Frozen vegetables are easy to prepare and store, and they trail fresh produce little in nutritional value. For households that often throw out unused vegetables from the refrigerator, frozen products can be a practical alternative. Below are the frozen vegetables that dietitians in Korea and abroad have singled out as helpful for blood sugar control.
The American Diabetes Association has said frozen and canned vegetables are as nutritious as fresh ones, according to medical sources on the 2nd. The group cites two reasons: frozen and canned products are harvested at peak ripeness, and the freezing or canning process slows the loss of nutrients, preserving nutritional value.
Fresh vegetables, by contrast, can lose nutritional value as they move through harvesting, packaging, shipping and store display. The ADA recommends choosing frozen or canned products for those who frequently discard spoiled fresh vegetables or find them hard to obtain because of price.
The association's meal guideline calls for filling half the plate with non-starchy vegetables, and it makes no difference whether those vegetables are fresh or frozen. The Korean Diabetes Association similarly advises planning meals to include ample vegetables, since most are low in calories and high in dietary fiber.
Stir-fry vegetable mixes contain mushrooms, onions and bell peppers together, allowing several vegetables in a single bag. Lenora Batamaniuk, a Canadian dietitian, said the mixes are low in carbohydrates and high in fiber, making them a good choice for blood sugar management.
Adding chicken, shrimp or lean meat turns the mix into a full meal. One cup of cooked frozen Brussels sprouts contains about 6 grams of dietary fiber and also supplies vitamins C and K and folate. Annette Snyder, a U.S. dietitian, recommended roasting them until crisp or slicing them thin for salads rather than boiling.
Broccoli makes the list because of sulforaphane, a compound found in cruciferous vegetables. In a paper published in the journal Science Translational Medicine in 2017, researchers at Lund University in Sweden found that sulforaphane suppressed glucose production in liver cells and reduced expression of a key enzyme involved in gluconeogenesis.
In a 12-week randomized, placebo-controlled trial of 97 obese patients with type 2 diabetes, fasting blood glucose fell significantly compared with the control group. The trial used a concentrated broccoli sprout extract, however, so the results cannot be equated with the effect of eating frozen broccoli. For frozen broccoli, roasting for about 30 minutes without oil to drive off moisture, then adding oil and seasoning and cooking 10 minutes more, produces a crisp surface.
The population that needs to watch blood sugar keeps growing. According to the Korean Diabetes Association's Diabetes Fact Sheet 2024, 5.33 million people, or 14.8% of adults aged 30 and over, had diabetes as of 2022. The prevalence of prediabetes was 41.4%, or an estimated 14 million people, bringing the combined total close to 20 million.
Yet the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency's 2023 National Health Statistics showed that only 22.1% of people aged 6 and over ate 500 grams or more of vegetables and fruit a day. That domestic threshold was set by adding roughly 100 grams of daily kimchi intake and other items to the World Health Organization's recommendation of 400 grams.
What acts on blood sugar is the vegetables themselves, not the fact that they are frozen. Frozen products are closer to a means of securing fiber-rich vegetables in daily life. Selection still matters. The ADA recommends choosing products with no added sauce or salt. Lena Bakovic, a U.S. dietitian, also advised checking nutrition labels and ingredient lists, noting that some products have added sugar, fat and sodium.
