home frozen food: how raw and alive is it?

[Guest guest]

How raw is frozen food?

 

I know a lot of commercial frozen food is blanched (or something like that), to

destroy the enzymes, to retard the slide towards an unpalatable state. I always

knew this. Now its echoing like a gong in my head. For the last several years I

was eating a lot of frozen food, so I was getting vitamins, but not enzymes. A

few months ago I found out the fact that my digestive tract was slowly becoming

dysfunctional had a lot to do with my health problems. This eventually lead to

raw food (which you have heard about before) and even to taking extra enzymes on

top of the raw food. My digestive tract is happier now with this approach.

 

Okay, so probably the assumption should be that commercial frozen food isn't

raw.

 

What about home frozen food?

 

I buy bulk nuts by the case (so I get them fresher) and then put them in the

freezer, and this seems to work just great.

 

What about fruit? If its going to go in a smoothie anyway, does it matter

(nutrition and health wise) if it was frozen for a short while first?

 

I'm not talking about long term freezing because even when frozen, the enzymes

continue to slowly do their job of breaking down the food. I'm talking about

short term freezing.

 

I started thinking about this because if I make the big expedition to Central

Market, and buy enough fruit to last until the next expedition, most of the

fruit will spoil before I could make the next expedition. I live in Auburn, and

go to Fremont, but its basically an additional trip to go up to Central Market,

and frequently I can barely make it as far as Fremont. Besides the energy, I'm

pretty allergic to most everything you breath on a busy highway.

 

I know that freezing ruptures the cell walls. Does this damage the nutrition or

cause toxic byproducts in any way? Or does it just make the fruit kind of soupy?

 

How much of the life has left the food after freezing? Are nuts still alive

because they are meant to survive freezing in their dormant stage, but the fruit

is dead because its cells have been ruptured?

 

It looks like these foods don't suffer additional losses from freezing: dry

nuts, dried algae, dried fruit, or dried anything else.

 

I have a feeling that fruit like apples, kiwis, and pears, that keep well in the

refrigerator for long periods, are what I should use to tide me over after the

more perishable fruit gets eaten.

 

So I think I've answered my own question, but since I'm new to this, want to

double-check to see if I've missed something.

 

May your day be filled with clarity, grace, progress, and warm laughter,

Roger

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

According to Brian A. Nummer, Ph.D. of the National Center for Home

Food Preservation (from

http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/tips/summer/home_food_freezing.html):

 

" Enzymes are naturally present in foods and their activity can lead to

the deterioration of food quality. Enzymes present in animal foods,

vegetables and fruit promote chemical reactions, such as ripening.

Freezing only slows the enzyme activity that takes place in foods. It

does not halt these reactions which continue after harvesting. Enzyme

activity does not harm frozen meats or fish, but browning can occur in

fruits while they are being frozen or thawed. "

 

It goes on to say that blanching before freezing will kill the

enzymes.

 

Ron Koenig

 

RawSeattle , " Roger Padvorac " <roger@s...> wrote:

> How raw is frozen food?

>

> I know a lot of commercial frozen food is blanched (or something

like that), to destroy the enzymes, to retard the slide towards an

unpalatable state.