Both canned and frozen vegetables are typically processed within hours of being harvested. This helps preserve the nutrients, so frozen and canned veggies can often be healthier than fresh vegetables. They’re also usually picked and processed at the height of ripeness, while fresh produce from the grocery store may have been picked at an unripe stage, before they have fully developed their vitamins and minerals.
Canned and frozen vegetables may start out equally nutritious, but the processing makes a difference. Frozen produce is blanched (cooked in hot water quickly) and that affects the nutritional value slightly. Canning requires a lot more processing. Aside from certain fruits like tomatoes and pumpkins, canned goods are likely to have less nutritional value than frozen. If you take the canned vegetable route, make sure that you avoid varieties with added sugars or sodium. Also, many of the nutrients from canned vegetables stay in the the liquid. If you remove canned vegetables and drain them, you’re missing out on a lot of the nutrients.
