Do you ever walk into the grocery store and find yourself mourning the loss of your favorite fresh organic fruits and veggies? Seasons come and go, and so do the edible treasures that they produce. Hungry for strawberries but the only fresh ones in the store are conventionally grown, and the organic ones have mold in the container? In that case, I head for the freezer aisle. More and more these days, you can find organic fruits and veggies in the freezer section of the store.
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If I were to walk into a store and see two displays of strawberries next to each other; one being conventionally grown and the other organically grown, I will choose to look at the organic ones. Strawberries (any berry in fact) are on the top Dirty Dozen list. Their test study showed that on one strawberry the sample contained an astounding 22 pesticide residues. BUT, let’s say that the organic berries look shriveled (sign of lost nutrients) or I can detect some mold amongst them, I wouldn’t buy from either display. Mold can be lurking whether you quickly spot it or not and if you do see some, there is usually more hiding.
Before I throw in the towel and bag the idea of going home with some strawberries, I would go to the frozen section of the store to see if they had organic frozen options. Of course, they won’t be as perky looking, and I have to take my recipe into account when making these types of decisions, but this was a great example of how to make wise choices when it comes to the fruits and veggies that we eat.
Before we dive into this topic, let me say that it is always best to buy fruits and vegetables that are ripe and in season. Veering off into the frozen food section is just another option that we have when it comes to enjoying a whole food diet.
Is it possible that frozen fruits and veggies are just as good as fresh? It is, let me point out a few reasons. A bonus of eating frozen fruits and vegetables is that fresh produce often spends days or even weeks in transit from a farm to a store then to your refrigerator. Because of this, produce is often picked before it’s fully ripened, cutting short the time these vegetables and fruits need to fully mature and develop all the nutritional goodies they have to offer. If you have a garden and can pick them straight from the garden, ALL the better as they will be bursting with nutrients.
Frozen produce is usually picked at the height of their ripeness when they’re bursting with vitamins and minerals. From there they are then flash-frozen, locking in nutrients at their finest hour. Think of it this way, freezing, in essence, is nature’s pause button. (1, 2, 3)
Dress warm…you will have some label reading to do! (that’s me up above haha)
The frozen food section in your supermarket can be packed with nutrient-positive foods. You will want to use the same principles as though you were purchasing fresh.
I hope I have put your mind at ease and have added another option to your grocery shopping. As I always say, “Do your best with what you have before you.”
© AmieSue.comThe high price of fresh, organic produce can be a deterrent for shoppers who want to be healthy but need to stick to a budget.
“I’ve had a lot of my patients tell me that they do not consume fruits and vegetables because they cannot afford organic,” said Wendy Wesley, a St. Petersburg, Florida-based registered dietician and nutritionist.
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A more cost-effective option: frozen fruits and vegetables.
The fruit and vegetables that end up in the frozen foods aisle of your local supermarkets are often picked and frozen at the peak of freshness. Essentially, they end up being more “fresh” than some of the produce that has to travel from farms to the stores to your kitchen counter.
From a nutritional standpoint, there is no downside with frozen produce, Wesley said.
In addition, frozen produce often is a better choice because it reduces food waste. Frozen berries and green beans, for example, can last up to a year in the freezer. If you accidentally leave their fresh counterparts in the fridge for longer than a week, you’ll end up with moldy berries and limp green beans that you’ll have to throw away.
“For a long time, I would only buy fresh produce,” Wesley said. “I wasted a lot of fresh produce, because life got in the way and I didn’t get to it in time. And that’s when I became an advocate for frozen vegetables.”
The winning quality of frozen fruits and vegetables is that they’re ready when you are, Wesley said. With fresh produce, on the other hand, the clock is ticking to eat it before it goes bad.
She said that people who keep their favorite produce stocked in the freezer tend to eat more fruits and vegetables. For the healthiest outcome, make sure you’re buying frozen produce that doesn’t include added sauces or seasoning, which will increase your saturated fat and sodium intake.
Another reason to keep your freezer stocked with frozen produce is that it’s a cost-conscious way to enjoy produce that’s not in season. You can make peach cobbler in the middle of winter using frozen peaches, for example, rather than paying a premium for fresh peaches when they aren’t in season.
Choosing frozen produce over fresh also means there’s more of a chance for you to find manufacturer or store coupons to help cut down the price. Keep in mind, however, there’s often little to no difference in the generic version of frozen produce versus its name-brand counterpart — and you can usually save money by buying the cheaper store brand.
“A broccoli floret is a broccoli floret whether that be store brand or Birds Eye,” Wesley said. “It is a single-ingredient food. It is a broccoli floret. Period. End of story.”
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