Is Taking Frozen Foods Regularly Harmful To Your Health?

[Irene]

My family is fond of frozen foods because of the varieties and passable taste, some are even better than my cooking. But wonder whether there are disadvantages like canned foods or cancerous.

[londonthai]

unless it's frozen veg and fruits, the rest is a processed food, with tons of sugar, salt, white flower, saturated fat and food enhancers (that's why it's tasty).

getting daily fresh foods from the street market from the local fields would be cheaper and healtier, than this from the industrial farms, with all the chemicals in them. If you don't have time to do it yourself, get some girl to do shopping and cooking

[Bagwan]

I think you are pulling our legs. Nobody cooks that badly.

Is your family Thai? I thought that Thais ate only fresh food. My kapo aka tilac, goes to the market every day and what is bought is eaten the same day. Thai reasoning is that this helps prevent food poisoning.

As I do not normally eat Thai food, all my farang comestibles are put in either the refrigerator or freezer save for those in cans. Despite, or maybe because of, having spent my formative years (15-30) in the Royal Navy when fresh foods were only available in harbour, I have never been subject to intestinal disorder save for a dodgy meat pie I ate in Malta which resulted in me wanting to die for 24 hours.

I would say that your fears are irrational.

[Naam]

My family is fond of frozen foods because of the varieties and passable taste, some are even better than my cooking. But wonder whether there are disadvantages like canned foods or cancerous.

if not thawed before eating it makes your belly feel very cold

[H2oDunc]

There are some scientists saying that some frozen is actually better than fresh. See here

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthne...ists-claim.html

http://www.ivillage.co.uk/food/cook/health..._703172,00.html

http://healthlibrary.epnet.com/GetContent....chunkiid=160561

I would not worry too much. It all depends on what type of frozen food they are eating I suppose ?

[phetaroi]

I'm not quite sure what you are defining as frozen foods. I will tell you that back in the States, when he got quite old my father got in the habit of eating lots of Stouffers frozen foods and his health data started declining. The doctor said it was primarily due to the high salt content of most frozen dinners. When he stopped eating the Stouffers on a daily basis -- perhaps down to a couple of times a week -- his health data improved.

[Sheryl]

Frozen fruits and veggies = loss of some of the nutrients, not as high vitamin content as fresh. The water solubkle vitamins (C, B vits etc) are especially fragile.

frozen meat/fish = if just the meat/fish itself and not processed, shd be OK

Ready to eat meals (spices, sauces etc) = as posters above mentioned, full of salt + sugar, plus will have decreased vitamin content. Although in Thailand they tend to make the print so small it needs a magnifying glass, and also it is in Thai, these products do have nutritional labelling that will give the sodium and sugar content. This is of particular concern if anyone in the family has heart of blood pressure problems or diabetes or obesity

At a minimum I would say, be sure to supplement frozen meals with fresh fruits and veggies. Since cooking is a weak point for you, try veggies in salad form, pretty hard to mess up taste-wise.

[H2oDunc]

Sheryl you obviously did not read the articles about frozen veg ? Frozen veg tends to be frozen very quickly after picking so retains lots of nutrients and vitamins whereas " fresh " veg loses them during transport which these days can be weeks. As said it all depends on just what frozen food you are eating. A diet of frozen pizzas everyday will not be very healthy.

Saying that I ate beefburger, beans and chips with sponge and custard for desert EVERY day throughout my senior schooling and it did me no harm at all. According to the " experts " now I should be at the least grossly obese or dead depending on which " expert " you listen to.

[londonthai]

buying fresh fruits and veg from the local street market from mo and pa, and not from the supermarket, gives you a guarantee, that foods were picket up early morning on the day and they are as fresh as they can be.

different story with foods in the supermarket - they are grown far away, often abroad, and are picked up before they are ripe, to allow them to be transported for many days. They are processed before being packed in the boxes and covered by some preservatives

[Irene]

Folks,

I thank you all for the input. I am really impressed with the responses. I posed the question at 7.32 am and by 14.24 pm of the same day, I have got all the guidances which are so balanced and helpful. One still has to be selective especially on salty contents but comfortable to know a margin of safety especially from the referred websites.

I posed the same question weeks ago with one famous answering forum and received three short replies of full clearances with no caveat. It took 20 days to receive that three replies.

I will try to reciprocate whenever I can.

[phetaroi]

buying fresh fruits and veg from the local street market from mo and pa, and not from the supermarket, gives you a guarantee, that foods were picket up early morning on the day and they are as fresh as they can be.

different story with foods in the supermarket - they are grown far away, often abroad, and are picked up before they are ripe, to allow them to be transported for many days. They are processed before being packed in the boxes and covered by some preservatives

Of course, then again a few years ago some local farmers were discovered using cyanide as a pesticide.