Fresh fruit and vegetables aren’t always healthier than frozen – here’s why
A new research shows that you might benefit more from the frozen vegetable aisle than previously touted
If you need a reason to skip that trip to the farmer’s market, this might be it.
A new study has debunked a commonly-held belief that the fresh, colourful fruits and veggies in the produce section are better for you than their frozen (often much cheaper) counterparts.
The paper, published last month in the Journal of Food Composition and Analysis, finds that frozen fruits and vegetables are, in many cases, more nutritious because fresh produce loses vitamins when left sitting in the fridge, even after just a few days.
For their study, the paper’s authors tried to replicate how most people buy, store, and eat their fruits and veggies. Over two years, they measured the nutritional content of three types of produce: fresh, frozen, and “fresh-stored” (purchased fresh and stored in the refrigerator for five days). The items they examined were broccoli, cauliflower, corn, green beans, peas, spinach, blueberries, and strawberries.
The researchers compared the concentrations of three key nutrients in the fruits and vegetables: vitamin C, vitamin A, and folate. These nutrients are water-soluble and sensitive to heat, so they made good candidates to study when comparing frozen, fresh, and refrigerated foods.
Surprisingly, frozen fruits and veggies consistently outperformed “fresh-stored” ones in tests of these nutrients.