Dried Fruit Vs. Regular Fruit

Dried Fruit Vs. Regular Fruit - as part of the expert series by GeoBeats. Fresh fruit is really better as far as the nutrient content. It has a wider array of nutrients, and it has water and so it has fiber and water, so it is more filling. It is going to fill you up, and you will ultimately eat less. Whereas dried fruit it is easier to overeat because it is so concentrated. If you think of two handfuls of raisins, think how many calories you would eat, and you would not probably eat that many grapes if you think of those raisins blown up into their original grape form. So you are just going to more easily overeat with dried fruits. But if you are careful of the portion, they could be a good option, and one benefit over fresh fruits is that dried fruits are not as perishable, so they can stay on the shelf a long time. So when you run out of fresh fruits, you have the dried fruits there. The fresh fruits do lose some of their vitamin C and some of their B vitamins in the drying process, so the dried fruits will have a much lower content of vitamin C and B vitamins, whereas the fresh fruits will have that. So that is one downside. But they have concentrated minerals. Especially there is a lot of iron in dried fruits - that is one benefit to the dried fruits. It really just depends - I would definitely have a variety: I would have fresh fruits and dried fruits on hand. Dried fruits: you can sprinkle on your cereal, you can have mixed with nuts as a snack, and fresh fruits are also good in a variety of ways. The one thing to pay attention to with the dried fruits is a lot of them, especially like Craisins and dried cherries, have added sugar, whereas, fresh fruits you just get it as is. Dried fruits that generally do not have added sugar - raisins and apricots generally do not have added sugar. And a good place to find a wide variety of dried fruits that do not have added sugar is any health food store.