Blog /
When you think “healthy meal prep” you may picture an array of fresh vegetables or from-scratch dinners made entirely of fresh ingredients.
Yet when you’re finally home after a long day or you’re racing to make dinner between work and an evening event, pulling something from the freezer would save you tons of time. But is that a good move?
I love fresh produce and the taste of homemade meals. Yet I don’t like that in some circles, anything less than fresh is somehow considered unhealthy.
Because thankfully, that’s just not the case. Here are some surprising things you may not know about frozen food.
It can be just as nutritious as fresh: In a new analysis, top selling brands of frozen foods like lasagna, mac-n-cheese, and pizza were compared to home-cooked versions made using common online recipes. The frozen foods were actually similar in fat, carbohydrate, saturated fat, cholesterol, and sodium to the homemade versions. Ditto for protein, fiber, iron, and calcium. And the costs were comparable too.
It can be MORE nutritious than fresh: Frozen fruits and vegetables are usually harvested just before freezing, which locks in the nutrients. In contrast, fresh produce may sit for days between traveling from farm to store to your refrigerator. And while that produce is still nutritious, nutrients like vitamin C degrade over time
It’s not a “chemical process”: Some people may think that freezing always involves adding preservatives. But freezing is its own natural preservative, so it doesn’t always involve additional ingredients. There are many brands of frozen entrees that don’t contain additional preservatives (check labels to be sure). And plain frozen produce is just frozen.
It may look and taste better than home-frozen: Store-bought frozen produce is “flash frozen”, which means it’s quickly frozen at super-low temperatures (like -20 degrees F). That results in smaller ice crystals, which preserves the flavor, texture, and color much better than home freezing does. That’s why the frozen strawberries I buy at the store look so much better than the ones I froze myself last summer.
Another important perk: You’re less likely to waste frozen food. Fresh produce is the number-one wasted food from home kitchens. In a study from Cornell University, researchers found that fresh fruit was thrown away 10 times more often than frozen (fresh veggies were tossed 4 times more often than frozen).
Here are a few ways to make frozen foods a part of healthy meal prep:
- Add extra veggies to your morning smoothies by blending in a couple florets of plain frozen cauliflower to thicken it.
- Toss frozen vegetables directly into the pan for stir-fries, the pot for soup, or onto a tray for roasting.
- If you’re having a frozen pizza or other entree, balance it with a bagged salad, steam-in-the-bag fresh broccoli, or other convenient fresh veggie.
– Sally Kuzemchak, MS, RD
