Keeping Your Food Fresh And Filled With Nutrients

We all love food, but what do you do with your food when you get full?
Do you throw it away or keep the remains for leftovers? And then there’s tupperware versus aluminum and all that. How do you know what helps keep your food fresh?
One FitPerez reader is looking for the answer to these questions and wrote Margaux J. Rathbun, asking:

Hi Margaux!
I love watching your nutrition videos and I have recently been making the recipes you’ve showed us how to prepare. I had a question for you about food storage. Is there a special way to package food (like in Tupperware containers or bottles) to help keep all of the healthy nutrients fresh? Is there a wrong way to store food? Any tips would be appreciated. Thanks and keep up the healthy and delicious work!

According to Margaux:

Thanks for your question. Yes, there are absolutely right and wrong ways to store fresh foods to ensure that the nutrients stay in tact. Generally, the longer you keep produce around, the more nutrients are lost.
For example, grapes have been shown to lose about 1/3 of their B vitamins if left out for long periods of time. Tangerines have also been shown to lose a lot of their vitamin C when they sit out on the counter for awhile. Freezing meat can destroy up to 50 percent of it’s thiamin and riboflavin content, so fresh meat is best. When it comes to storing your veggies and fruits, separate fruits that ripen quickly from root veggies and leafy greens. Root veggies do best stored somewhere cool, dark, and moist. Leafy greens do well when stored in high humidity, and fresh fruits and veggies retain the most nutrients when stored in a cold environment. Just make sure your fridge isn’t so cold that it freezes the food inside.
If possible, buy your fresh veggies and fruits about two days before you plan to eat them. This means that you have to buy less at the store and the nutrients in your food will be in perfect form. If you are storing your food in plastic containers, be sure they are BPA-free. I love using glass containers and jars as a way to store my food. It’s good for you and good for the environment.
Hope these tips help you out!

For more nutrition tips, be sure to visit Margaux at her website, follow her on twitter @MargauxRathbun and, as always, write us at [email protected]!