frozen vs. fresh

kbob2

Here's one for all you nutrition guru's. Why do the calories change when fresh produce is frozen? For example, 100g of fresh, raw, blackberries, unsweetened has 43 cal but 100g of frozen blackberries, unsweetened has 64 cal. The sugar goes from 5g in the fresh to 11g in the frozen. That's according to my digital food scale as well as what I've seen in this data base. It seems to be the case for a lot of other berries and fruits as well. What changes to make the calories go up if the blackberries are just frozen, no sweetener added. I buy a lot of fresh fruits and freeze them for later use but am not sure how to add up the calories. Just curious

hiddensecant

Tagging .. I wanna know too .

fanta014

Umh, I have no idea really.. but I do have a suggestion!

Perhaps the berries become smaller in size when freezed? Like (just an example, not accurate information), if you freeze 100 g blackberries, that makes 70 g frozen blackberries.

Just a suggestion, do correct me if I'm all lost :happy:

j4nash

"With shipping and storage, fresh fruit can often sit around for as long as two weeks before it hits your supermarket," says Suzanne Henson, RD, director of the University of Alabama at Birmingham's EatRight Weight Management Program. "During that time, it can lose a lot of its nutrients, especially vitamin C."

In contrast, frozen fruit is often picked and frozen at the peak of freshness. It's also a better choice for concocting smoothies. But watch out for frozen fruits in syrup -- it packs extra calories.

May explain it.

dclarsh

OK, I'm using logic and taking a stab in the dark here, so I may or may not be right on this. But... as fruit ripens, starch in the fruit converts to glucose which makes it sweeter. Considering that frozen fruits are picked at the "peak of freshness", they probably contain the maximum amount of glucose before the fruit begins to rot. What you purchase fresh at the grocery store will be slightly less ripe, and have less glucose and more starch. If you look at the nutritional content of fresh vs frozen fruit, you can see that the amount of sugar and total carbs is greater in the frozen fruit... hence, the higher calorie content.

kerrilucko

it doesn't. but when you thaw frozen fruits, they get really soft and mushy- so fresh blackberries will take up more space. lets say 10 fresh blackberries equals 1 cup, well 20 frozen ones might equal a cup because they are mushier- less air spaces in the cup. Sometimes frozen fruit is packed in syrup (sugar water) watch out for that, that'll change the cal counts too.

CandaceW

Haven't looked, but is the frozen talking about store bought or fresh that you put into freezer yourself? I hope that it is saying store bought, because my husband and I have a large garden and many types of fruit that I put into freezer. I have been counting all of this, as of now, as fresh, because I measure it and then put it up to freeze in serving sizes, bucause I know that fruits mush up when thawed. I also hope that someone can get a good answer on this :happy:

kbob2

But 100g is 100g no matter how mushy or firm they are. I experimented with that actually. Weighed berries fresh, froze them and weighed them again. Weight didn't change just because they were frozen.

dclarsh

But 100g is 100g no matter how mushy or firm they are. I experimented with that actually. Weighed berries fresh, froze them and weighed them again. Weight didn't change just because they were frozen.

Yep, that would be true. Weight is weight... volume could be different, but it will weigh the same. From what I can gather though, it's not the act of freezing that changes the calorie content, it's the state of the fruit when it's frozen. So, if you are freezing your fruit yourself, I would log it as fresh.

1Corinthians13

I have wondered this too. It's also different for fresh/frozen/canned veggies. Interesting.