Dried Fruits: What Are Their Benefits?

The phrase “more than meets the eye” has never been truer than when it comes to dried fruits. Shrunken, shelf-stable versions of your favourite fruits can be both a blessing and a curse, depending on your thoughts. After all, dried fruit is still fruit and contains almost all the nutrients and calories of the version that came from the tree.

While eating whole fruits has many benefits, especially regarding satiety, they also apply to their dried counterparts. By simply extracting the water from the fruit, you now have the perfect on-the-go snack that will satisfy your sweet tooth craving while providing many health benefits. But are all types of dried fruit really healthy?

There are some key elements in choosing the types of dried fruit you eat, especially regarding the ingredient list. In order to fully understand the health benefits of consuming dried fruits, we have written this article and focused a part on weight loss and key factors that will benefit your health if you consume dried fruits regularly.

What Are Dried Fruits?

We are always told to eat more fresh fruits and vegetables daily. Everywhere you look, there is evidence of the nutritional value of plant-based foods. However, good things can be challenging, and fresh fruit certainly falls into that category.

Depending on where you live and your lifestyle, buying, transporting, storing and preparing fruit can sometimes seem more complicated than it is. Ask anyone who’s ever hiked with a bouncing banana in the bottom of their backpack. Despite their nutritional value, the fruit may seem more inconvenient than essential.

Fortunately, it turns out that dehydrating fruit can solve many problems. Properly dehydrated fruit can be stored for much longer periods and at much more varied temperatures than fresh fruit. They can also be cheaper to buy, as they are much cheaper to transport and store.

Many types of fruit can be dried effectively, although some do better than others. Apricots, cranberries, bananas, blueberries, and raisins are some of the most popular fruits that respond well to drying. Nuts or oilseeds such as almonds, hazelnuts, seeds and other shelled fruits can, to some extent, be considered dried fruits. Unlike dried fruits, they are much richer in fatty acids but are nonetheless nutritious.

Why Eat Nuts?

There are many reasons to rejoice in the nutritional benefits of dried fruits. Whether dried or fresh, getting the right amount of fruit in your diet can have positive effects on your overall well-being by helping to regulate blood pressure, control cholesterol, and provide you with antioxidants and essential nutrients like potassium and calcium.

The most important thing to remember is that, much like the nutritional punch, the sugar content of dried fruit remains largely unchanged. This is why it is very important to control the size of your portions. Eating too many dried fruits may be the point where a healthy snack becomes unhealthy. So be content with a few grams a day. And why not 20 gr?

Although you might overdo it, there are plenty of reasons to consider incorporating dried fruit into your diet. The range of vitamins and minerals available in fruits is vast. Although not all fruits contain all of these elements, wide varieties of fruit contain amounts of the following essential nutrients:

• vitamin A
• vitamin K
• antioxidants
• antioxidants
• potassium
• calcium
• magnesium

It will help you meet daily nutrient quotas.

It can be quite difficult to meet daily nutrient quotas naturally, which is one of the main reasons people take vitamins or other supplements daily. Dried fruits can serve as a natural supplement, fulfilling daily quotas, especially potassium. Many dried fruits are good sources of potassium, which many of us don’t get enough of on a daily basis. Potassium plays an important role in muscle contractions, preventing water retention, maintaining blood pressure levels and regulating nerve signals.

Dried Fruits for All Diets

Although dried fruits aren’t particularly helpful for low-carb diets like the ketogenic diet, they may be beneficial for those looking for a snack on other diets. Gluten-free, vegetarian, vegan, paleo, and Whole30 diets allow dried fruit consumption.

Which Dried Fruit Is The Best?

There may not be a single nut that is absolutely the healthiest. Still, there are several varieties that pack a big nutritional punch. Dates are a strong contender for the healthiest dry fruit, with high levels of iron, fibre, potassium, antioxidants, etc. Dates are also low on the glycemic index, so they don’t usually contribute to a blood sugar spike.

Which Dried Fruits For Weight Loss?

Dried fruits may have both benefits and dangers for people who have undergone bariatric surgery or a weight loss procedure to help them achieve a healthy weight. The reduced size of dried fruits seems to be a natural benefit for those whose stomach size has been reduced. This high nutrient density can also be part of the challenge. Your body will still need the right nutrients after your available stomach size has been reduced, and the caloric density of tiny dried fruits can help with that. However, the higher caloric density, especially that of sugar, can allow you to bypass the lower calorie barrier established by your smaller stomach to help you lose weight.

In addition, the laxative effects of excessive consumption of dried fruits such as apricots or prunes can lead to dangerous dehydration. With a smaller stomach, it’s already harder to get enough liquid in your diet after a weight loss procedure. Losing excess water in your stool can put you in a precarious position.

One of the most important things to remember regarding weight loss is that small changes can make big differences over time. If you’re counting calories and watching your carbs, keeping a close eye on your dried fruit portion control can be very important. This is one of the reasons why having the right people on your team is crucial when looking to shed excess weight.

If you are constantly struggling with obesity, the help of a nutritionist, or even more comprehensive medical advice, maybe the next step in helping you understand how nuts, and everything you eat, affect your health. Whether or not you are a candidate for a weight loss procedure, understanding how your diet and lifestyle affect your weight and what you can do to make changes will help you find your way to freedom. Live at a healthy weight for your body. 

Do Dried Fruits Replace Sugar?

They satisfy your sweet tooth. Fruit is naturally sweet, which means dried fruit will retain some of that sweet taste as well. Eating dried fruit instead of another sweet alternative, such as candy, can be helpful for someone trying to lose weight but still craving something sweet at the end of the day. Relying on an ice cream bar with dried fruit can be very helpful because you still get that sweet taste. Unfortunately, many nut brands sneak in additives that aren’t exactly good for you, like added sugars or sulphites.

Conclusion

Dried fruits are packed with nutrients, including fibre. The first and probably the most alluring benefit of eating organic dried fruit is the presence of all these nutrients in such a small and easy-to-eat package. Nutrients commonly found in dried fruits are vitamin A, vitamin K, polyphenols and fibre. The fibre content of dried fruits is particularly high, especially when the dried fruit bars contain dates (which can promote pregnancy and prevent several diseases).

To get the best quality basmati rice, nuts, seeds, and dried fruits, visit the ADNOOR website. We have been the importers, exporters, wholesalers, distributors, and co-packers of various nuts and grains in Canada for the last 25 years. For more details, visit our website.