A raw food diet is obviously consisting of raw foods, and it cannot include cooked foods. But frozen fruits are considered as raw. Therefore, you can add them to your diet. Eating frozen fruits comes with a lot of benefits. Even though they sometimes get a bad rap for being processed junk, some of the market’s healthiest fruits are in the frozen section.

If you are wondering what benefits you can get from eating frozen fruits, you’re in the right place. Today, we are giving you some of the benefits you can get from this raw food group and a few examples of what fruits you can freeze.

Reasons to Stock Up on Frozen Fruits

Here are some of the important reasons why you should start freezing fruits today:

• Frozen fruits mature in a good way.

  The moment fruit is picked, it begins to lose its nutrients. This means that when it’s plucked and how long after harvesting you eat it, affects its nutritional value. When you freeze fruits shortly after they are harvested, you allow them to fully ripen. Therefore, they are chock full of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants because freezing locks in many of their nutrients.

  However, it’s better to do this yourself instead of buying frozen fruits in supermarkets. Why? Because most of the fresh produce in supermarkets was reaped over many miles away and they need to be transported by truck to get there. As a result, these fruits may have been harvested before they reached their nutritional peak and were just ripened artificially during transport. If you want some frozen fruits, it’s better to harvest them personally and freeze them.

• Frozen fruits are just as nutritious or even more so than fresh fruits.

  A study done by scientists from Leatherhead Food Research and the University of Chester supports this claim. They carried out 40 tests to measure the nutrient levels of fruits that have been sitting in the refrigerator for three days and compared them to frozen equivalents. They found out that frozen samples contain more beneficial nutrients. In fact, frozen fruits have higher levels of antioxidants, such as anthocyanins, beta-carotene, polyphenols, and lutein. This means that freezing fruits does not destroy their nutrients.

• Frozen fruits are free of additives.

  Freezing can preserve fruits without the need to use unwanted additives. They also do not contain added salt or sugar. Therefore, it’s easier to preserve fruits by freezing them, and they are much healthier. If you are buying frozen fruits from the supermarket, it’s important to check the label or ingredients and make sure that absolutely nothing is added to those fruits.

• Frozen fruits are super healthy shortcuts.

  Keeping frozen fruits will not require you to wash, peel, or chop them when you want to eat them. This is perfect, especially when you often wish that your bounty would magically prepare themselves. In fact, for many people, frozen fruits are the reason why fruits wind up in their plates. It’s because they no longer need to spend about an hour preparing, serving, eating the fruits, and then cleaning up after. Since frozen produce is prep-free, reaching for them can save you a lot of time while enabling you to make healthy dishes.

• Frozen fruits are versatile.

  When you have a stock of frozen fruits, you can use them in many ways, aside from eating them alone. For example, you can add them to smoothies or thaw them and use them as a topping for oatmeal. They are great for snacking too. If you are watching TV, you can simply get some frozen fruits in your freezer and snack on them. Plus, they are very healthy snack options instead of opting for junk foods.

• Frozen fruits are always available.

  Sometimes, it feels sad to crave for certain fruit and learning that it’s not in season. Most fruits are seasonal and are not always available. If ever they are, the cost is usually higher. But when it comes to frozen fruits, you can have seasonal fruits all year round.

• You can enjoy frozen fruits when they are ripe.

  Fruits are harvested when they are ripe. During the time when they are the tastiest and most nutritious. After a couple of hours, they are washed, cut, packaged, and frozen. Meaning they reach your table at their best. With frozen fruits, there’s no need for you to worry about what if they are too ripe or not so ripe yet.

• Frozen fruits can last longer.

  Compared to fresh fruits, frozen fruits can last a lot longer because they can stay in the freezer for up to about a year. However, this excludes citrus fruits because you can only keep them in the freezer for up to three months.

Fruits that are Better Frozen

After knowing the benefits that you can get from frozen fruits, here are some of the fruits that are better eaten or served frozen:

• Raspberries

  Frozen raspberries are more delicious when they are frozen. They melt in your mouth like chocolates. You can also put them in the blender and add a bit of sweetener, and almond milk and you’ve got yourself a raspberry sorbet.

• Bananas

  Frozen bananas are delicious, and you can also preserve them better when frozen especially overly ripe ones. If you are looking for a healthy dessert, you can also try some banana ice cream, which only has one ingredient – frozen bananas. Since bananas have low water content, most of the nutrients present in this fruit will be preserved during the freezing process. You can remove the peels before freezing them to make them easier to eat once frozen.

• Clementine

  It’s enjoyable to eat clementine when it’s fresh. However, they sometimes lack in flavor. But when you freeze them, every bite can taste like a less-artificial popsicle. Just like in bananas, you need to remove the peel before freezing them so that you can eat them easily when frozen.

• Grapes

  If you are not a fan of grapes, then you must try them when they are frozen. It’s because frozen grapes are much sweeter, and their texture turns into like that of ice cream. Grapes are known to be high in sugar, but they are healthier compared to snacking on a pint of ice cream. If you are freezing grapes, opt for the green ones because red grapes do not have a pleasant taste when frozen.

• Mango

  Frozen mangoes are perfect when making smoothies because they turn out to be creamier. You can find frozen mangoes in the frozen food sections of grocery stores. However, mangoes tend to become very hard in the freezer. When you remove them from the freezer, you may need to allow them to thaw for a few minutes before eating them.

• Blueberries

  Blueberries are very refreshing fruits, more so when they are frozen. Freezing blueberries will also save you from suffering through the pain of out-of-season berries. You can buy fresh blueberries, freeze them yourself, or opt for grocery stores that are sold in gallon bags.

Based on this information, we can say that frozen fruits are perfect for those looking into a healthy lifestyle that is also easy and convenient. We hope that this gave you an idea of incorporating fruits into your diet in a creative way.