'Dried fruits have more calories'....True or Nah?

Hello dear Reader! How have you been? I’ve been well, a little stressed but nothing Jesus cannot handle *insert gospel hum*, thanks for asking!

Anyway, I was looking through Facebook sometime back and I came across a post that warned people to stay far away from dried fruits because they contain more calories. I thought it was an interesting post and decided to look more into it.

So, do dried fruits have more calories? Depends. If you are talking about processed dried fruits, then maybe, and that's because extra sugar is added to make them sweet. But naturally dried out fruits usually have the same amount of sugar they started out with. 

nytimes.com

The fact is that the major difference between a fresh fruit and a dried fruit is the amount of water in it. When water is taken out of a fruit though drying, the nutrients (except Vitamin C which reduces as a result of the process) subsequently become concentrated. Doesn’t necessarily mean more or less sugar, just sugar without water. Get the picture? Also, the fruit might shrink a lot in size depending on the kind of fruit. So, the main thing to worry about here isn’t really the calorie content but the serving size.

motherearthnews.com

I'll give you an example of what I mean. A mango is quite decent in size and obvious right? So, 1 slice of fresh mango = 1 slice of dried mango, even though the dried mango might look slightly smaller. But 1 fresh grape is NOT equal to 1 dried grape because grapes shrink a lot when dried. So, if you place 2 dried grapes side by side, they might form the size of 1 fresh grape. Getting the hang of this now? The idea when eating dried fruits is to eat LESS for the same amount of calories. Meaning, if you would usually take 1 cup of fresh fruits, then take half a cup of dried fruits.

It would also interest you to note that sugar is sugar, no matter the source, and excess sugar is stored as fat. Meaning EXCESS of ANY type of sugar consumed WILL be stored as fat; fructose, sucrose, mamacrose, papacrose, and the extended family. So, if you are trying to lose weight, your serving size is very important. Also, remember that processed dried fruits sometimes have added sugar to make it sweet, so approach that with caution (maybe that’s where people got the idea of the higher calorie content).

Personally, I prefer fresh fruits. They are sweeter, and my heart can’t take all the tartness that come with dried fruits sometimes *wince*. But hey, if you are like a hiker and you need a jolt of calories, then bon a petit. Natural dried fruits are just as healthy as fresh fruits in smaller serving sizes.

Until next time, have a great weekend!