I always eat whatever thing in the fridge is closest to spoiled to ensure I waste nothing. And it’s a race because food is often already on the edge when I bring it home, to prevent waste and also save money (as it gets marked down because of the age).
I found out a friend does the opposite. She eats the freshest veg she has because she says vitimins deplete as the veg ages. She wants to maximise her nutrition.
Is freshness really significant for vitamins? Someone in my family does the same thing. Always eats the freshest food. And as a consequence she is frequently tossing food that lost the competition to be eaten early.
Not exactly sure what this implies. I buy edgy food which was slow to move off the shelf so the price gets cut down in order to make it move. It’s cheap¹ and mitigates food waste outside my house. If by smart shopping you mean to buy the freshest food, well then that would prioritise nutrition over rescuing local food from waste. Which is smart is not obvious to me.
My kitchen becomes like a ER triage to eat food before it spoils. And sometimes I have to do surgery and make sculptures. That is, carving decayed parts out of partially ruined food. It’s food in its least nutritional state, but there is still something to be said for training your immune system.
Leftovers the next day risks giving you more of the same nutrition you still have traversing your body from the previous meal. So I deliberately skip a day or two on leftovers to ensure the nutrients are replenished when they are needed more (which is after they left the system). Leftovers are also less urgent because the cooking kills the baddies and enables the spoilage clock to be reset.
¹ Since the edgy food is generally ½-off, it’s fair to say I can buy twice as much for the same price. I don’t really know if that more or less than compensates for the age-induced decline of vitamins.