I pan on becoming a raw vegan on January 1, 2014. Before I go grocery shopping I was wondering if Frozen Fruits considered raw?

Quote:

Originally Posted by River 


Yes it is okay to eat then on raw.

The fast they're frozen the better. Frozen vegetables are actually often more nutritious than fresh. Frozen tend to be picked at the peak of ripeness and flash frozen, essentiall locking in all the nutrients. Fresh which are not local are picked before they are ripe, causing a stop point for nutrients and vitamins, often travelling a long way and getting bruised , etc.

So frozen are often more nutritious than fresh unless the fresh is local.

Thank you so much, is this the same with frozen vegetables?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Veggie3112 
 

Thank you so much, is this the same with frozen vegetables?

Yes.  It's the same with fruits and vegetables.

Don't worry about cell walls breaking- that's only a concern for human tissue transplants (like, if you're getting a donor organ). ;)

Everything gets obliterated in your stomach anyway :)  The same happens in a powerful blender too.

The main concern with raw foods is preventing the carcinogenic damage done in high temperature cooking.  Damage from low temperatures is pretty much just structural on a larger scale, not really molecular in the sense that raw food dietary principles are concerned with- it doesn't produce carcinogens or degrade nutritional content.

I'm not 100% sure about this, but I think that, while fruits are not blanched in boiling water before being frozen, vegetables are. Blanching- boiling vegetables briefly and then cooling them in cold water to prevent them from cooking further- is done to inactivate the enzymes which would slowly cause the frozen vegetables to lose quality during frozen storage. I don't know that much about raw food, but I suppose this brief, partial heating before freezing would mean they're no longer raw?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tom 
 

I'm not 100% sure about this, but I think that, while fruits are not blanched in boiling water before being frozen, vegetables are. Blanching- boiling vegetables briefly and then cooling them in cold water to prevent them from cooking further- is done to inactivate the enzymes which would slowly cause the frozen vegetables to lose quality during frozen storage. I don't know that much about raw food, but I suppose this brief, partial heating before freezing would mean they're no longer raw?

I don't think fruits are ever blanched.  Not all vegetables are, but the exposure is very brief (mainly it cleans them and kills bacteria, and as you said reduces enzyme activity for storage).

Personally, I consider frozen vegetables to still be raw for nutritional purposes.  The exposure is a low temperature and it's very brief- too small to cause the negative damages and nutrient loss ascribed to more lengthy heating (cooking proper).

If you practice raw foodism for spiritual reasons, maybe this would count as not raw?

I don't know.

In my book they're raw.  YMMV

Same thing with nuts, which have had steam used to deshell them, if you bite them in half you can see a really small area around the outside that's ever so slightly different color.

I still call them raw.

I hope nobody attacks me for that, it might be a controversial view here?

There is an older thread on frozen fruit: https://www.veggieboards.com/t/110750/are-frozen-fruits-blanched.

Personally I believe most are probably blanched, but if you want to be sure you need to contact the company. I buy organic fruit when it's on special and freeze it to make sure it's really raw.

When it comes to nuts I buy unpasteurized nuts. Although other nuts might seem 'raw'. they've been heated to a high temperature which means it would have killed some or all of the enzymes and vitamins. I wish it would say when you buy them, but as always you always need to do your own research.