"Fresh" vegetables can be less nutritious than frozen ones

It sounds backwards, but a bag of frozen peas can hold more vitamins than the "fresh" ones in the produce aisle. The reason is time. The moment a vegetable is harvested, it's cut off from the plant but still alive — enzymes keep working, and water-soluble vitamins like vitamin C and folate begin to degrade with exposure to air, light, heat, and time. "Fresh" produce can spend days or weeks being transported, stored, and displayed before you eat it.

Frozen vegetables take a different path. They're usually picked at peak ripeness and blanched (briefly heated) and frozen within hours. Blanching deactivates the enzymes that would otherwise break down nutrients and color, and freezing then essentially pauses further loss. The trade-off is small: that quick blanch leaches out a modest amount of the most heat- and water-sensitive vitamins up front — but what remains is largely locked in for months.

This doesn't make fresh produce bad — a tomato eaten the day it's picked is excellent. The practical point is that freshness is about time since harvest, not the label. A vegetable that traveled a long way and sat for a week may quietly lose much of its vitamin C, while a frozen equivalent held onto it. Both fresh and frozen can be smart choices; convenience and low waste often tip frozen into the winner column.