Fruits are essential food for those who have healthy living goal because fruit is completely packed with vitamins and minerals and the list benefits of fruit and vegetables could be endless. Compared to other types of foods, just by consuming several ounces of fruit a person is able to fulfill their daily intake of certain nutrients. In other words, eating fruits are excellent and delicious way to make sure body is getting the nutrients needed. However, the question is whether the health benefits of frozen fruit are the same with fresh fruits?
What Is Frozen Fruit?
Frozen fruit is fruit that is frozen. So, don’t mistaken frozen fruit with dried fruit because dried fruit is through a long process of fermentation using sugar or salt and then dried. Frozen fruit is simply frozen in the fridge. So, how about the nutrients content in frozen fruit? Well, compared to dried fruit which sometimes the nutrients are loss or replaced, the nutrient in frozen fruit is the same with fresh fruit as long as the fruits that are frozen are still fresh.
Why Frozen Fruit?
The next question why we should choose frozen fruit? Actually there are some reasons why frozen fruit is highly recommended than the fresh one. The list of health benefits of frozen fruit below may open your eyes that not all frozen foods in the freezer section are junk foods because some of them are actually better choice than the fresh ones.
- Contains Better Nutrients
When talking about nutrients most people will consider fresh fruit as the best deal. Well, do you know how long the time required for fruits from the time they were picked in the land, packed, transported, stored and then displayed in the store before you place them in your dining table? The answer is quite long about 3 up to 2 weeks or even more. It means, fresh fruits are mostly picked before they reach ripeness. However, fruits that will be frozen were picked in the peak of its ripeness, so they were in the most nutritious stage.
- Safely Packaged
You would never know how the fresh fruits were transported. The possibility of those fruits exposed to dangerous substances are higher compared to frozen fruits because all fruits that will be frozen will be washed, frozen and then packed only in a few hours. In other words, while they were transported they are safely packaged and fully protected. So, if you are not really sure about the choice of fresh fruits, in this matter choosing frozen fruit is the best deal you could make.
- Free From Chemical Contents
As mentioned in the point number one and two, you would never know what your fresh fruits have been through during the long process before they arrive in your dining table unless you could make sure of the benefits of organic fruit s and vegetables. Since they are fresh fruits the supplier will try their best to keep the fruits always in their fresh condition. It means, the fruits displayed in the store are the same fruits harvested from the farm. You should make sure to wash them carefully and thoroughly to make sure there is no dangerous chemical residue in the skin. However, you don’t need to do the same thing with frozen fruit because before the frozen process, those fruits have been completely washed off and free from chemical contents.
- Addictive Content-Free
As mentioned above, don’t be mistaken frozen fruit with dried fruit because frozen fruit means they are free from addictive content such as sugar or salt though of course you need to be careful in reading the package of the frozen fruits if you don’t want to get the side effect of high sodium level because you don’t read the package carefully. Furthermore, frozen fruit doesn’t need to be blanched or through the boiling process, so the nutrients will be completely packed and frozen along. Moreover, canned fruit could be considered as frozen fruit as well but they have been through fermentation process which includes the addictive content in the process.
- Easier to Be Stored and Transported
When you buy fresh fruit, there are a lot of considerations you should make such as how much and how long you could store them before they get rotten. However, when it comes to frozen fruit you don’t need to worry about such things because you could store them in the fridge for as long as you need them. Moreover, when you feel like transporting the frozen fruits like for sleepover to your friends or parents, you don’t need to worry about the temperature in your car will spoil its texture as long as you transporting them in the freezer.
- Available All Year Around
Most fruits are seasonal and you cannot get them whenever you want them. However, when it comes to frozen fruit, there is no such thing because frozen fruit will be available all year around because they were frozen. The list of health benefits of eating only fruits and vegetables are very long and through frozen product you could enjoy all your favorite fruits and vegetables anytime you want.
- Easy Shortcut
How much time you should spend just to make smoothies from fresh fruits? Well, you need to wash the fruit first for several times, peel them and then cut them. The same thing goes to vegetables as well. However, you don’t need to do that with frozen fruit because whenever you need berries smoothies, just take them out from your freezer, toss them to your smoothies blender and here you go, the healthy berries smoothies is ready in just a minute.
Cautions of Frozen Fruit
When talking about food choice, you should take a look at it from every aspect. Frozen fruit may have some health benefits as mentioned above, but still there are some cautions you should aware as well. The purpose of finding out the cautions is to make you a bit wiser in choosing the frozen products.
- Frozen fruit is usually commercially produced by a food company or brand. It is better to choose the frozen fruit from the reputable brand only, so you know exactly about the quality of the product.
- Though generally the nutrients content in the frozen fruit is the same with the fresh ones but still some studies have shown about the reduction possibility of antioxidant content due to the loss of water in the frozen process.
- Though the fruits are frozen but don’t take the production date for granted because though they are frozen, when they were stored too long the nutrients begin to break down.
Surely you have known about the health benefits of diet high in fruits and vegetables, though frozen food is closely associated with junk food but don’t put them off from your cart right away because just like the health benefits of frozen fruit mentioned above, they are probably the best purchase you could make today because though buying fresh product is probably the safe choice but still not all fresh products are the best choice.