Fresh vegetables are the ones that are freshly harvested and sold in the market, sprinkled with water and oozes out freshness; while frozen vegetables are those that are usually sold in the supermarkets, packed and kept in ice. Frozen veggies are mostly yields of previous season or vegetables that are rare to be found in the local market.
Sometimes fresh yields are also sold packed and frozen in the supermarkets for convenience of buyers. There is a long time debate on which kind of vegetables are better? fresh or frozen; the obvious answer would be fresh veggies, although it is a fact that fresh vegetables retain their nutrients as they are fresh, frozen ones are proved to be similar or sometimes better. In fact both fresh vegetables and frozen ones have their own pros and cons when it comes to being healthy and eatable. Let’s have a detailed look –
Listed below are some major pros and cons of fresh and frozen vegetables:
1. Nutrient Value
Fresh Vegetables
Usually the fresh produce of both vegetables and fruits are prone to some amount of nutrient loss due to the various steps involved right from harvesting. This includes pest-control sprays, handling, transportation and most importantly the time difference between they are plucked from plant and kept in the shelf for you to use. Besides, once the vegetable is harvested they are exposed to a considerable amount of light and heat which can degrade some crucial nutrients in it.
Frozen
Frozen packets of vegetables are proved to have just the same amount or sometimes more nutrients in the same variety of fresh vegetables. This is due to the process of blanching or steaming done on fresh veggies before freezing them. This action arrests the enzymes in veggies which cause food degrading and thus retain all the nutrients intact. However it can also make certain water soluble nutrients such as B vitamins and C to seep out or break.
Availability
Fresh
It is known to all of us that all kinds of fresh vegetables are not available throughout the year. Especially in winter season, the fresh produce is hard to get and even if they are available they are way too expensive.
Frozen
Frozen vegetables are available throughout the year irrespective of seasons and their prices remain stable as well. Especially when it comes to certain variety of veggies like broccoli which is not available all times, it is ideal to opt for frozen variety.
Since fresh vegetables are usually picked when they are not aptly ripe for consuming, they tend to lack some nutrients in the process of transporting etc. Whereas frozen veggies are usually picked in the peak of their ripen stage, as they tend to have little more nutrients than fresh ones. However, it is ideal to opt for fresh vegetables when they are in season and easily available and go for frozen ones in the off-season as they can provide you nutrients at a reasonable prices.
