Do Dried Fruits Retain the Nutritional Value of Fresh Fruits?
Dried fruit and fresh fruit have basically the same amount of calories and sugars per serving. But do they have the same nutritional value?
If you are incorporating more fruit into your healthy diet, then a serving of fresh fruit offers more volume and contains more water than dried fruit. Fresh fruit will help a person to feel full sooner and longer.
On the other hand, if a person is on a long hike and trying to retain calories, then it’s advantageous for her to eat dried fruit. The process of burning off calories is much slower than dried fruit. Dried fruit gives hikers those extra calories to sustain movement longer.
Fresh fruit has more water in it than dried fruit, so for those managing their weight then it’s better to go with fresh fruits, but dried fruits can still be an integral part of a healthy lifestyle.
Comparing Fresh Fruit To Dried Fruit
The easiest way to compare fresh versus dried is to use standard serving sizes, but not everyone agrees on accurate conversions. Some say 1 cup of fresh fruit equals 1/4th cup of dried fruit. Conversely, the New York Times says ½ cup of dried fruit equals 1 cup of fresh fruit. Bottled, crystallized, and dried fruits are all methods to preserve fruit while retaining its nutritional value.
When dehydrating dried fruits, there is a reduction in the concentration of specific vitamins, which alters their nutritional value. The vitamins that are usually decreased in dried fruits are Folate, Vitamin C, Vitamin B, and Thiamine. Adding preservatives to dried fruit like S02 or (sulfur dioxide) retains the color, and vitamin C and vitamin A. It completely cancels out the thiamine. For example, a cup of fresh apples provides 5.8 mg of Vitamin C and 4 mg of folate, while ¼ cup of dried apples contains .8 mg of Vitamin C and no folate. ~San Francisco Newspaper.
Learn more about how the FDA determines the nutritional value
You can learn more about the nutritional value of fruit, both fresh and dried, from the Food And Drug Association of America. At this link, you can see how the FDA judges different fruit and how they fit into a balanced diet.
