Does frozen food lose nutrition? Fresh vs Frozen

okay quick video today on something that I've wondered about for a while, we have this general idea that frozen food is less good, that it loses nutrition, but does the science actually back that up? I found this pretty thorough study looking at several types of produce, fresh versus frozen. in most comparisons there is no significant difference in nutrient composition between fresh and frozen although in some nutrients there was an advantage of the fresh produce okay, but maybe that's not a hundred percent fair because most of us don't buy food and eat it right away on the same day so what they did in this study was really smart, they added a third comparison.

food bought fresh but kept in the fridge for a few days, five days in this study. and that's a better reflection of our normal lives. so how did the frozen food do in that comparison?

with many of the nutrients there was no difference between the refrigerated and the frozen. in the cases where there was a difference more often than not the frozen produce retained more nutrition we'll look at those exceptions in a minute but the bottom line here is the frozen fruits and vegetables are actually a very reasonable option and if you're like me and the food lasts a couple days in the fridge then it might actually be a better bet. as the authors say, our findings do not support the belief that fresh food has significantly greater nutritional value than its frozen counterpart.

so that's a pretty cool study. I like this paper because it allows us to make an informed decision. for example, when we were discussing this on the Facebook page, some people brought up that frozen produce involves more wasted packaging so they still prefer to buy fresh.

others prefer the frozen option because it avoids throwing things away when they go bad. for me it's things like raspberries and blackberries, I love getting those frozen. the fresh ones come with packaging anyway plus they don't last.

there were only a couple comparisons where frozen looked worse than refrigerated. spinach, broccoli and blueberries. and even then it was only for specific nutrients and there was still a lot of nutrition left.

also, peace of mind is also huge for health so at the end of the day whichever is most convenient for you, whether it's frozen or fresh, getting those fruits and vegetables in is always a good idea. if you thought that video was useful consider sharing with others who might be interested and hit that like button and subscribe for more nutrition made simple.