The reasons why most people prefer to avoid frozen foods because they are closely related to junk foods. Well, after you read articles about the health benefits of frozen fruits and vegetables you must be surprised for some facts that frozen foods may give more benefits to your healthy lifestyle instead of the fresh ones. However, fresh organic vegetables always the best option but they come with price.
Mixed Frozen Vegetables VS Fresh Vegetables
When you are walking on the frozen foods section in super market, the most common frozen vegetables you could find are such as peas, carrots, corns, beans and broccoli. Though of course there are more options of local vegetables based on where your location is. When you find them, don’t just stroll away because not many people know the fact that not all fresh products do not always the best option. Do you know how long the time required for fresh vegetables to reach the display section in both modern and traditional market? Unless it is a local market, it requires at least 3 days up to two weeks for vegetables to be displayed. That is why most of vegetables are cultivated earlier to make sure they were mature enough when they reach the market, during the distribution process, you would never know what stuffs the vegetables have encountered. It is different with frozen vegetables; they were cultivated in the right time, washed, blanched, frozen and distributed in sealed packaged.
Health Benefits of Mixed Frozen Vegetables
From the short explanation above you must have a big picture why mixed frozen vegetables may be the best option in some ways when it comes to the need of providing healthy dishes for your family. To ensure you the list of health benefits of mixed frozen vegetables below may tell you more reasons why you should have them in stored.
- Excellent Source of Fiber
All vegetables are excellent source of fiber and mixed frozen vegetables are not exception. As the health benefits of fiber are including good for digestion, prevents constipation and helps managing cholesterol level.
- Easy Solution to Fulfill Vitamin A Daily Intake
The main vitamin A benefits are as eye protector. Carrot is the most common vegetables you could find in frozen vegetables are excellent source of vitamin A along with corns and some peas.
- Low in Calories
When you are avoiding foods high in calories, switch your option to vegetables and fruits are highly recommended. The same thing applies to mixed frozen fruits and vegetables as well.
- Sources of Potassium
Do you know that a serving size of mixed frozen vegetables is partially fulfilling the daily intake of potassium? Surely you have known the health benefits of potassium for human health and the lack of it could cause some serious conditions such as heart problems, symptoms of high blood pressure like hypertension and so on.
- Shortcut to Antioxidants
One type of vegetable is already rich of antioxidants. So you could imagine how much antioxidants you could get from a serving size of mixed frozen vegetables. It is because each vegetable is unique and probably has its own potent antioxidant to help you fighting all the worst effect of free radicals.
- Promotes Strong Bones
Some studies have counted that a serving size of mixed vegetables consist of corn, beans, carrot could at least fulfill 5% daily intake of calcium. It is a common knowledge that the main health benefits of calcium are to promote strong bones.
- Contains Carotenoids
There are several types of carotenoids you could find in mixed frozen vegetables such as beta-carotene, alpha-carotene, lutein and zeaxanthin. They are great antioxidants and pro-vitamin A that good to prevent macular degeneration diseases.
- Best Option for Weight Loss
Well, it is a common knowledge that for weight loss is simply eating more fruits and vegetables.
- Good for Diabetic Patients
It is not easy to manage healthy diet for diabetic patients but mixed frozen vegetables could help preventing certain nutrients deficiencies due to complete package of nutrients from several types of vegetables.
- Natural Body Detox
You need to detoxify your body regularly and there is no better way to do it but consuming enough vegetables which are rich of fiber.
- Prevents Cancer
The root of cancer is free radicals and the only way to fight it is consuming enough antioxidants to prevent the worst effect. There is no better source for various types of antioxidants but from mixed frozen vegetables.
- Excellent Source of Iron
Iron is essential for the production of red blood cells and there is no better source but mixed frozen vegetables to get all the health benefits of iron. Iron is easily found in spinach and other types of green vegetables both fresh and frozen.
More Benefits of Mixed Frozen Vegetables
Asides from the health benefits of mixed frozen vegetables, there are more list of the benefits you could enjoy such as:
- They are available all year around.
- Super simple and convenient to prepare.
- Easy to be stored.
- No more cutting and chopping vegetables.
- Since it comes in sealed package, you don’t need to worry about your vegetables are being contaminated by dangerous stuffs.
Cautions of Mixed Frozen Vegetables
There is always cautions you should aware of when it comes to frozen foods and though the health benefits of mixed frozen vegetables mentioned above may change your mind about frozen vegetables but still some cautions below are not something you should put into account.
- From the list of benefits above you could see that one of the benefits of frozen vegetables is easy storage. However, you should really aware of the production date. Though perhaps frozen vegetables are not going to get rotten but the nutrients contents are possibly starting to break down when stored too long.
- Unlike frozen fruit, frozen vegetables required blanch process before being frozen. Some studies have stated about the possibility of antioxidant reduction during the process. It is not significant but you should consider it as well.
- Though they were frozen, there is always possibility of some preservation added to the process. That is why reading the ingredient before you buy them is highly recommended. One more thing, it is better for you to buy frozen vegetables from the respectable supplier only to make sure the quality.
So, for now on whenever you pass the frozen foods section, don’t just stroll away because having some frozen vegetables in your fridge could be really helpful because there must be the time when you don’t have a lot of time to even to chop vegetables but your family required more than just toast for breakfast.