fresh or frozen

[chris1970]

frozen veg or fresh which of these is better for you

[BBWCHATT]

http://health.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=1 54807

Conclusion

While it was neck-and-neck in our vegies test, with frozen winning out when it came to Vitamin C, overall fresh produce had the more nutrients. When it comes to fresh vegies, your best bet is consuming them as soon as possible after they're harvested. If you can't eat them that quickly, frozen becomes a good option.

In regards to Andrew's frozen steak, the fresh meat it was compared to had similar levels of protein and magnesium, but the three-year-old frozen steak had 20 percent more iron.

"It could be because it came from a different cut of meat; different cuts of meat have different iron contents," says Dr Skurry. "Freezing preserves the iron � there's nothing that can really happen during freezing with the iron content, and that goes for all the minerals."

That said, Dr Skurry would not eat the three year old steak. After that long, the fat can break down and become toxic.

"You definitely wouldn't want to be eating anything that's been in the freezer for more than 12 months," he says.

[Gef]

It doesn't sound like a rigorous scientific study that BBWCHATT quotes from but it's is generally agreed that frozen veg are better than stuff from the supermarkets. Best of all if stuff you have just picked from your garden.

This quote, from the same source, is just daft.

"You can put some of the goodness back by putting vegetables straight in to the fridge when you get your shopping home. It keeps them fresher longer and it also raises their level of Vitamin C, which has probably dropped during transit. "

Once it's gone it's gone. You can't get it back.

[whiffey]

The vitamin content is a red herring argument given the cheapness of vitamin pills in the supermarkets. It is about flavour, forget the nutrition stuff. One year I grew sweetcorn in my garden, and did the recommended trick of rushing a freshly cut cob directly from plant to boiling water - yes it was superb - but was it worth the effort in a relatively small suburban garden ? Avoid however non-frozen cobs, all the sugar has turned to starch.

Peas harvested in East Anglia are frozen within minutes, sprouts can be obtained frozen all year round, brilliant I think.

The one vegetable (fruit) that you really can grow to advantage at home are tomatoes. I shall do 4 Gardener's Delight tomato plants in my conservatory this year, and expect to get hundreds of fruits immeasurably tastier than any supermarket ones.