I am trying to improve my eating habits and avoid eating too many proceesed foods. I have been experimenting make different sauces and soups with lots of fresh vegstables and lentels, beans etc with a low GI count. If I freeze the sauces and soups for reheating at a later date will this degrade the nutritional value?
I had similar questions and as far as I remember, the main loss of nutrients from frozen food is through leaching out water soluble vitamins from the food when it is blanched (boiled) prior to freezing.
This does not affect the freezing of foods such as sauces and soups as you are retaining the full amount when you freeze the item rather than draining off water and then freezing.
The major change to food when you freeze it is in texture and consistency which occurs due to the changes in structure when freezing occurs. This means that although the nutrient is not lost, the distribution of them within the item changes giving it the ‘frozen taste’.
What this ultimately means is that you don’t lose anything by freezing items. You may lose a bit of taste with vegetables and fruits, but this shouldn’t occur too much with sauces or soups.
Even if the foods do lose a bit of nutritional value; you’re way ahead by eating the reheated healthy sauce rather than processed foods. Good job on trying to cut the yucky processed stuff out, fresh and homemade tastes SO much better!
One of the best things I’ve done food wise, is to start a food exchnge club. I got a few friends and every other Sunday we would each make a big batch of something (hearty soup, enchiladas, pasta, whatever) divey it up into smaller containers then get together and exchange meals. I’d end up with at least three different meals, most of which I could freeze. It was great to come home after a workout and have something yummy, nutritious and ready to go.