While eating healthy is important, not all of us have the time to spend on daily washing, chopping and cooking food.
That’s where time savers become essential. Let me clue you into a few things that will save you time on eating healthy.
Have you wondered if frozen foods can be as healthy as fresh? Are frozen veggies nearly as healthy? After all, they are pre-cut, pre-washed and so easy to heat up, they must have some downside, right?
With fresh fruits and vegetables, they are picked before they are ripe. Those that are not local are shipped to stores all over the country. The fact that they are picked before becoming ripe gives them less time to develop their full nutrient value. They may look ripe but if they had been allowed to fully ripen, their nutrient value would actually be higher.
Fruits and vegetables that are frozen are generally processed at the time that they are at their peak ripeness, when they contain the most nutrients.
Frozen vegetable are first “blanched” with steam or hot water to kill bacteria and stop the process of degrading enzymes in the food. Some water-soluble vitamins like vitamin B or C may begin to leach out but flash-freezing locks in the majority of nutrients.
So there are some good points and some bad points to both. If you are short on time, there is nothing wrong with steaming up some frozen veggies or taking out some frozen fruits and letting them warm up at room temperature for a few minutes before eating. I actually like frozen fruits that are cold. They are really refreshing, and steaming veggies only take a few minutes. Saves a lot of time when you don’t have to wash and cut them. You’re still eating healthy.
I heartily recommend organic fruits and veggies over the conventional versions, because the pesticide totals in many conventional fruits and veggies are dangerously high. The more research you do into them, the more frightening it gets. Pesticides are meant to kill pests, but scientists are finding that they are dangerous to humans. They remain on our food, even after washing. They also remain in our bodies, for years after consumption. Eat enough of them, and they can be very harmful.
Just as an example, 42 pesticide residues have been found in non-organic apples by the USDA Pesticide Data Program, with 7 known or probable carcinogens. And no, freezing or cooking won’t kill them. They remain within the food regardless.
I’ll be getting into specifics soon, but just wanted to give you a heads-up on that.
Bottom line, buy fresh fruits and veggies in season (organic is preferred), when you have some time to spare to prepare them. Out of season, buy frozen, because preparing frozen food can save you 3/4 of the time it takes you to prepare them fresh, and just about as good for eating healthy.
Change your health, change your life,
Michael
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* Find “The top 10 foods that pharmaceutical companies don’t want you to know about” here.