We are starting to learn that fruits and vegetables can prevent disease and in some cases can even reverse the damage done by years of neglect. Statistics and research has ample information on the vitamins and minerals available in fruits and vegetables.
What most people don’t realize is that produce starts to lose its health benefits shortly after being picked. Today’s method of picking vegetables green and spraying them with a chemical (actually, a poison) that preserves them and ripens the produce in transport means that most vegetables in the produce isles do not have a chance to reach their peak.
This is done to oranges. They are picked green and then a hose is stuck in the trucks. A chemical is sprayed in that turns them orange. They are not ‘really’ ripe – just orange.
Some produce is grown hydroponically. The process grows the vegetables in a chemical solution that ‘forces’ them to grow faster and larger. You can often taste the difference.
Foreign grown produce can take weeks to reach the store shelves.
Canned and Frozen produce is often processed shortly after picking. They do lose value. But, they are closest to fresh fruits. Canned fruit is picked when ripe. Fresh produce is picked far too early.
“Other plant vitamins can also be affected by premature picking. Researchers in Spain conducted an in-depth investigation of cherries ripening and found 14 different stages, during which the fruit turned from green to red.9 They concluded that for maximum nutrition, cherries should be picked at stage 12, way beyond the stage at which they’re harvested green by commercial growers. To illustrate how important the ripening process is, if cherries are picked at stage 8, their vitamin C content is half the amount it is if they’re picked at stage 14.9 Similarly, researchers at Oregon State University who studied blackberries discovered that green ones contain 74 mg of anthocyanins, compared to 317 mg in ripe ones (per 100 grams fresh weight).3 The same phenomenon occurs in other fruits as well. http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2005/sep2005_report_veggies_01.htm
Drying fruit destroys most vitamin C in the fruit. Commercially dried fruit hast sulfur dioxide added to preserve color and nutritional value. However, foreign fruits have toxins and pesticides sprayed that can actually be poisons.
“Type of container: In cans, which are not used very much today, it was found that enamel-lined cans had higher losses of vitamin C than plain tin cans. This was due to residual oxygen and vitamin C reacting with the tin. Glass packed orange juice provides poor retention of vitamin C, losing 10% after 4 months of storage. Older cardboard cartons lost up to 20%. (Today, most cartons have specially designed multi-layered oxygen and light barriers to protect both loss of vitamin C, flavor, and to enhance shelf-life.) FCOJ packed in foil-lined cardboard cans retained greater than 90% of their vitamin C after 12 months at -20°C.
“Handling and storage: Oxygen is the most destructive ingredient in juice causing degradation of vitamin C. However, one of the major sugars found in orange juice, fructose, can also cause vitamin C breakdown. The higher the fructose content, the greater the loss of vitamin C. Conversely, higher acid levels of citric and malic acids stabilize vitamin C. Orange juice must be stored at proper cool temperatures with oxygen barriers for best retention of vitamin C levels. When fresh citrus is stored at 38°F for 12 weeks, there was no loss of vitamin C, but when stored at high temperatures, the loss was great.” http://www.ultimatecitrus.com/vitaminc.html
http://www.weightwatchers.ca/util/art/index_art.aspx?tabnum=1&art_id=11441
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