Get Fit Slowly

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As a parental team, Pam and I try to provide our kids with a well rounded diet including a variety of fruits and vegetables. Fortunately, our kids tend to like vegetables more than most kids I have met. My current working theory on why this is so stems from the fact that Pam is a vegetarian. While in the womb, my children never got a taste for the finer things in life: beef, chicken, lamb, or pork. And while breastfeeding they still were basically vegetarians. It wasn’t until they started eating solid foods that they were exposed to meat products–and neither of them really liked it. To this day, Megan won’t touch any meat, and Liam won’t eat it very well. They both get most of their protein from copious amounts of dairy products–yogurt, milk, cheese and the like.

This is sometimes difficult for me since it’s well documented that when given a choice, I’ll choose to eat something (OK, anything) other than fruits and vegetables. However, I am getting better at this. In fact, I’m starting to enjoy reaching into the fruit bowl for a snack, or having a nice salad for a dinner.

There are lots of ways to incorporate fruits and vegetables into a meal plan. Searching the frozen food section at the grocery store yields a plethora of vegetable options. And it’s certainly easier to open the freezer and pull out a bag of already prepped peas, corn, carrots, or broccoli. But is easier the better option? What about the nutrition of these frozen vegetables? Are they just as healthy as their fresh counterparts? And what about canned veggies?

Fresh
One of the things I love about living in the country is that we have ample room to grow our own vegetables and fruits. We have cherries, peaches, pears, apples, and tons of berries. Lettuce, carrots, peas, tomatoes, corn, squash, cucumbers, zucchini, and asparagus are some of the veggies that we have been known to grow. There’s nothing like going outside and picking what you want to eat for dinner. Straight from the garden to the table is definitely the healthiest way to eat your produce. But just how fresh are those veggies at the megastore? The minute they’re picked, they start to lose nutritional value. How much time has elapsed from field to floor of the store? You never know.

Frozen
In 1998, the FDA confirmed that frozen fruits and vegetable can pack as much, if not more, nutritional value than their fresh counterparts. Since they’re picked, blanched, and frozen within hours of their harvesting, they have little time to lose nutritional value. Also, they’re picked at their peak of freshness–which only enhances their nutritional value.

Canned
Canned veggies and fruits on the other hand have been shown to have the least nutritional value because of the extensive heating during the canning process. This heating can sometimes cause a leaching of the vitamins and minerals out of the food and into the cooking water. Unless you’re drinking that water, you’re not getting as much nutritional benefit from those canned vegetables and fruits.

So, if you want to max out your fruit and vegetable nutrition, grow your own or buy from the local farmer’s market. If you can’t do that, buy frozen. But canned is still better than a box of doughnuts!