Dried fruits: properties and benefits

This method allows to store your fresh fruit for a longer period of time. Let’s learn something more about dried fresh fruits!

Dried fruits are very healthy. The natural sugars these foods contain boost our energies for the day and give us a lot of fibers, very useful for the right functioning of our intestine.

Let’s find out the process to dehydrate fruits and all the benefits these particular foods have on our body!

Dried fruits: what they are and how they are produced

This is an amazing method to keep the properties of fresh fruits and give the body a lot of benefits. A dried fruit has the same composition and contains the same nutrients of the fresh one: the only difference is that it does not contain any water, due to the dehydration process it undergoes.

The most common types of dehydrated fruits are grapes, dates, plums, bananas, goji berries, pineapple, figs, kiwis, apples and apricots.

• Apples are rich in potassium, iron, phosphorus, vitamin C and calcium.
• Apricots contain fibers, potassium, magnesium, calcium, phosphorus and carotene.
• Bananas are rich in potassium phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, vitamins A, B and C.
• Raisins are rich in mineral salts (potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, calcium, fluorine), vitamins A, B1, B2, C, sugars (glucose and fructose) and fibers.
• Dates are rich in vitamins, potassium, magnesium, phosphorus and sugars.
• Strawberries contain vitamin C and potassium, as dried peaches and cherries do.
• Goji berries and blueberries contain a lot of antioxidants belonging to the polyphenols and anthocyanin families.
• Plums are rich in fibers, potassium, zinc, magnesium, vitamin A and betacarotene.
• Figs have soothing and laxative properties; they are perfect for vegans and vegetarians.

Properties and benefits of dried fruits

In other words, this type of food is a good source of energies and represent a healthy snack. However, its calorie and nutrient amount is high. Therefore, you should not eat too much dried fruit: 30 grams per day is the right weight.

This food contains almost the same substance amount of fresh fruit, but slightly less because of the dehydrating process. For example, vitamin C is highly less, while mineral salts, folates and other vitamins are unaltered.

Therefore, we can say that dried fruits are one of the best alternatives to fresh products. Not only because they contain potassium and phenols, but also because of their high content of fibers. Moreover, their polyphenols positively influence the heart health. As a result, you can protect it from cardiac diseases.

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