As we are in the heart of winter, I noticed I seem to be eating many more dried fruits as an alternative to buying out of season (and most likely shipped long distances) fruits. I started to wonder if the nutritional value was the same
As we are in the heart of winter, I noticed I seem to be eating many more dried fruits as an alternative to buying out of season (and most likely shipped long distances) fruits. I started to wonder if the nutritional value was the same? Better? Worse? Here is a little of what I discovered.
Dried fruit is fruit that has been dried, either naturally or through use of a machine, such as a food dehydrator. Raisins, prunes and dates are examples of popular dried fruits. Other fruits that may be dried include apples, apricots, bananas, cranberries, figs, kiwi, mangoes, peaches, pears, persimmons, pineapples, blueberries, strawberries and tomatoes. Historically, drying fruit was a way to preserve the food and to enjoy out of season fruits throughout the year.
But is dried fruit good for you? When you dry fruits, you lose more than just water. You also lose nutrients. For example, when it comes to berries, much of their health benefits is derived from their phytonutrients. Flavonoids like peonidin, petunidin, malvidin, and many others found in berries are susceptible to damage from heat, light, oxygen, and time-since-harvest. While some drying processes are harsher than others, no drying process can leave the phytonutrient content of these berries significantly unchanged. The drying process also destroys most of the vitamin C found in fresh fruit. However, other research suggests that dried fruit provides good nutritional benefits. Dried fruits are high in fiber. They are also rich in vitamins (A, B1, B2, B3, B6, pantothenic acid) and dietary minerals such as, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, copper, manganese.
Since fruits lose water (and therefore volume) during the drying process, their calorie and sugar content becomes concentrated once they are dried. A handful of dried fruit contains many more calories than the same amount of fresh fr