Usually, I wash, peel, and cut my fruits and vegtables at night to bring with me to work in the morning. I'm wondering if all the nutrients have died by the time I am eating them for breakfast and lunch.

I don't really want to peel fruits at work. We don't have a kitchen and no way am I going to wash fruits in the bathroom and peel them at my desk. It just seems unsanitary.

I am probably going to start training soon and that means I will be away from home about 14 hours a day. I will be getting home late at night. I imagine I would be too tired to make a meal then. So I think I should consume all my food before I get home. I think I will probably start eating more fruit, because they are more simple to prepare than recipies. But I don't really want to start overloading on bananas.

Would it be bad if were to prepare, cut and peeled fruit and veggies for the whole day the night before? Would all the nutrients be dead?

Your biggest concern is probably oxidation. How much your food will oxidize depends on what specific fruits and veggies you're using, and how small you're cutting them. Oxidation is caused by exposure to air, and smaller pieces have more exposed sides on which to oxidize.

I would use your own perceptions as a guide. If your food seems fine, it probably is. Avocados oxidize very quickly, so I don't generally cut into an avocado until I'm ready to eat it. Other things, like apples, will oxidize noticeably overnight, but not as badly. It will help a lot if you toss your chopped apples with a little lemon juice.

It's all about the level of processing that YOU are comfortable with. For those eating high raw....and in your case....I imagine most cut veggies will keep just fine....and the level of oxidation & nutrient loss should be minimal if the stuff is kept cool and out of the sun.

-David Z. Mason

WWW.RawFoodFarm.com

Thanks guys! Frances, the oxidation and lemon juice thing...Does the lemon juice stop oxidation and/or nutrient loss, or is it more about the apples turning brown?
I will start cutting the the food into bigger pieces. Yay, less work for me!

It's about both. When apples turn brown that is oxidation... the lemon juice slows that process. Many foods turn brown when they oxidize. It's just like when metal rusts; the rust is oxidized metal.

The good news is that it's easy to tell when most foods are oxidizing, and that if you have chunks of apple you can see how the oxidation starts on the outside leaving most of the apple in good condition much longer.

If you make smoothies, the food gets chopped into teeny tiny pieces, so there's a lot more surface area for oxidation if the smoothie has air beaten into it or if the smoothie is exposed to the air. Because of this, it's more important to finish a smoothie quickly than it is with larger chunks of most foods.

Good to know. Thanks!