Who doesn’t appreciate the convenience of frozen produce every once in a while? It’s ready to cook, requires zero prep, and there’s no risk of losing a finger while chopping away.
Yet with so many options lining the grocery store aisles, choosing how to buy veggies (and then prepare them once at home) can be mind boggling.
When nutrition is the deciding factor, what’s the best way to get the biggest bang for your nutritional buck?
Frozen vegetables vs. fresh: Which are more nutritious?
The prevailing belief is that uncooked, fresh produce is more nutritious than frozen… yet that’s not necessarily true.
One recent study compared fresh and frozen produce and the experts found no real differences in nutrient content.Trusted Source In fact, the study showed that fresh produce scored worse than frozen after 5 days in the fridge.
Scratching your head yet? It turns out that fresh produces loses nutrients when refrigerated for too long.
To add to the confusion, slight differences in nutrients may depend on the type of produce you buy. In another recent study, fresh peas had more riboflavin than frozen ones, but frozen broccoli had more of this B vitamin than fresh ones.
Researchers also found that frozen corn, blueberries, and green beans all had more vitamin C than their fresh equivalents.Trusted Source
Why fresh produce has nutrient loss
The farm-to-store process may be to blame for the nutrient loss in fresh veggies. The freshness of a tomato or strawberry isn’t measured from when it hits the grocery store shelf — it begins right after harvesting.
Once a fruit or veggie is picked, it begins to release heat and lose water (a process called respiration), impacting its nutritional quality.
Then, pest-controlling sprays, transportation, handling, and plain ol’ time cause fresh produce to lose some of its original nutrients by the time it reaches the store.
The longer you keep produce, the more nutrition you lose. Those bagged salad greens, for example, lose up to 86 percent of their vitamin C after 10 days in the fridge.
