Frozen Produce

A great way to save money on your grocery budget is buying frozen produce. We buy mostly frozen fruits and vegetables. However, I do buy certain items "fresh" for salads and snacking, such as spinach, cucumbers, celery and carrots. Then for fruit, I buy my bananas, kiwi, oranges and apples "fresh". The rest are mostly frozen and here is why:

Some of you know I was a personal trainer a few years ago and I also studied Nutrition for a full year. What I learned then and still practice today is eating a large portion of my vegetables (and fruit) in the frozen form. The reason for this is because as soon as the produce is ready to be picked, it is flash frozen and thus locks in the (more) nutrients. Fresh produce is still nutritious but the LONGER it sits out, the lower the nutrient content. As for canned produce, I only buy canned tomato products and canned pumpkin. (Growing your own vegetables would be the "optimal" healthy thing to do. I did that last year growing my own tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, and peppers but didn't do it this year.)

Let's think about the process here for "fresh" produce: The produce is ready to be gathered/picked. It is then hauled to a truck and then transferred to the warehouse or processing plant. Then from there it goes to each individual company and then from there put on another truck to whatever state and then eventually makes it to the store! That is a lot of time, whereas the other process of freezing is immediate.

There are numerous articles on this online, at the library in books and magazines and even some news stories but here are a few I came across if you would like more reading on the subject:

This one has a great list (at the bottom of the article) of which vegetables you can buy frozen:

http://www.webmd.com/diet/features/frozen-vegetables-are-hot

http://health.msn.com/fitness/articlepage.aspx?cp-documentid=100171934

http://www.prevention.com/cda/article/great-nutrition-on-ice/eccedc606a046110VgnVCM10000013281eac____/nutrition.recipes/grocery.guru

http://www.blurtit.com/q267268.html

Then here is a great video by Prevention's Nutrition Director on how frozen vegetables are just as healthy, and in most cases, healthier than fresh:

http://www.prevention.com/cda/article/nutrition-tips-video/19822caa123c8110VgnVCM20000012281eac____/nutrition.recipes/grocery.guru