Fruits and vegetables are a very important part of a balanced and healthy diet.
They are packed with essential vitamins, minerals and fiber.
Unfortunately, fresh vegetables and fruits can quickly lose these qualities.
On top of that, in a society where people work full-time and running a family life, it can be time-consuming to clean fruit and vegetables every day and to turn them into a meal.
But are frozen fruits and vegetables as healthy as fresh?
Let me explain this for you.
Fresh:
Fresh vegetables quickly lose quality after they are harvested.
Not only do they lose taste or structure, their nutritional value also degenarate.
Usually they are also harvested when they are unripe, otherwise they would be completely faded and overripe before they fill the store shelves!
It is best not to store fresh vegetables for longer than 2 to 5 days.
(You can keep them a little longer in the fridge by packing them in a plastic bag pierced with holes.)
prepackaged vegetables should be consumed as soon as possible.
Frozen:
Frozen vegetables and fruit can be stored well in the freezer.
These are harvested ripe and immediately blanched (briefly immersed in boiling water and shocked in ice water) and frozen, so that many nutrients, taste, structure and color are preserved. After preparation, frozen vegetables contain just as many vitamins and minerals as fresh vegetables. The frozen options are therefore just as healthy as fresh ones. Purchased fruits and vegetables that have been frozen at home often contain less vitamins and minerals than store bought frozen fruits and vegetables.
(Logical, because these have traveled the same way of the fresh vegetables before they are cleaned and frozen.)
On top of that, they’re time-saving because frozen fruit and vegetables have already been washed, peeled and cut for you.
Can or jar fruits and veggies:
Canned or jarred vegetables and fruits lose a lot of nutrients compared to frozen vegetables. Also most dried vegetables and fruit, incidentally, provide almost no vitamin C.
Another disadvantage of canned or jar vegetables is that salt and sugar are usually added here.
So this is a lot less healthy than frozen or fresh vegetables.
Conclusion:
Buy and use fresh or frozen fruits and vegetables.
I, myself am a fan of the frozen options as they keep for a long time and save you a huge amount of time to use or prepare them!
I also like to use frozen fruit in smoothies or I make healthy ice creams with it!
That, in turn, is an excuse for not adding enough fruit or vegetables to your diet, you can swipe away.
Unfortunately you cannot freeze all fruit and vegetables. For example, you should not freeze vegetables that have a high moisture content yourself.
Tip!
Instead of throwing away your overripe bananas, you can strip them, slice them and freeze them.
You can use this later in smoothies, in pastries or you can make your delicious nice cream. What cream?
Here's what to do:
Put the frozen pieces in a powerful blender together with other frozen fruit of your choice (or only banana, you can play with what taste you desire) and a little (vegan) quark cheese, optional a little protein powder and add a small splash of milk (here you can choose between unsweetened vegan options such as almond or oat milk, as well as regular cow's milk or you can make it extra creamy by adding a little coconut or regular cream)
Blend it until smooth and creamy.
É voila! You have a delicious guilt-free healthy ice cream!
Kommentare