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How Healthy is Freeze Dried Produce?

Out with the bad and in with the good

I often mention that Thrive freeze dried fruits and vegetables are healthy.  You’ve heard me talk about how they are GMO Free, additive free and preservative free.  They don’t use artificial colors or flavors etc.

But at the recent Thrive Life convention, I learned a bit more on the topic of health from a scientist on Thrive Life’s new scientific advisory board.  That’s right: Instead of just relying on others or past research, Thrive Life is hiring scientists to specifically look into / study the food they are providing in order to learn more about the true health benefits.

 

How healthy

 

What I’ve learned has resulted in freeze dried produce being on my kid’s plates at every breakfast, lunch, snacks and dinner.

 

A Health Craze

I know a lot of parents…most of my friends are parents.  And without fail, they all want to do the best they can to raise healthy children.  Many (my past self included) buy produce at the grocery store each week and then work to get it on their kids plates each meal.  And YAY for that effort!  But sadly, things don’t always work out as planned.

Sometimes we forget about that produce and it just rots away in the fridge.  Or, maybe we don’t forget, but we cook it up and lose a lot of nutrients in the process.  Or, maybe we give it to our kids raw, but our kids turn up their noses and it just gets tossed in the trash.  I’m speaking from experience here and I’m sure many of you can relate! (at least I hope I’m not the only one!)

Even if you don’t have young children at home, America is in the middle of a health craze!  We all want to eat better, have more energy and be healthier.  Yet, some of the problems I mentioned above apply to us as adults as well, right?

Problems with Grocery Store Produce:

In addition to the issues mentioned above, unless you are picking your produce yourself, or purchasing it at a farmers market the day it’s picked, there are a few problem with the “healthy” produce you are bringing home in the first place:

  • Store-bought produce is often picked before it’s ripe to keep it form spoiling during weeks of travel to the grocery store shelves.
  • Picked early, it never has a change to produce vital antioxidants, vitamins and flavor during the final stages of ripening.
  • Once picked, it starts breaking down its few remaining nutrients to survive.  Every day until it’s eaten it lose more nutritional value and flavor.

So, your “healthy” produce isn’t so healthy after all!  But there is a solution:

 

Thrive Flash Frozen Produce

  • Thrive Flash frozen fruits and veggies are naturally ripened to allow all vital antioxidants, vitamins, and flavor to develop and then flash frozen within 12 hours of being picked, capturing them in their freshest state.
  • These frozen foods are then flash dried (while still frozen).  Removing the water stops the loss of natural nutrition and flavor.
  • Oxygen free cans protect the food so the flavor or nutritional value are preserved.

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The Facts:

Here are a few facts you may find interesting:

  • Fresh green beans, if not properly preserved, can lost up to 52% of their vitamin C content within 2 days of being picked
  • Thrive Flash frozen spinach can have 6 times more Vitamin A than store-bought spinach
  • Thrive Flash frozen blueberries can have up to 40% more calcium than store-bought blueberries
  • Most “fresh” produce travel an average of 2,000 miles to get to your grocery store.
  • 21 times more vitamin C is found in Thrive flash frozen peaches than in store bought peaches.

And just in case you are thinking that all freeze dried produce is the same, check out this video from Angela at Food Storage and Survival.

So now you know that not only does Thrive freeze dried produce avoid all the “bad” stuff (preservatives, GMO, dyes etc), it actually has more of the good stuff.  Plus, it solves some of the other problems mentioned above:

Food rotting in the fridge

Thrive freeze dried fruits and veggies are shelf stable (no refrigeration needed) for a full year after you open the can!

Nutrients lost when cooked

Thrive freeze dried fruits and veggies are raw.  You can cook them (and I often do for soups etc), but they are also very easy to eat strait out of the can.  They aren’t like dehydrated foods that you have to chew and chew.  In fact, they are so dry, then will crumble in your had.  They are very easy for kids to eat!

Taste….”turning up noses”

My kids love Thrive freeze dried fruits and veggies.  They eat them all the time.  The flavor is much stronger than the produce from the grocery store.  My kids actually call our freeze dried produce “candy,” and they enjoy eating most of it dry (and raw).  Some of their favorites are the bananas, corn, grapes, strawberries, peaches, peas, mangoes, raspberries, bell peppers, blueberries and pineapple.  They truly are “eating the rainbow!”

You can also learn more here about the Health of Thrive Foods and watch this video of my cute friend, Amber who has eaten truly fresh produce her entire life and yet loves Thrive produce:

 

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Freeze Dried produce is very foreign to many people.  It is as healthy as it claims to be?

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Becky is a wildlife enthusiast and pet and livestock care expert with a diploma in canine nutrition. With over a decade of experience in animal welfare, Becky lends her expertise to Simple Family Preparedness through insightful info about pets, livestock, bee keeping, and the practicalities of homesteading.

5 thoughts on “How Healthy is Freeze Dried Produce?”

  1. AWESOME post! I love love love that THRIVE Life is taking the time to do this research and help us find the healthiest options for our families.

    P.S. Did your new photographer take that photo of the pineapple, banana, and strawberry? It’s beautiful! Her work is amazing. 🙂

    Reply
    • Thanks Vanessa! And no, Angie didn’t take that photo (although she is talented enough to). That is from Thrive directly.

      Reply

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