Columnists
Food feud
Earlier this week, a Dalhousie University professor wrote an op-ed in The Globe and Mail that sparked a discussion on the fast-rising cost of food, and the unsatisfactory solutions consumers find to manage.
The report, based on a survey of 1,000Canadians, showed that a small percent-age of low-income consumers will opt for juice in place of fresh fruit or vegetables, while almost half of respondents said they have either purchased or considered buying frozen in place of fresh.
Dr. Sylvain Charlebois, who wrote the column and was a part of the study penned by Guelph and Dalhousie Universities, called the results alarming. In doing so, he likely alarmed a few Canadians.
“There are no substitutes for fresh produce,” he wrote.
While Charlebois is right in suggesting there is little nutritional value in juice when compared to fresh produce, his hubris in suggesting we can-not replace fresh produce at all, is problematic.
In fact, Charlebois is Dean of the Faculty of Management and professor of food distribution and policy in the faculty of agriculture at Dalhousie. While he is likely a very intelligent man, he is no dietitian and would do better sticking to management and food distribution.
A 2007 report from the University of California studied the nutritional loss of canned and frozen produce in comparison to fresh, and used past studies to compare their findings. The results suggested canning, and to a lesser extent freezing fruit and vegetables resulted in a minor loss of nutrients—although they noted the loss was “insignificant when compared with losses during storage and cooking of fresh produce.”
If you’re visiting the grocery store, you’ll find prices in the produce aisle have soared. In fact, since last year, vegetables are up more than 10 per cent. That’s partially because Canada relies heavily on imported produce, vulnerable to shifts in the volatile market.
But imported vegetables have a long way to travel. Before they arrive on grocery store shelves, they must be harvested, cleaned, processed, delivered to central depots, shipped to Canada and delivered to yet more depots, where they will eventually be sent to individual stores.
That process can take a week or two—maybe more. In that time, nutrition is also lost.
When we bake, fry and boil our vegetables, much of the nutrition is also broken down and lost.
Purchasing frozen vegetables because fresh one shave become unaffordable is not ideal. It is not a good sign when the average Canadian can’t afford fresh produce. But incorrectly discounting the nutritional value of frozen foods isn’t helpful.
It’s worth reminding Canadians that our poorest, and those living in far-flung regions have difficulty affording fresh food. Even in the County, foodbanks struggle to offer enough fruit and vegetables to their clients.
But while juice is not a solution, frozen food isn’t a bad one.
Comments (0)