Cooking, Freezing & Thawing food...Is it Sacrificing Nutrition for efficiency & Convenience?
Sometimes i really do not know what to prepare for our family meals esp when i cook 5 out of 7 days a week. Preparing meals takes up much of my hours each day. Yesterday a friend suggested me to cook many dishes and freeze them. She does that and when she needed food, she just take them out to microwave and serve. I asked her about the nutritional value of the cooked & frozen food. I am thinking of trying her method out to be more 'efficient' and not spend so much time thinking about what to cook and cut down preparation time all these. Does any nutritional guru-cum-parent know of the nutritional values of frozen cooked foods? Will the nutritional values such as vitamins (anything else?) all these drop as a result of freezing & thawing cooked food? i heard breastmilk has a lower antibodies level when frozen but i dont know about cooked food. Would appreciate any advice!!!
Re: Cooking, Freezing & Thawing food...Is it Sacrificing Nutrition for efficiency & Convenience?
You can buy oven safe trays just the right size for a single meal. They are foil ones, throw away, and they are very handy at times. What I do is cook enough for 3 days that way they don't have to be frozen and heat them in the oven. Not sure if this is any better but I do know that the microwave kills nutrients. I only have to cook a meal a couple of nights a week then. Lazy I know but when you work and raise a family (on your own) these things are a necessity.
Re: Cooking, Freezing & Thawing food...Is it Sacrificing Nutrition for efficiency & Convenience?
Not sure if this will help but with frozen veges you buy from the supermarket I saw on TV (so it must be true, ha ha) that they could possibly have better nutritional value because they are frozen not long after harvest whereas the ones in the fresh area have been through packing, transport, storage and sitting on the shelf. Don't know about cooked meals and using a microwave is supposed to 'destroy' food anyway.
Re: Cooking, Freezing & Thawing food...Is it Sacrificing Nutrition for efficiency & Convenience?
yes freezing does lower nutritional value somewhat, but in saying that you will still reap the benifits of healthy food whereas if u feel to tired to cook you will probably cook something easy and less healthy anyway. i dont think freezing is a problem especially for busy parents, the nutrition is still there just a lil less.
Re: Cooking, Freezing & Thawing food...Is it Sacrificing Nutrition for efficiency & Convenience?
I was just going to say what Winja beat me to :-) I think the amount of nutritional change is probably so small that it is better to have the "fresh" frozen then be tempted (like I am) to just eat prepared food when I am too tired to cook. As for the breast milk, if frozen properly, it loses very little of its nutritional value.
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