Is fresh always best?
Choosing what to buy
Still unconvinced? Remember, 'fresh' produce can be anything from a few days to several months old and may have lost nutrients along the way. Some 'fresh' fruit is harvested before it's ripe to avoid spoilage en route, and kept refrigerated so it never seems to ripen naturally or taste quite as good.
However, fruit and vegetables for canning
and freezing are picked at their peak and
preserved straight away. Fresh podded peas
have been hanging around far longer than
frozen and cost four times as much. (Studies
conducted for Birds Eye found frozen peas have 34 per cent more vitamin C than fresh,
while frozen beans have 67 per cent more.)
Fresh podded peas have been hanging around far longer than frozen and cost four times as much
Canned fruit and veg count towards our 5-a-day target, too, although by being canned at high temperatures some vitamins, notably vitamin C, may be destroyed. But most of us have enough vitamin C in our diet and the minerals, fibre and phytochemicals that have a protective effect on health remain intact. Tomatoes in cans are also a great source of lycopene, which may help protect against heart disease and some cancers.
Fresh fish is often anything but. Either it
has been frozen at sea and defrosted, left
the sea a week previously or it has been airfreighted
from across the world. Yet it often
costs more than frozen fish, which is put on
ice the minute it is caught.
Canned salmon, sardines and mackerel are also an inexpensive and convenient source of omega-3 fatty acids. Unfortunately canned tuna, unlike fresh, does not contain enough omega-3 to qualify as a source of healthy oils.
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