Fresh Versus Frozen Food: Which Is More Nutritious?

In the hierarchy of greens, the very best decisions are contemporary, in-season, and native.

Realistically, although, that’s not at all times going to occur. For one factor, a few of you reside in climates the place entry to quite a lot of native and in-season greens isn’t a factor. Likewise, your neighborhood might need a dearth of supermarkets, so it’s important to make a trek to seek out contemporary produce.

Although home-grown is the very best of the very best, I do know that saying, “Just grow your own!” is presumptuous on lots of ranges. Assuming that you’ve the house and assets to plant a backyard, time is an enormous consideration. Plus, as soon as they’re grown, making ready contemporary greens takes extra time than making ready frozen or canned, that are already washed and chopped for you.

All that is to say, I’m certain lots of you end up turning to frozen and canned greens—in addition to fruit, seafood, and meat—for causes of availability and comfort. You would possibly surprise if you’re sacrificing any well being advantages or if I’m providing you with the side-eye for consuming greens that aren’t farm-fresh. Let me put these considerations to relaxation.

Fresh vs. Frozen Fruits and Vegetables

Are Frozen and Canned Foods Inherently Less Primal?

If you’ve been avoiding frozen or canned meals since you assume you’ll have to show in your Primal card, be assured that isn’t the case. Grok wouldn’t have frozen or canned meals, that’s true. Food preservation is nothing new, although. Our ancestors dried, smoked, salted, and fermented meals for “shelf life.”

Anyway, simply because a know-how is new doesn’t imply it’s “un-Primal.” I’m not now, nor have I ever been, against utilizing fashionable strategies of meals preservation and storage that make it safer or extra handy to eat wholesome meals. I like security and comfort.

That mentioned, I’ve traditionally prevented canned greens within the retailer attributable to considerations over BPA within the can linings. (Home-canned in jars is completely different, in fact. I’m all for residence canning.) Since folks sounded the alarm about BPA previously decade, business studies recommend a big variety of producers have moved away from BPA-lined cans, however not all of them.

I nonetheless strongly favor frozen over industrially canned greens. If nothing else, the style and texture are often superior. Nutritionally, although, the info present that frozen and canned are comparable total.

Frozen Vegetables and Fruit: As Good As Fresh?

The frozen meals business dates again to 1925, when Clarence Birdseye started quick-freezing fish. It actually took off after WWII as extra houses had freezers. Since then, meals scientists have labored to enhance freezing, packaging, and transporting strategies in order that as we speak (spoiler alert!) frozen meals are nutritionally similar to their contemporary counterparts. They additionally style higher and keep a extra pleasing texture and look in comparison with our grandparents’ frozen choices.

Purely from an enjoyment perspective, some meals are equally good contemporary or frozen (inexperienced beans, berries), whereas others are much better contemporary in my view. It relies on how you employ them, too. I’d far fairly roast contemporary broccoli, however frozen broccoli is completely fantastic for making broccoli soup.

But style and texture aren’t the one issues. I’m certain you’re additionally questioning in regards to the dietary worth of contemporary versus frozen. Let’s check out the info.

From Farm to Table

What occurs to a meals’s vitamins when it’s frozen after it leaves the farm?

Factors that have an effect on vitamins within the produce you purchase, whether or not contemporary or frozen, embody:

• The explicit nutrient in query
• The kind of vegetable, together with cultivar (what particular kind of bean, apple, and many others.)
• Growing circumstances (soil, climate, and so forth)
• Post-harvest dealing with and storage
• How you cook dinner them

Frozen greens are usually blanched earlier than freezing to halt enzymatic reactions. Blanching cleans the greens and preserves taste and texture, however the warmth additionally reduces the degrees of some vitamins, notably vitamin C. On the opposite hand, fat-soluble nutritional vitamins like nutritional vitamins A and E and carotenoids are launched from their mobile matrices by warmth, probably making them extra bioavailable, although the jury remains to be out on that.

Even if there’s an preliminary lack of some vitamins within the freezing course of, this appears to even out by the point the greens make it to your plate. Supermarket produce might need been within the provide chain for a number of weeks earlier than you even buy it, and it was virtually definitely not allowed to completely ripen earlier than harvesting.

Even if you happen to purchase your produce at a neighborhood farmer’s market, a number of days to every week would possibly go earlier than you eat it. During that point between farm and plate, vitamins are oxidizing and degrading. On the opposite hand, frozen greens are often picked on the peak of ripeness and frozen as shortly as doable to protect the vitamins.

Fresh vs Frozen: The Data

Li and colleagues measured vitamin C, beta-carotene, and folate in broccoli, cauliflower, corn, inexperienced beans, inexperienced peas, spinach, blueberries, and strawberries that have been contemporary, “fresh-stored” (refrigerated for 5 days to imitate what occurs after we truly purchase produce), or frozen. They discovered a excessive diploma of dietary similarity total and additional concluded, “In the cases of significant differences, frozen produce outperformed ‘fresh-stored’ more frequently than ‘fresh-stored’ outperformed frozen.”

These findings are typical. Compared to contemporary greens, frozen evaluate favorably in examine after examine. For instance:

• Two research from Bouzari and colleagues at UC Davis in contrast eight frequent vegetables and fruit that have been both saved in a fridge for 3 or 10 days, or frozen as much as 90 days. For vitamin C, riboflavin, alpha-tocopherol (a type of vitamin E), calcium, magnesium, zinc, copper, iron, fiber, and whole phenolics, the researchers concluded that contemporary and frozen have been extremely related, with frozen typically outperforming contemporary.
• British researchers measured vitamin C, whole polyphenols, whole anthocyanins, and carotenoids (beta-carotene and lutein) in six frequent vegetables and fruit. Immediately after buy from the grocery retailer, contemporary and frozen have been largely related. Levels of vitamins tended to lower within the contemporary greens over three days of storage.
• Researchers from Virginia Tech and the USDA discovered that 5-methyltetrahydrofolate, probably the most bioavailable type of folate, didn’t decline in seven frequent greens over 12 months in frozen storage.

I may go on, however you get the image. Note that throughout all of the research, outcomes assorted considerably between several types of produce and vitamins, and researchers solely measured key nutritional vitamins. More research are wanted to look at different nutritive compounds, in addition to to discover the bioavailability query.

Don’t get caught up within the trivialities, although. Looking on the huge image, researchers persistently agree that taking every little thing into consideration, frozen is on par with fresh-stored. Frozen greens even have favorable nutrient-to-price ratios.

Go Ahead and Shop the Freezer Section

Don’t ignore the frozen vegetables and fruit in your grocery retailer’s frozen aisle.

The truth is, you possibly can’t stand in a grocery retailer with a head of contemporary cauliflower in a single hand and a bag of frozen florets within the different and know for certain which has extra vitamins. There’s no motive to really feel unhealthy about selecting frozen over contemporary, particularly when contemporary seasonal and native choices are missing.

Consider, too, that if you happen to’re pressed for time and selecting between a frozen meal containing greens or grabbing a drive-thru meal, the frozen meals could be very typically the higher alternative. Using information from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) longitudinal examine, researchers in contrast adults who reported consuming frozen meals or “restaurant fast food/pizza.” Using the standardized Healthy Eating Index, the frozen meal eaters scored increased total and better for whole vegetable consumption and whole protein meals. They additionally had a decrease consumption of refined grains and empty energy.

A separate evaluation of NHANES information confirmed that individuals who eat frozen greens eat extra whole greens and get extra fiber, potassium, calcium, and vitamin D than those that don’t.

In phrases of masking your nutrient bases, the best choice is to decide on all kinds of produce, contemporary and native when out there, and frozen as a great possibility when wanted. If you possibly can develop some contemporary herbs and a tomato plant outdoors your window, all the higher.

Fresh or Frozen Meat and Seafood?

Frozen could also be pretty much as good as contemporary relating to vegetables and fruit, however does this apply to meat and seafood as nicely?

The professional consensus is that frozen meat and seafood are additionally nutritionally on par with contemporary.

For fish specifically, freezing is the one viable method in addition to canning for a lot of shoppers to entry secure merchandise. According to the Seafood Storage Guide from the National Fisheries Institute, most contemporary fish (not shellfish) must be eaten inside 36 hours of catching.

As a last word, if you happen to go for frozen meals merchandise, take a look at the USDA Freezing and Food Safety truth sheet and USDA information to Safe Defrosting Methods to ensure you are maximizing security and high quality.

 

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About the Author

Mark Sisson is the founding father of Mark’s Daily Apple, godfather to the Primal meals and way of life motion, and the New York Times bestselling writer of The Keto Reset Diet. His newest ebook is Keto for Life, the place he discusses how he combines the keto food regimen with a Primal way of life for optimum well being and longevity. Mark is the writer of quite a few different books as nicely, together with The Primal Blueprint, which was credited with turbocharging the expansion of the primal/paleo motion again in 2009. After spending three a long time researching and educating people on why meals is the important thing element to attaining and sustaining optimum wellness, Mark launched Primal Kitchen, a real-food firm that creates Primal/paleo, keto, and Whole30-friendly kitchen staples.

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