Dried Fruit Is Not Healthy

I eat dried fruit all the time. I thought it was a great alternative to eating potato chips and other snacks in a bag that are either fried or baked.

In my quest for health, I came across this article originally posted on jessainscough.com  that speaks to the reasons why dried fruit is not as healthy for us as one might tend to think.

Dried fruit is very hard to digest. Any parent who’s been confronted by a nappy full of blown-up sultanas can attest to that! For these foods to be properly digested and assimilated by our bodies, it’s important to add water. If water isn’t added before you eat dried fruit, then your body has to add the water when the fruit reaches your stomach. This can dehydrate the body, and means by the time the dried fruit has become a real food again, it’s already on its way out of your body before it can do any good.

Unless you’re only going to eat a very small amount of dried fruit, I suggest you quickly boil it then leave it to soak in the water overnight.

Isn’t it frustrating when you think you’ve been doing the right thing by eating a healthy alternative, and then I go and ruin it? Sorry, but wait till I tell you what they add to your dried fruit – it’ll blow your socks off!

There are several things added to dried fruit, either during the drying process or after, and they’re not necessarily on the food label. They are (get ready!) sugar, dextrose, glucose syrup, fruit juice, colouring derived from fruit, glycerin (422), sorbic acid (200), sulphur dioxide (220), paraffin, edible fats, and oils. Oil is sometimes marked on the ingredients.

By the way, a quick way to tell if oil has been added is to look for a shiny, greasy appearance to the dried fruit. If oil hasn’t been added, it will look dusty. And if oil is there, you can be sure that BHA (320) is also there.

Many different oils are being used in dried fruit, sometimes there may be a vague ingredient term such as vegetable oil, this could indicate a number of combined oils such as soy, canola or other inferior refined oils. I’ve noticed of late palm oil is being used and this does not go without any controversy as to the ethics and sustainability of this product regarding rainforest destruction and the animals and species that live within the rainforests. For an oil to be preserved it may need to be hydrogenated, fractionated or interesterified, none of these terms are ever seen on the packaging of dried fruit. The best way to avoid the processes or the oils is to read the ingredient of your dried fruit and make sure there are no other ingredients other then the fruit itself. If you are unsure you can always call the company.

Good dried fruit (with nothing added) looks vastly different from the stuff you see on the supermarket shelves. Some of the effects these additives can have on humans include headaches, thirst, nausea, high blood sugar levels, skin irritations and irritations of the digestive tract, to name just a few.

So what’s the alternative? Try to buy organic, naturally dried fruit. Or, dry your own. Food dehydrators are easy to find. Or on a hot dry day you can cut some fruit up thinly, place it on a metal tray or sheet, and dry it in the sun. Or you can pop the fruit into a convection oven on a very low heat for three hours or so. But remember that (even with natural, healthy dried fruit) it shouldn’t be a constant food source. Eat your dried fruit occasionally and in moderation.

Read more for alternative solutions to dried fruit at www.jessainscough.com

Photo Source: Pixaby.com

Do you eat dried fruit from the store or do you make your own?

Dried Fruit Is Not Healthy