Which is healthier, fresh or frozen fruits/vegetables?!


Question:

Which is healthier, fresh or frozen fruits/vegetables?

I prefer to buy frozen because of its convenience, price and long shelf life. However, does it compromise nutritional value?

Thanks.


Answers:
It depends on how fresh "fresh" is.

If you were to go out and pick an apple off the tree and eat it right then, fresh would be better. But often, foods that you buy "fresh" in your grocer's produce department have been picked a week or two before, then stored and shipped, before they ever get to you. During that time, many of the vitamins and nutrients have slowly been leaching out. In fact, they may not have even completely developed in the first place because of the need to pick early, before the produce is completely ripe, in order for it to not be overripe/rotten by the time it actually reaches the grocer's shelves.

Frozen foods, on the other hand, are processed either the same day or within a day after they are harvested. They are generally at their peak of ripeness, and the flash-freezing techniques ensures that no vitamins or nutrients are lost to decay as the produce is packaged, shipped, and transported to grocery stores nation-wide.

So, you are definitely not losing anything, nutrition-wise, by going with frozen produce, and may actually be gaining something over fresh. Yet another good reason, besides price and convenience, to stick with frozen!

Hope this helps.

Fresh is better. But if your not going to use it right away get frozen

fresh is always better

fresh is the way to go. depend on how you are going to prepare then as well.

Fresh veggies are healthier, but frozen are healthy as well.

They are virtually equal in nutritional values. Frozen fruits/veggies are picked at the perfect level of ripeness then quickly flash frozen to preserve nutrients. Get fresh when in season, if you can, but dont' feel bad at all about using frozen when the season is over.

Oh you my loose some of the good stuff by eating frozen fruits and vegetables but I think you'll still be just fine.

both have same nutrition value frozen last longer

Fresh is better because it has more nutrients than frozen.

I believe fresh fruits/vegetables are better and healthier...but frozen are the next best thing, and taste much better than canned.

well, fresh are usually sprayed with pestisides unless they are Organic, so probab;y frozen

well no need for me to write an essay here since "poopy" wrote everything perfectly. i am a chef at a nyc restaurant and a serious "foody" at that. many of your replies r simply inccorect. so read poopys reply. depending on where you live and/or where the produce comes from, most of the time fresh is actually not fresh...sometimes it can be, but in this day and age of the supermarkets and not local produce stands, most of the produce is coming from other parts of the country and due to time of travel it is actually not fresh. however on the flip side frozen food is fresh produce that is immediatly flash frozen in the factory(usually within 3 hrs of picking) and therefore if defrosted the correct way will still have its texture.....i find frozen corn and broccoli to be the best with spinach a close second......




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