The government recommends five portions a day

"Out-of-season" fresh vegetables may contain higher levels of potentially harmful nitrates than frozen vegetables.

Although there is no solid evidence linking nitrates to health problems, some experts believe that consumption of nitrates, which can be converted into nitrites in the body, should be limited.

According to researchers, some fresh vegetables were found to have more than seven times higher nitrate levels than frozen vegetables.

Additionally, researchers say that fresh vegetables that have been imported during the winter months also have fewer nutrients.

Vegetables start to lose nutritional value as soon as they are harvested. The study showed that fresh vegetables such as broccoli lost so many of their nutrients while being imported that they ended up being less nutritious than frozen vegetables.

The UK government recommends consuming five portions of fruit or vegetables each day as a way of lowering risks of cancer, coronary heart disease and stroke.

According to the Food Standards Agency, it does not matter whether the vegetables are fresh or frozen, however they noted that nutrients degrade as food is stored, so fresher vegetables are better.

BBC News March 31, 2003

Dr. Mercola's Comments:

It is absurd to believe that a whole food that has been processed, and in this case frozen, could ever be better than fresh. These types of stories are very damaging to the health of the public who are already looking for any excuse to even further compromise the quality of their food. This is the same public that already spends 90 percent of their food money on processed foods. Stories like this will encourage even further degradation of their already compromised food supply. There is no question that a scenario could be devised where a specific frozen vegetable will be healthier than fresh, but the central issue is that the same vegetable that was frozen is, without any question, far healthier if it is eaten fresh. Freezing or cooking vegetables will damage the highly perishable micronutrients that aren’t even recognized, let alone measured, by food scientists. Biophotons are one type of these micronutrients. The concern that fresh vegetables have higher concentrations of potentially dangerous nitrates than frozen ones is related to one major factor-- applications of nitrate fertilizers. It is heavy applications of nitrate fertilizers that allow nitrates to accumulate in vegetables in the first place. So if you consume organic vegetables then this is not likely to be an issue. Related Articles: McDonald's & Biophoton Deficiency Raw Eggs for Your Health -- Major Update