I’ve heard some rumours.
First, fruits and such supposedly loses about half of its vitamines and other good stuff each time it’s frozen, which happens a couple times during transportation. Granted, I got this from some nutjobs trying to sell me Pharmanex, but the claim sounds reasonable enough.
From a more reliable friend I have that fish aren’t really healthy any more due to heavy metals in the water, and that the diet and living conditions for chickens are so poor, you’re better off sticking to beef, as cattle, at least here, live pretty optimal lives.
All right, shed some light.
Um, as far as I know, most fruit is not frozen during transportation.
Fruit is not frozen during transportation, and it does not lose its vitamins, etc. even if it is frozen. Over time, fruit will lose some of its vitamins, but that is a long time without any attempt to preserve it. For example, lemon or lime juice will keep for very long periods, but its Vitamin C potency decreases over time. This is one of the gotchas that doomed the Franklin Arctic expedition.
Frozen juice maintains its Vitamin C potency much longer.
In short, I’m reasonably sure that fresh fruits (and vegetables) will rot long before their vitamin and other “good stuff” disappears. Canned or frozen vegetables maintain their vitamins and other stuff for a long time. Eventually the vitamins and other stuff lose potency, but they’re still worth eating.
If you are extremely active or on a strict diet, you may want to supplement your nutritional intake with a broad-spectrum multi-vitamin like Centrum. Everything else is overkill.
Just the other day I looked at the nutritional information on a can of vegetables (specifically, beets). To my surprise they had only a tiny smidgen of any vitamin or mineral in them. The most beneficial thing they seemed to contain was fiber. In contrast, if I look up the values in freshly cooked beets, they would be expected to have significant amounts of various nutrients. I bet you’d find a similar situation with many, if not most, canned vegetables.
Frozen foods list much more reasonable amounts of vitamins and minerals.
Regarding fish, if you google “heavy metals fish” you’ll get a lot of entries. Some fish do have significant enough amounts that you shouldn’t have them very often, especially not if you’re a child, or pregnant. For the rest of us, a couple of times a week of fish other than shark, swordfish, marlin and orange roughy is usually considered desirable because the health benefits are so high.
If you think you need more vitamins for some reason, your doctor or a licensed nutritionist would be a much better source of information than somebody who mostly wants to sell you something.
Well, maybe it does if it’s being transported across Norway.
Most of the fanatic health-food types also stress the importance of locally-grown food, so that there wouldn’t be so much of a need for long-term preservation, storage or freezing of food between tree and dinner table.