Do packets of frozen vegetables lose any of their nutritional quality?
What is the best way to cook vegetables?
I can either boil them or microwave them in my student house at the moment
I like mine raw as then the enzymes have not been beaten out of them. However, frozen is good, and I think actually better than canned.
[quote]ZEB wrote:
I like mine raw as then the enzymes have not been beaten out of them. However, frozen is good, and I think actually better than canned.[/quote]
I agree.
But there’s nothing better than price and conveinence of frozen veggies.
My son is 2years old and he eats bags of veggies each week.
The easiest way to cook veggies, is to thing of them as being reheated, not “cooked”. Just take a handful, throw in a bowl, and and the least about of water, and nuke em…turn the vggies over at least once, and drain water. The water prvents them from getting nuked/rubbery.
Personally, I like to nuke them a little to take the chill off, and saute them lightly for a little browning - add salt&pepper to taste.
I had 1/2 bag of frz snap peas last night…good stuff =)
Actually just to chime in a bit here it has been stated that frozen veggies and/or fruit may be even superior to the fresh variety due to the fact that they are flash frozen shortly after being harvested which preserves all the nutrients that may leech out of them while they are being shipped to and fro across the country.
Dont get me wrong I love my fresh vaggies and fruits, but see nothing wrong with frozen and they are FAR superior to the canned stuff.
I even take many of my fresh veggies and berries and will buy a TON. chop them up and freeze them my self for ease of serving and longevity. As well as the cost factor of buying in bulk.
hope that helps,
Phill
[quote]Phill wrote:
Actually just to chime in a bit here it has been stated that frozen veggies and/or fruit may be even superior to the fresh variety due to the fact that they are flash frozen shortly after being harvested which preserves all the nutrients that may leech out of them while they are being shipped to and fro across the country.
Dont get me wrong I love my fresh vaggies and fruits, but see nothing wrong with frozen and they are FAR superior to the canned stuff.
I even take many of my fresh veggies and berries and will buy a TON. chop them up and freeze them my self for ease of serving and longevity. As well as the cost factor of buying in bulk.
hope that helps,
Phill[/quote]
Phill,
Are there any veggies which don’t work well with freezing? Are there any other fruits apart from berries that freeze well? How long can you store them? I was actually thinking about doing this myself, they are much cheaper when you buy them from the wholesale markets rather than the shops.
Cheers,
BG
BG,
I have not found much that doesn’t freeze well. I freeze all types of food.
As far as veggies I havent done say lettuce or tomatoes. But I consistantly do onions, zucchini, green peppers, mushrooms, green beans, etc. really anything.
Fruits sure chop them up and freeze them if you want. I really only do this with berries usually and keep my other fruit fresh.
But like I said I freeze a lot of stuff. Cook ahead meats chicken, beef etc. freeze it. Even buy my Tuna in the huge 4lb can and when ever I crack one open I drain it package it in ziplocks and freeze it as well. Same with huge cans of mushrooms.
I keep ziplock in business.
No problems as of yet with them keeping I would say I turn my stock if you want to call it that every month or so. Eat it.
Hope this helps,
It is sure to save you time and money,
Phill
Damn forgot my latest freezing/money saving/time saving venture. I bought a 50Lb bag of old fashioned rolled oats from Bob’s Red Mill. Packed it up in gallon freezer bags and pull them out as I need.
Alright folks,
Phill’s right of course, frozen F and V frozen straight after harvesting retains a whole host of the compounds that can be lost between the field and fridge (it?s worth remembering that they usually go via more than one storage phase, in the truck and sit on the shelves at the shops) and that they should have a higher content of these chemicals provided that they have been kept frozen all the way.
Fruit tends to go brown from the action of enzymes even when frozen and this is prevented or reduced by adding ascorbic acid solution or even dipping in vinegar (yum!). Connected with this fruits tend only to remain in a good condition up to a year (depending on the fruit of course) whilst with veg you could be looking at almost two provided you keep them in sealed containers.
As for freezing fruit, well, I believe it has to do with the texture of the flesh, ultimately how the tissue is put together and what it is composed of but fruit flesh is on the whole more delicate than that of veg so that when frozen the water expanding and turning to ice disrupts the flesh and changes the texture. Add that to any enzyme spoilage and then the fruit is not that palatable.
Drew
This is really interesting stuff everybody. I read an article in the ‘healthy living’ section of my newspaper (ok I know, not the best place to get info lol). It said that microwaving veggies ‘destroyed lots of the goodness in them’. Any ideas what they were referring to?
Hello T-folks, please could some of you guys read through this stuff and see if this stuff is true - are microwaves as bad as the following portrays them to be?
In commercial models, the oven has a power input of about 1000 watts of alternating current. As these microwaves generated from the magnetron bombard the food, they cause the polar molecules to rotate at the same frequency millions of times a second. All this agitation creates molecular friction, which heats up the food. The friction also causes substantial damage to the surrounding molecules, often tearing them apart or forcefully deforming them. The scientific name for this deformation is “structural isomerism”.
Radiation, as defined by physics terminology, is “the electromagnetic waves emitted by the atoms and molecules of a radioactive substance as a result of nuclear decay.” Radiation causes ionization, which is what occurs when a neutral atom gains or loses electrons. In simpler terms, a microwave oven decays and changes the molecular structure of the food by the process of radiation. Had the manufacturers accurately called them “radiation ovens”, it’s doubtful they would have ever sold one, but that’s exactly what a microwave oven is.
In Comparative Study of Food Prepared Conventionally and in the Microwave Oven, published by Raum & Zelt in 1992, at 3(2): 43, it states
"A basic hypothesis of natural medicine states that the introduction into the human body of molecules and energies, to which it is not accustomed, is much more likely to cause harm than good. Microwaved food contains both molecules and energies not present in food cooked in the way humans have been cooking food since the discovery of fire. Microwave energy from the sun and other stars is direct current based. Artificially produced microwaves, including those in ovens, are produced from alternating current and force a billion or more polarity reversals per second in every food molecule they hit. Production of unnatural molecules is inevitable. Naturally occurring amino acids have been observed to undergo isomeric changes (changes in shape morphing) as well as transformation into toxic forms, under the impact of microwaves produced in ovens.
One short-term study found significant and disturbing changes in the blood of individuals consuming microwaved milk and vegetables. Eight volunteers ate various combinations of the same foods cooked different ways. All foods that were processed through the microwave ovens caused changes in the blood of the volunteers. Hemoglobin levels decreased and over all white cell levels and cholesterol levels increased. Lymphocytes decreased.
Luminescent (light-emitting) bacteria were employed to detect energetic changes in the blood. Significant increases were found in the luminescence of these bacteria when exposed to blood serum obtained after the consumption of microwaved food."
The Swiss clinical study
Dr. Hans Ulrich Hertel, who is now retired, worked as a food scientist for many years with one of the major Swiss food companies that do business on a global scale. A few years ago, he was fired from his job for questioning certain processing procedures that denatured the food.
In 1991, he and a Lausanne University professor published a research paper indicating that food cooked in microwave ovens could pose a greater risk to health than food cooked by conventional means. An article also appeared in issue 19 of the Journal Franz Weber in which it was stated that the consumption of food cooked in microwave ovens had cancerous effects on the blood. The research paper itself followed the article. On the cover of the magazine there was a picture of the Grim Reaper holding a microwave oven in one of his hands.
Dr. Hertel was the first scientist to conceive and carry out a quality clinical study on the effects microwaved nutrients have on the blood and physiology of the human body. His small, but well controlled, study showed the degenerative force produced in microwave ovens and the food processed in them. The scientific conclusion showed that microwave cooking changed the nutrients in the food; and, changes took place in the participants’ blood that could cause deterioration in the human system. Hertel’s scientific study was done along with Dr. Bernard H. Blanc of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and the University Institute for Biochemistry.
In intervals of two to five days, the volunteers in the study received one of the following food variants on an empty stomach: (1) raw milk; (2) the same milk conventionally cooked; (3) pasteurized milk; (4) the same raw milks cooked in a microwave oven; (5) raw vegetables from an organic farm; (6) the same vegetables cooked conventionally; (7) the same vegetables frozen and defrosted in a microwave oven; and (8) the same vegetables cooked in the microwave oven. Once the volunteers were isolated, blood samples were taken from every volunteer immediately before eating. Then, blood samples were taken at defined intervals after eating from the above milk or vegetable preparations.
Significant changes were discovered in the blood samples from the intervals following the foods cooked in the microwave oven. These changes included a decrease in all hemoglobin and cholesterol values, especially the ratio of HDL (good cholesterol) and LDL (bad cholesterol) values. Lymphocytes (white blood cells) showed a more distinct short-term decrease following the intake of microwaved food than after the intake of all the other variants. Each of these indicators pointed to degeneration. Additionally, there was a highly significant association between the amount of microwave energy in the test foods and the luminous power of luminescent bacteria exposed to serum from test persons who ate that food. This led Dr. Hertel to the conclusion that such technically derived energies may, indeed, be passed along to man inductively via eating microwaved food. According to Dr. Hertel,
"Leukocytosis, which cannot be accounted for by normal daily deviations, is taken very seriously by hemotologists. Leukocytes are often signs of pathogenic effects on the living system, such as poisoning and cell damage. The increase of leukocytes with the microwaved foods were more pronounced than with all the other variants. It appears that these marked increases were caused entirely by ingesting the microwaved substances.
"This process is based on physical principles and has already been confirmed in the literature. The apparent additional energy exhibited by the luminescent bacteria was merely an extra confirmation. There is extensive scientific literature concerning the hazardous effects of direct microwave radiation on living systems. It is astonishing, therefore, to realize how little effort has been taken to replace this detrimental technique of microwaves with technology more in accordance with nature. Technically produced microwaves are based on the principle of alternating current. Atoms, molecules, and cells hit by this hard electromagnetic radiation are forced to reverse polarity 1-100 billion times a second. There are no atoms, molecules or cells of any organic system able to withstand such a violent, destructive power for any extended period of time, not even in the low energy range of milliwatts.
Of all the natural substances – which are polar – the oxygen of water molecules reacts most sensitively. This is how microwave cooking heat is generated – friction from this violence in water molecules. Structures of molecules are torn apart, molecules are forcefully deformed, called structural isomerism, and thus become impaired in quality. This is contrary to conventional heating of food where heat transfers convectionally from without to within. Cooking by microwaves begins within the cells and molecules where water is present and where the energy is transformed into frictional heat.
In addition to the violent frictional heat effects, called thermic effects, there are also athermic effects which have hardly ever been taken into account. These athermic effects are not presently measurable, but they can also deform the structures of molecules and have qualitative consequences. For example the weakening of cell membranes by microwaves is used in the field of gene altering technology. Because of the force involved, the cells are actually broken, thereby neutralizing the electrical potentials, the very life of the cells, between the outer and inner side of the cell membranes. Impaired cells become easy prey for viruses, fungi and other microorganisms. The natural repair mechanisms are suppressed and cells are forced to adapt to a state of energy emergency – they switch from aerobic to anaerobic respiration. Instead of water and carbon dioxide, the cell poisons hydrogen peroxide and carbon monoxide are produced."
The same violent deformations that occur in our bodies, when we are directly exposed to radar or microwaves, also occur in the molecules of foods cooked in a microwave oven. This radiation results in the destruction and deformation of food molecules. Microwaving also creates new compounds, called radiolytic compounds, which are unknown fusions not found in nature. Radiolytic compounds are created by molecular decomposition - decay - as a direct result of radiation.
Carcinogens in microwaved food
In Dr. Lita Lee’s book, Health Effects of Microwave Radiation - Microwave Ovens, and in the March and September 1991 issues of Earthletter, she stated that every microwave oven leaks electro-magnetic radiation, harms food, and converts substances cooked in it to dangerous organ-toxic and carcinogenic products. Further research summarized in this article reveal that microwave ovens are far more harmful than previously imagined.
The following is a summary of the Russian investigations published by the Atlantis Raising Educational Center in Portland, Oregon. Carcinogens were formed in virtually all foods tested. No test food was subjected to more microwaving than necessary to accomplish the purpose, i.e., cooking, thawing, or heating to insure sanitary ingestion. Here’s a summary of some of the results:
Microwaving prepared meats sufficiently to insure sanitary ingestion caused formation of d-Nitrosodienthanolamines, a well-known carcinogen.
Microwaving milk and cereal grains converted some of their amino acids into carcinogens.
Thawing frozen fruits converted their glucoside and galactoside containing fractions into carcinogenic substances.
Extremely short exposure of raw, cooked or frozen vegetables converted their plant alkaloids into carcinogens.
Carcinogenic free radicals were formed in microwaved plants, especially root vegetables.
Decrease in nutritional value
Russian researchers also reported a marked acceleration of structural degradation leading to a decreased food value of 60 to 90% in all foods tested. Among the changes observed were:
Deceased bio-availability of vitamin B complex, vitamin C, vitamin E, essential minerals and lipotropics factors in all food tested.
Various kinds of damaged to many plant substances, such as alkaloids, glucosides, galactosides and nitrilosides.
The degradation of nucleo-proteins in meats.
Ten Reasons to Throw out your Microwave Oven
From the conclusions of the Swiss, Russian and German scientific clinical studies, we can no longer ignore the microwave oven sitting in our kitchens. Based on this research, we will conclude this article with the following:
1). Continually eating food processed from a microwave oven causes long term - permanent - brain damage by “shorting out” electrical impulses in the brain [de-polarizing or de-magnetizing the brain tissue].
2). The human body cannot metabolize [break down] the unknown by-products created in microwaved food.
3). Male and female hormone production is shut down and/or altered by continually eating microwaved foods.
4). The effects of microwaved food by-products are residual [long term, permanent] within the human body.
5). Minerals, vitamins, and nutrients of all microwaved food is reduced or altered so that the human body gets little or no benefit, or the human body absorbs altered compounds that cannot be broken down.
6). The minerals in vegetables are altered into cancerous free radicals when cooked in microwave ovens.
7). Microwaved foods cause stomach and intestinal cancerous growths [tumors]. This may explain the rapidly increased rate of colon cancer in America.
8). The prolonged eating of microwaved foods causes cancerous cells to increase in human blood.
9). Continual ingestion of microwaved food causes immune system deficiencies through lymph gland and blood serum alterations.
10). Eating microwaved food causes loss of memory, concentration, emotional instability, and a decrease of intelligence.
Interesting article, a lot of bold statements for sure!
Whilst it is true that there may well be a lot of problems with microwaves it?s always good to inject a little sanity and look at what is happening biochemically when you cook food.
Cooking changes the structure of the food, that is why we do it. It becomes safer to eat and easier to digest. It is one of the fist types of food processing we ever used. The types of changes mentioned above can been observed when looking at most protein and fat containing foods that have been harshly cooked. Take for instance roasting, bbq?ing, toasting etc.
I?m not defending the microwave (I don?t use them myself) just trying to put it in context.
Also that piece above is taken from this
http://www.nspforum.com/faq/bbs.cgi?read=924
Read it in it?s entirety. Speaking as a post grad. nutrition student and not someone who is from the naturopathy side of the fence, I don?t feel complexly comfortable with a lot of what it says. Of course that is just my opinion, science isn?t a dogma but I don?t believe that half of that is science either.
Again, just my opinion.
Just wondering if you guys always freeze things like pre-cooked chicken if you knew you were going to use it within two days. Is keeping it stored in a container in the fridge OK for this short period? I like to have things like cold chicken and salad, so I don’t want to have to defrost the chicken. I think chicken normally keeps very well for a day or two, but how about other meats? What are some of the ways you go about preparing for your meals?
Ben