We all know how important it is to feed our children and ourselves fresh fruits and vegetables on a regular basis. We also know how hard that can be in our fast paced lives and with our sometimes picky children.

There are many baby and toddler food companies who sell freeze dried strawberries, bananas, and apples, and there are always lots of options for freeze dried veggies in the local natural food store. This seems much more convenient, however I was under the impression that once the “fresh” component of the food was removed, so were the vital nutrients.

When I’ve looked at the nutrition labels of some of these toddler snacks, almost every vitamin and mineral with the exception of Vitamin C has a 0% next to it.

But I just read an article in the Wall Street Journal showing the potential strawberries have to cure cancer, and they used freeze-dried strawberries in the study. In fact, the doctor who conducted the research said, “the freeze-dried substance [that fights cancer] is about 10 times as concentrated as fresh strawberries.”

How exciting! Now I can feed freeze-dried fruits and veggies to my son when I’m in need of a quick snack and don’t have anything fresh on hand, and I can feel really good about it.

Since he’s too young to eat popcorn (due to the choking risk) I recently bought him this dried corn from The Savory Spice Shop in Austin, TX, and he loved it!