Broccoli Nutrition

Joseph

Hi I was just wondering why the broccoli protein percentage varies between raw, cooked from fresh and cooked from frozen. I notice the difference between fresh and frozen is 10%. Is this accurate?

Karen_Cronometer

I was off the mark there. Sorry about that!

The carbs, protein and fats differ a bit between fresh and frozen broccoli, according to the analysis. A lower proportion of fat and carbohydrate in the frozen broccoli means more calories must be coming from protein.These small differences translate to a bigger change in the % of energy coming from the macros because this a pretty low calorie food - does that make more sense?

I also encourage you to check out Food Data Central if you aren't sure about the accuracy of the nutrition data we have: https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/

Karen_Cronometer

Hi Joseph,

What serving sizes are you comparing? That can make a big difference in how the nutrient values between foods stack up.

Here's a comparison of all three with a 100g serving size, the difference in protein is not large:

These values come from NCCDB - one of our lab analyzed sources.

Best,

Joseph

With any serving size Because the percentage did protein calories remains the same. Every foods calories is broken down between carbs, protein and fat by percentage on the app. Below is a picture of frozen broccoli compared to fresh when cooked and I have highlighted the stat I’m comparing.

Karen_Cronometer

I see - thanks for the screenshots

I think the frozen broccoli is softer after freezing and cooking so more can be packed into a 1 cup measure, compared with fresh cooked broccoli.

1 cup of broccoli cooked from fresh is 156 g
1 cup of broccoli cooked from frozen is 184 g

Because this is a bigger serving weight, the nutrient values are higher. The bigger serving means you are getting more calories from protein in the frozen broccoli than the fresh broccoli.

Joseph

I don’t think that is it because the protein percentage does not change when measurements are changed. For example 4 calories coming from protein of a 10 calorie total would be 40%. The same food, eating double the amount would be 8 calories from protein of a 20 calorie total also being 40% which is why it does not change in the app either.

robartsd

I agree with Joseph on this one. Even Karen's post shows that per 100g, the cooked from frozen has the most protein.

It could be that broccoli proteins start diminishing very quickly and freezing close to harvest is preserving the protein while the raw and cooked from fresh broccoli has aged a few weeks since harvest. Or higher protein portions of the broccoli harvest are more likely to be selected for processing into frozen broccoli.I imagine that there is also variation from crop to crop, but would hope that the NCCDB data would adequately control for such variation.