We put a lot of packaged foods in our carts in supermarkets. They have words like nutritional’, healthy’ and fresh’ labeled on their packets. But are they? We become oblivious to the fact that they are not fresh and buy them because it is convenient. Today, most people are always in a hurry and lead busy lives. They do not have much time to cook. Hence, they go for processed and packaged food rather than meals cooked with fresh ingredients. Eating fresh food is a necessity to stay healthy. The benefits of eating fresh fruits and vegetables are far more than consuming them in the form of canned juices. To have a balanced diet, you must incorporate fresh vegetables, fruits and other fresh ingredients of high nutritional value in your diet. Eating fresh food is an important part of a healthy diet. The health benefits of fresh food are manifold.
Some of them can be summed as
Nutritional value
The locally grown vegetables and fruits are higher in nutritional value than those that are picked and made to sit for some time. Not that they are less nutritious, but over the time, the nutritional value starts diminishing because of various factors like exposure to air, temperature changes, artificial lights, etc. When the vegetables are picked, the vitamins in them start to deteriorate. The longer the food is made to sit, the more it loses its nutrients. They still provide you a lot of nutrients, but it is very less compared to the freshly picked vegetables. The produce loses its nutritional value over time. Hence they must be consumed as quick as they can.
Boosts the immune system
To keep the immune system functioning efficiency, we need all kinds of nutrients in our food. Deficiency in any nutrient may impair the immune system. Frozen food are deficient in nutrients because freezing decreases the vitamins and minerals in the food. Therefore, we need to eat fresh food to avoid the deficiency of nutrients. When we eat fresh food, the nutritional value is not lost, and these nutrients help in regulating our vascular functions, thus boosting up the immune system.
Hydration
Doctors and nutritionists advise us to drink sufficient amount of water per day to keep ourselves hydrated. Eating fresh food and vegetables is beneficial because they keep us hydrated. Fresh stock of fruits and vegetables have a high water content which is enough to keep you hydrated for a long time.
Protection from chemicals and preservatives
The canned, frozen and packaged food are enriched with preservatives and chemicals to increase their shelf life. Many artificial flavors and sugars are added to them and consuming them can create problems with the digestive system because the digestive system cannot digest the unknown chemicals easily. Most frozen foods have gluten added in them to increase the shelf life, which is harmful as it sticks to our intestine and decreases the rate of absorption of nutrients in our body. Therefore, we must avoid these foods and go for fresh food only. We must always give preference to nutrition before convenience. Having fresh foods can make up for the low amount of water, enzymes, and nutrients in our body. Therefore, we must include more and more fresh foods in our diet and minimize the consumption of packaged food.
