Dried Fruit

Description

What is Dried Fruit?

Dried fruit is fruit that has had almost all of the water content removed through drying methods.
The fruit shrinks during this process, leaving a small, energy-dense dried fruit.
Raisins are the most common type, followed by dates, prunes, figs and apricots.
Other varieties of dried fruit are also available, sometimes in candied form (sugar coated). These include mangoes, pineapples, cranberries, bananas and apples.
Dried fruit can be preserved for much longer than fresh fruit and can be a handy snack, particularly on long trips where refrigeration is not available

Dried Fruit is loaded with Micronutrients, Fiber and Antioxidants
Dried fruit is highly nutritious.
One piece of dried fruit contains about the same amount of nutrients as the fresh fruit, but condensed in a much smaller package.
By weight, dried fruit contains up to 3.5 times the fiber, vitamins and minerals of fresh fruit.
Therefore, one serving can provide a large percentage of the daily recommended intake of many vitamins and minerals, such as folate.
However, there are some exceptions. For example, the vitamin C content is significantly reduced when the fruit is dried.
Dried fruit generally contains a lot of fiber and is a great source of antioxidants, especially polyphenols .Polyphenol antioxidants are associated with health benefits such as improved blood flow, better digestive health, decreased oxidative damage and reduced risk of many diseases

Health Effects of Dried Fruit
Several studies have shown that people who eat dried fruit tend to weigh less and ingest more nutrients, compared to individuals not eating dried fruit .However, these studies were observational in nature, so they cannot prove that the dried fruit caused the improvements.
Dried fruit is also a good source of many plant compounds, including powerful antioxidants .
Dried Fruit is high in Natural Sugar and Calories
Fruit tend to contain significant amounts of natural sugars.
Because the water has been removed from dried fruit, this concentrates all the sugar and calories in a much smaller package.
For this reason, dried fruit is very high in calories and sugar, including both glucose and fructose.
About 22–51% of this sugar content is fructose. Eating a lot of fructose may have negative health effects. This includes increased risk of weight gain, type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
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