Is processed food less nutritious than raw food?
While fresh apples and crisp green salads are a delight to eat, the idea that all raw foods are implicitly healthier than processed food is not so. Food which is canned, dried, frozen or cooked is not necessarily lower in nutritional value. In fact these processes help to extend shelf life, make food safer and in some cases can actually improve its nutritional quality. For example, the beta-carotene in canned carrots is more available to the body than that fresh ones and fresh peas, which have been harvested and frozen immediately, have more vitamin C than peas that have been stored at room temperature for a few days before consumption.
