does that.

Vegetable farmer ands restaurant owner.

Fresh veggies are healthier! Frozen veggies and canned veggies have most nutrients sucked from them due to the type of preservative method used! If u thaw out frozen veggies and open a tin veggie and compare them with fresh veggies u will see how diff the colors are! The fresh veggies will be more vibrant! Fresh veggies r the way to go!

I eat lots of veggies from the market place in jamaica!

I agree with Tom - I'd like to add:

When you cook your vegies, it's better to steam them than boil them, because the water-soluble vitamins and minerals will be sucked out of the vegies and into the water, which usually gets thrown out - so you're throwing away the 'goodies'.

In theory, microwaving vegies is also better than boiling (for the same reason). I say 'in theory', because my personal aversion to 'newking' my food means I won't own a microwave

I'm a Naturopath - Nutrition is a large component of my practice

Frozen is okay, they have a lot of nutrients in them when they are first frozen and are fresher than the fresh stuff. Problem is, when you cook them, all the nutrients run out in the water. Fresh is best. I only used canned when I can't find it anywhere else.

i just asked a question about canned vegetables, and i didn't even notice this question. how weird. :)

but, to answer your question, fresh is definitely the healthiest.

Definetly fresh veggies. The canned veggies has many chemicals that are NOT healthy for you . Frozen not as bad but still has preservatives bad for you.

Fresh if u don't use preservatives.

fresh of course .

FREASH is ALWAYS BEST

Fresh is best.

That measn FRESH.
Not five weeks old fresh but FRESH.
Within a week.

Canned is not that great, no veg tastes good from a can, except sweetcorn and beets.

Frozen is parboiled before freezing, then it's flash frozen.
The clain by companies is that frozen veg is just as healthy as fresh. They're lying. It's not that bad, and it is still better in nutirents than canned, but frozen veg still aren't tops like fresh is.

The less processing that the veg has been subject to between the tree/bush/field and your plate, the better.
Even a carrot that's been sitting aorund in your fridge for a month contains more nutrients than a parboiled,frozen carrot.


Nutirents die quicky after picking. Heat kills off a lot of nutirents. Canned food is usually cooked, then canned= beans and legumes, potatoes, beets etc. These are all boiled to softness ( yuck), then brined and canned.
You'll still get more nutrients than a piece of dry jerky , but eating fresh gives you 80% more nutrient.

A carrot ( or whatever veg) that's been kept cool, and NOT heated for cooking, will keep it's colour and natural nutrients quite a long time.

Flash frozen does get boiled briefly, so the nutirnet content is not as high. But stil higher than canned.

The only veg that has high nutirents when canned is tomatoes, which release the lycopene when they're cooked. All tomatoes, and tomato paste specifically, has a lot of lycopene, mainly because it takes 2- tomatoes to make even a small can of tomato paste. You still get lycopene in raw fresh tomatoes, but less in terms of weight.
However a fresh tomato is delightful, and a canned one i s very very unpleasant to eat raw.

I agree with Tom. We buy our frozen veggies when they go on sale for $1 a 16 ounce bag, making them even cheaper than "fresh". When cooking, we heat the water up it's hot, but not quite boiling. Then, we dump in the veggies just long enough to thaw and maybe get warm. This way, we don't over cook the veggies and cook out the good stuff. (Once, my MIL, who usually only buys canned, overcooked them and they tasted awful. My daughter, her golden granddaughter, didn't like them and we didn't make her eat them. The overcooked taste and texture was something to which she wasn't accustomed. I only had one piece of broccoli and refused more.)

As for fresh, it's dependent on from where they came. If the "fresh" broccoli in your Northern Maine grocery store came from Southern California, by truck, then it's been sitting for several days, handled and jostled many times and probably doesn't taste as good as the frozen. Another thing I like about the frozen veggies is that they taste almost as good as fresh. However, nothing beats fresh vegetables from the garden or farmers market in season.