Speaker 1: Welcome to Healthy Ish. Thanks for joining us on the
Speaker 1: daily podcast from body and Soul. I hope you are
Speaker 1: feeling healthy and also living the ish. I am your
Speaker 1: host of Felicity Harley. The cost of living is no
Speaker 1: doubt hurting most of us, especially as we hurtle towards
Speaker 1: Christmas and the festive season. It seems to cost a
Speaker 1: bit more to live. So one way we can save
Speaker 1: money is with frozen food. Oh well that's what the
Speaker 1: experts tell us, so is it actually healthy? I'm joined
Speaker 1: today by nutrition and public health expert Louise Rubik. She
Speaker 1: is a Senior Learning Facilitator of Nutrition at Torrens University, Australia,
Speaker 1: and she shares her advice around using frozen food as
Speaker 1: a replacement for fresh food. Now make sure you're listening
Speaker 1: to our sister podcast, Extra Healthy Ish, where Louise gives
Speaker 1: a rundown of the essential vitamins every woman, no matter
Speaker 1: what life stage, needs to be eating. You can grab
Speaker 1: that episode wherever you get your podcasts. Louise, thanks for
Speaker 1: joining us on healthy Is today. How are you healthish?
Speaker 1: I hope yes, indeed, Thanks Felicity really glad to be
Speaker 1: here with you. Now, this is an interesting topic because
Speaker 1: frozen food is it healthy? I mean, we've got the
Speaker 1: cost of living crisis. We all know that when we
Speaker 1: look at our bank accounts and our budgets and so
Speaker 1: much wisdoms out there encouraging us to buy and try
Speaker 1: frozen over fresh. So what are the benefits of eating frozen, Well, there's.
Speaker 2: Lots of different benefits of frozen foods that people may
Speaker 2: not have considered aside from the cost. Obviously that's a
Speaker 2: really big challenge for people at the moment. But a
Speaker 2: lot of people don't think that frozen foods are necessarily.
Speaker 3: As healthy as fresh.
Speaker 2: We're always told to eat fresh foods where possible, but
Speaker 2: the nutritional value in frozen foods is still just as
Speaker 2: comparable as you would with fresh food, And particularly when
Speaker 2: you think about it, sometimes you've got great intentions of
Speaker 2: buying fresh food and might sit in the rotter as.
Speaker 3: We might call it, in the bottom of the fridge.
Speaker 2: And you'll actually lose a lot of nutrient values, particularly
Speaker 2: some of those water soluble vitamins like vitamin C, some
Speaker 2: of the big group vitamins.
Speaker 3: They're lost within about twenty four hours.
Speaker 2: Frozen foods can actually be picked and frozen at the site,
Speaker 2: so they kind of lock in the nutrients. It does matter, though,
Speaker 2: how you cook them. So if you then just throw
Speaker 2: your frozen food straight into a pot of boiling water,
Speaker 2: you're still likely to lose a lot of those water
Speaker 2: soluble nutrients and they'll just get thrown down the sea.
Speaker 1: Interesting. That's actually a really important point because I'm sure
Speaker 1: people come home late throw the frozen vegetables straight in
Speaker 1: the pot of boiling water, and they think, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm just getting as much nutrients as I would be
Speaker 1: if I cut a carrot put it in.
Speaker 3: That's right. So it is cost effective and it's convenient
Speaker 3: for the fact.
Speaker 2: That it's also something that is already pre cut, which
Speaker 2: is really handy, and you know, obviously in smaller portions
Speaker 2: that might be really easy when you're cooking for a
Speaker 2: family or even if you want something smaller. So in
Speaker 2: that sense, it's also helping to reduce food waste as well,
Speaker 2: which is really important because a lot of people don't
Speaker 2: have the facilities to do composting or anything like that,
Speaker 2: and we're really trying to minimize how much fresh food
Speaker 2: waste goes into.
Speaker 3: Our red bins.
Speaker 2: But the availability is there and That's the other great
Speaker 2: thing about frozen foods is there can be available all
Speaker 2: year round, although we like to encourage people to eat seasonally,
Speaker 2: so you're still eating within the seasons and with whatever
Speaker 2: produce might be normally available for you throughout the spring
Speaker 2: or throughout the summer, et cetera. We don't always have
Speaker 2: the availability or accessibility to go to, say up a
Speaker 2: great farmer's market, for instance, where you would be getting
Speaker 2: really nice, fresh, freshly picked, in seasoned vegetables.
Speaker 3: So frozen gives you a really good opportunity to do that.
Speaker 1: Are you talking specifically about veggies and fruits, What about
Speaker 1: other frozen foods like the fish and the things like that.
Speaker 1: What's your take on that.
Speaker 2: So proteins can do freeze quite well, and again that
Speaker 2: would bring much more accessible nutrition if we're talking about fish,
Speaker 2: for instance, with all the lovely amiga threes that that contains,
Speaker 2: and the extra zinc and some of the b twelves
Speaker 2: that you would get in those sorts of proteins. That
Speaker 2: also makes it really accessible for people to get frozen
Speaker 2: as opposed to fresh, where again that may not be
Speaker 2: as accessible and even the cost of buying fresh food
Speaker 2: or fresh fish and meat might also be quite challenging
Speaker 2: as well, and it means that you can portion it
Speaker 2: up a lot easier freeze it for another day. Fresh
Speaker 2: fish doesn't last very long. You will really have to
Speaker 2: cook it on the day that you buy it, or
Speaker 2: at least within twenty four hours. So buying frozen is
Speaker 2: a really good, viable option, and it's quite safe in
Speaker 2: the freezer. The only issue is when it comes to
Speaker 2: preparing it and defrosting it. You have to be very
Speaker 2: very mindful to defrost in the fridge, preferably not on
Speaker 2: the kitchen bench, because the uneven defrosting of the food
Speaker 2: can actually harbor or promote an environment that might harbor bacteria.
Speaker 2: You can really only cook food from a completely defrosted
Speaker 2: state so that it cooks really evenly and you lose
Speaker 2: any possibility of bacteria.
Speaker 1: I think this is a great reminder that the freezer
Speaker 1: is there. It's there. Cook double the I mean, double
Speaker 1: the portion size, batch it off, freeze it. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's a great way to instead of I don't know.
Speaker 1: Sometimes in our household, leftovers get stuffed in the fridge
Speaker 1: and then four days later everyone's like, oh, when was
Speaker 1: this cooked? Can I eat this now, No I've frozen it.
Speaker 2: No, yes, yeah, let it cool to an extent, but
Speaker 2: then freeze it as soon as practical. And if you
Speaker 2: can freeze fresh vegetables that you've brought home, you just
Speaker 2: need to put them in a single layer and then
Speaker 2: freeze them. You can do the same with berries and
Speaker 2: things like that, but with leftovers with food, perfect to
Speaker 2: be able to freeze them up into smaller portions, because
Speaker 2: again we're saving food waste, and you're also making it
Speaker 2: really inconvenient for the week to des Grab a nice
Speaker 2: little portion of a meal out of the fridge and
Speaker 2: just make sure it's effectively defrosted and then heat it
Speaker 2: appropriately to make sure that it's safe to eat.
Speaker 1: Any other tips or advice, I mean, we're going into Christmas,
Speaker 1: many of us looking at our budgets. You know, suddenly
Speaker 1: we spend more money around this time. Give us some
Speaker 1: tips on how we can save money on our weekly
Speaker 1: grocery bill, which we also spend more money on at Christmas,
Speaker 1: oh don't we.
Speaker 2: And this is where planning ahead can be really important.
Speaker 2: So you could buy frozen vegetables in advance, or you
Speaker 2: could even spend some time leading up to Christmas with
Speaker 2: preparing fruits and vegetables, cutting them up, freezing them in
Speaker 2: that way, foods can also be partially cooked and then
Speaker 2: frozen too, and that also saves you a lot of
Speaker 2: time on Christmas Day or for those Christmas events when
Speaker 2: you you can then pull out sort of par cooked foods,
Speaker 2: again making sure they're defrosted properly before they're cooked. But
Speaker 2: it's not a good idea to defrost foods and then
Speaker 2: refreeze them either, that's not advisable at all.
Speaker 3: But of planning and saving time, that's where.
Speaker 2: The freezer is a really very very helpful tool to
Speaker 2: have in the kitchen.
Speaker 1: Great tips, Louise, Thanks for coming on Healthy Ishn't can
Speaker 1: I say Happy Christmas? I feel like we just talked
Speaker 1: about it. It's not that far away. Have a great
Speaker 1: Christmas period.
Speaker 3: Thank you very much, Felicity.
Speaker 1: Well, thank you listeners for tuning in to this episode
Speaker 1: with Louise and I hope it was a nice and
Speaker 1: sweet reminder to use your freezer to not only save money,
Speaker 1: but save you time and stress and encourage you to
Speaker 1: eat healthier anyway. Thanks for tuning in. Body and soul
Speaker 1: dot com that are us a place to go follow
Speaker 1: US on socials. You can DM me at Felicity Harley
Speaker 1: with any feedback. Grab our print edition, which is out
Speaker 1: in your local Sunday paper, and until tomorrow, stay healthy
Speaker 1: ish