I am sure that most of us thought that buying frozen vegetables vs fresh vegetables were not as good for us. Logically this does make sense however when you stop and think about the processes that veggies go through before they hit the store you might have to rethink this.
Frozen vegetables vs fresh tend to actually be healthier for us. However if you raise your own vegetables or frequent the local farmer’s market the produce from these sources will be the best for you provided they are harvested recently and consumed fairly quickly.
When you purchase fresh produce at a local store, chances are that the fresh vegetable was picked prior to its’ being at the peak ripeness. Obviously this is done for shipping purposes but in the end the produce will not have the best nutritional value that it could have had if it were allow to ripen normally.
This is were frozen vegetables might be better. Frozen vegetables tend to be harvested at peak ripeness and then the preparation for packaging starts. Although frozen veggies usually are blanched in hot water to stop certain enzymes and kill bacteria before they are flash frozen, they still reserve more nutrients than a fresh vegetable that hasn’t been allowed to ripen naturally.
My recommendation is to eat fresh in season vegetables from the farmer’s market or better yet grow your own organically. If recently harvested veggies aren’t available opt for frozen. One caveat however, double check the ingredients to make sure that you are not buying anything other than the vegetable….no added salt, preservatives etc.
