The fresh vs frozen debate has gone on for what feels like forever. With many fast food restaurants like McDonald’s and Wendy’s beginning to serve fresh meats instead of frozen, it’s becoming obvious which is better. The answer is fresh… duh.
Frozen foods, although being more convenient when planning ahead, are far less convenient, especially when mom tells you to take the beef out of the freezer and you forget, so now running it under hot water because she’s almost home. Buying fresh foods can prevent this because there is no need to defrost.
Eating fresh foods has health benefits as well. According to The Washington Post, freezing food has been shown to decrease nutrients. They also say that fresh foods contain more water which increases hydration. A study in the Journal Food Chemistry found that fresh vegetables contain a higher amount of vitamin C, too.
Frozen foods have a fair amount of disadvantages. Frozen foods typically contain a larger amount of sodium than recommended. Oils are also processed in ways like high-temperature mechanical pressing, deodorizing, and bleaching. All of these processes cause foods to lose nutrients.
With frozen food being easier to use in some situations, whether someone eats fresh food or frozen food depends on how devoted they are to their health.
Frozen foods can contain large amounts of starch used to preserve texture in food when thawed out but starch is not healthy. When starch is consumed, the body breaks them down into sugars which we all know is not good in large amounts.
Although one could argue that frozen foods can be stored for longer, frozen foods are stored in plastic containers. These plastic containers may leave unwanted toxins in the food that can do who knows what to the human body.