Mixed Vegetables
Food · Vegetable · Food, Typed Supps
Frozen mixed vegetables are picked and frozen fast, which is why they hold up better than they sound like they should.
Stage by stage
- Intake (Cell walls broken): Chewing ruptures softened plant cell walls, releasing carotenoids and starch.
- Digestion (Starch hydrolysed): Starch from corn and peas is digested; fibre passes through untouched.
- Absorption (Carotenoids with fat): Beta-carotene is absorbed only in the presence of dietary fat, along with folate and potassium.
- Colon (Fermentation): Fibre reaches the colon, where bacteria ferment it into short-chain fatty acids.
Time to effect
- Days: Fibre is fermented in the colon within a day; plasma carotenoid changes need weeks of regular intake.
Allergens
None of the fourteen major allergens. Derived from what this food is, not from a product label.
Eating patterns
Fits: Vegan, Vegetarian, Pescatarian, Halal, Kosher, Gluten-free. Depends on the product: Keto, Low-FODMAP.
Satiety
272 on the satiety index, where white bread is 100 — very high. Modelled from the Holt et al. (1995) measurements.
Environmental footprint
0.5 kg CO2e and 108 litres of freshwater per kg, matched to "Other vegetables" in Poore & Nemecek (2018), Science 360.
Cost band
Cheap — roughly £2.5 per kg, as a band midpoint rather than a price.
Key nutrients
Nutrition per 100g
- Calories: 45
- Protein: 1.8g
- Carbohydrate: 5.9g
- of which sugars: 2.7g
- Fat: 0.3g
- of which saturated: 0g
- Fibre: 5.9g
- Sodium: 25mg
Food vs. supplement
Beta-carotene from mixed vegetables is a case where the food clearly beats the pill: high-dose beta-carotene supplements increased lung cancer risk in smokers in two large trials, an effect never seen from carotenoid-rich vegetables. The fibre likewise does something a multivitamin cannot, since fermentation in the colon depends on the intact plant material rather than any isolated nutrient.
Kitchen tip
Cook them from frozen, not thawed, and use as little water as possible — steaming or a covered microwave beats boiling and draining by a clear margin on retained vitamins. Add a little butter or oil at the end: it is what makes the carotene in the carrot absorbable, and without any fat much of it passes straight through.
Common myth
“Frozen vegetables are nutritionally inferior to fresh.” In reality: They are frozen within hours of harvest, while fresh produce loses water-soluble vitamins throughout transport and storage. On vitamin C, frozen often measures higher than supermarket fresh by the time it is eaten. What genuinely costs nutrients is boiling hard and pouring the water away.
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