Not all frozen foods are beneficial to your health: experts explain which ones to choose!

With 2 million tonnes consumed per year, frozen foods have established themselves in the daily consumption of the French. Practical to store and quick to prepare, they are also good for your health, provided you choose them carefully. Indeed, faced with the large frozen food aisles, it is important to pay attention to the small details that make all the difference. Doctors and nutritionists have shared their advice on the subject. Here’s what you need to remember.

Contrary to popular belief, frozen foods are not bad for your health. They are sometimes better than certain fresh foods, as explained by Doctor Pascal Goncalves (aka Dr Food) in an interview given to Le Parisien : “It would even be better to eat frozen vegetables rather than fresh vegetables that have been sitting in the refrigerator for a week and have therefore lost some of their nutrients. And as it is not easy to have fresh vegetables available every day, frozen foods are a good alternative to increase your daily consumption of plant products, guaranteeing a healthy and balanced diet”.

Nevertheless, the specialist affirms: “Not all frozen foods are beneficial to your health.”

There are several types of frozen foods such as raw foods or even prepared meals. The best is obviously to turn to the first option, since raw foods have the advantage of retaining all their nutritional qualities thanks to the cold: “Only those containing exclusively raw vegetables (100% spinach, 100% peas, etc.) are recommended. I do not recommend creamed spinach or frozen Mediterranean pans, for example, as they are full of additives (stabilizers, thickeners, etc.) which are best avoided.” says the doctor.

For their part, prepared meals should only be eaten occasionally. The problem does not come from the freezing process but from the recipe for the preparation, as nutritionist Raphaël Gruman points out. on Top Health : “Meat, for example, is relatively expensive. So manufacturers will tend to rely on sauces to weigh down the dish”. Result ? This type of product is generally too sweet, too fatty or even too salty.

This is why, in order to differentiate between frozen foods, it is essential to check the composition, as Dr Pascal Goncalves explains: “You have to scrutinize the labels to check for the presence of salt, added sugar or industrial “cosmetic” additives.”

The best is to always choose a product with the shortest possible list of ingredients that is easy to understand: “I therefore recommend choosing the simplest recipes: raw green beans for example and not a cooked dish, such as ratatouille or a small salted lentil, likely to contain flavorings, modified starches, preservatives, syrup glucose… A canned ratatouille is most often an ultra-processed industrial food: it cannot therefore replace a portion of fresh vegetables.”