Canned vs frozen vs fresh vegetables.

butterflylover527

I know that fresh vegetables are always going to be better for you, but how bad are canned and frozen vegetables? I realize that canned vegetables are higher in sodium but I feel that rinsing them would help a bit with that. Frozen vegetables are also cheaper than fresh, but I just feel like those might have even more chemicals in them to keep the frozen and "fresh".

Canned and frozen vegetables are so much cheaper, and being on a budget, I was wondering if canned or frozen vegetables would be better then eating no vegetables.

**Also for fruits too.

Wabbit05

In order to preserve inside the can, they use ALOT of sodium. But like you said, it's better than nothing (as long as your body doesn't mind the sodium)

Frozen are great because they don't spoil if you don't use them right away but will always lose a little nutritional value from being frozen and dethawed again. But they're still great.

I prefer fresh hands down but there are some nights I don't have time do prepare from fresh so I go to frozen. Pop some veggies in the microwave and done!

Good: Cans
Better: Frozen
Best: Fresh

ami5000psu

Basically everything Wabbit05 said with this caveat: watch out for the sodium levels in the frozen veggies that come sauced or preseasoned.

michelefrench

absolutely....frozen over canned if you can't go fresh!!!

Evotchka

^ I agree. Actually, it can also be the case that frozen vegetables have even more nutrients than fresh ones. They are being frozen right after they were picked whereas fresh veggies are sitting sometimes several days in the grocery store until you come and pick them up.

domgirl85

Stick with frozen or fresh. Buy fresh vegetables in season and they'll be cheaper. Buy frozen for things out of season (or if it's more in your price range). If you buy canned, rinse them well. This helps get rid of the added sodium.

Same goes for fruit

jonesin_am

Good: Cans
Better: Frozen
Best: Fresh

^This. I use frozen a lot as I am also on a budget and try to stay away from all the sodium (and taste) of the canned veggies.

SarahBeth0625

Canned goods have BPA in the lining (most all, except a select few which don't, and they will be labeled -- Muir Glen is one of them).

FROZEN will be cheaper than canned anyway.

Fresh is always good.

We don't own, nor do we miss our microwave and we enjoy steamed (frozen or fresh) vegetables nearly every day.

devan33

I buy canned with no salt. I think I may try some frozen though...there are a lot of veg I would like to try that my kids won't touch...so buying fresh I would probably not get it all eaten before it spoils.. I will put some frozen veg on the grocery list

Erin_goBrahScience

if you can't have fresh, frozen is your next best option. Also Evotchka is spot on ^^

Loulady

Ditto Wabbit, but in some cases, frozen can be even better than fresh. I know peas for one just can't take the transport time to be best fresh - unless you're getting them out of your own garden, I suppose.

TurtleRunnerNC

I use frozen most of the time. I buy the Steamfresh ones. 5 min in microwave & they are yummy. As a working mom they are easy & taste good.

Warchortle

Frozen does have some small cellular damage, but it's not that bad.

Ready2Rock206

absolutely....frozen over canned if you can't go fresh!!!

This - 100%.

AZKristi

For the most part, I prefer fresh produce when it is in season. I don't have any problem eating frozen or canned veggies though. I eat canned beans rather than dried because its so much easier. I frequently use canned tomatoes because it can be hard to find good tomatoes in the store. When I'm making soup I often used frozen spinach or corn. I like frozen soybeans in my stir fries. I love french cut canned green beans. Frozen veggies will have a lot less salt and preservatives than canned vegetables.

jessvaughn74

I use a lot of frozen vegetables as I am on a tight budget as well. During the summer, I do buy a lot of fresh since our farmer's market is open and the prices are so much cheaper than the grocery stores and the quality is insanely better. If you have a farmer's market in your area you might try checking their prices.

I buy apples, bananas, and oranges fresh right now. Berries I buy frozen until summer. This last year I planned in my budget for extra money to be able to buy extra berries from the farmers market and I froze them and I am still using those. If you flash freeze them they last a long time and if you start out with high quality fruit they taste really good.

Mokey41

The canned stuff will have a lot of salt unless it says no salt added. I don't think there's anything wrong nutritionally with those veggies though.

Fresh isn't always more nutritious than frozen although that's usually the impression. Most frozen foods are flash frozen within hours of picking so unless you're getting veggies fresh from your garden they're probably older "fresh" than frozen. If you buy fresh vegetables at a supermarket they were probably picked a week ago and have been processed and bounced around on a truck and loading docks for days.

An example: A local farm grows broccoli for a large supermarket chain. They harvest, bring it into the barn, it's cleaned up, boxed, iced and put into cold storage. It ships out to stores, oldest stuff first. If they can't get rid of it fast enough then it's shipped to a major food terminal where it will be purchased by smaller stores and shipped again. In the winter, they bring broccoli by truck from California to Ontario, Canada, re ice it and then move it on to stores. Not really very fresh!

Hadabetter

^ I agree. Actually, it can also be the case that frozen vegetables have even more nutrients than fresh ones. They are being frozen right after they were picked whereas fresh veggies are sitting sometimes several days in the grocery store until you come and pick them up.

True. And frozen/canned tend to be picked when they are ripe and have more nutrients. So-called fresh vegetables purchased at the grocery store were picked before they were ripe, and then forced to look ripe by exposing them to ethylene gas.

The best choice is fresh vegetables purchased at a farmer's market.

KenosFeoh

To me, canned vegetables are worthless. We buy canned beans to have on hand in case of emergency or laziness; that's about it.

Fresh and frozen are pretty equal, unless fresh means eaten the same day as picked, which obviously would be the ideal choice.

shred_me_up

i CANNOT do canned anymore, gave it up for a few months (i used to eat lots), and when i tried to eat some canned green beans i literally got sick. i thought it might be a coincidence but it happened again several other times with different brands and different foods. this just tells me theres something in the preservatives that my body no longer can digest!

canned food just scares me now; how come the water foams when you rince? sketch. it just grosses me out ^^ i think frozen is fine if you cant get the fresh.

SanteMulberry

I know that fresh vegetables are always going to be better for you, but how bad are canned and frozen vegetables? I realize that canned vegetables are higher in sodium but I feel that rinsing them would help a bit with that. Frozen vegetables are also cheaper than fresh, but I just feel like those might have even more chemicals in them to keep the frozen and "fresh".

Canned and frozen vegetables are so much cheaper, and being on a budget, I was wondering if canned or frozen vegetables would be better then eating no vegetables.

**Also for fruits too.

Actually, since frozen are usually processed soon after harvesting, they are likely to be your best nutritional "bang for the buck". Fresh right out of the garden are obviously superior both from a nutritional and taste standpoint BUT the "fresh" at the grocery store may not even retain as many nutrients as the frozen variety. Canned are okay but they often have a high sodium content and also, the can lining can "leach" into the food (can linings are plastic and there is some concern over the hormonal disruption that occurs when we take in compounds used to make the plastic). The same conditions apply to fruits.