We have always been told by the doctors and health practitioners to eat only what is fresh and ‘in’ that season but does that apply to superfoods as well? Should you stop consuming blueberries in winter months and kale in the summer season? Will they still be healthy and useful when they are out of season?
Research has proved that storage of foods for a long period of time can have a detrimental impact on them and significantly reduce the nutritional content, mainly vitamin C.
So, let’s take for example- kale, if you eat kale in summer which was delivered to your supermarket from about 1000 miles then the food will not be as nutritionally high as the kale that you will buy from the farmer’s market in fall season, however it is still called a ‘superfood’.
Frozen blueberries are good?
Similar is the case with blueberries too. When you buy frozen blueberries from the supermarket this means that you are buying out of season products that have been frozen to keep them from rotting.
There are many people who use the frozen berries in their smoothies however they enjoy the full benefits of the superfood even when it is out of season. If you are wondering how this is possible then read on.
Benefits of out-of-season superfoods:
The super fruits and vegetables are usually picked during the harvesting months when they are absolutely ripe and nutrition laden. These superfoods are then flash-frozen and this helps in locking the nutrients in the best possible way, this it ensures that you can enjoy the benefits of eating the superfoods even months after the season is gone.
Having said that, there’s definitely nothing like eating these superfoods fresh from the local store so if you like eating fresh produce stick to consuming only those fruits and vegetables that are in that season.
Fresh superfoods taste better!
Nothing can beat the in-season and fresh produce that you get from the farmers’ market as they are nutrient-packed food, the taste is better and they smell great too.
So, the bottom-line is that superfoods are good in every way, fresh or frozen but when a particular fruit is in-season you may consider having more of that as the fresh superfoods are always more delicious and flavorful.