Losing moisture during the drying process, fruits are reduced in volume, but retain the calorie content of fresh fruit and a complete set of trace elements. Therefore, replacing sweets with dried fruits, do not consume them in large quantities.
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Many diets include fresh fruits in the daily diet, but equating the recommended rate with dried fruits means getting 3-5 times more calories. Knowing this ratio, you can get the most out of yourself by grabbing a handful of raisins, figs or prunes on the road or at work. After all, замены dried is enough to replace a glass of fresh fruit.
What happens during the drying process?
The most important change that occurs with fresh fruit during the drying process is that it loses moisture. Technologists claim that moisture still remains within 20%, but its decrease and affects high calorie content. For example, if in 100 g of apricot 44 kcal, then when drying from this mass only 20 g will remain with the same calorie content.
But the calorie content of dried fruits can be even higher if the manufacturer previously placed fresh fruits in syrup. Such technologies are applied to fruits that are sour in taste or have a not very bright color. Syrup is made at the rate of 150 g of sugar per 1 liter of water. It seems to be a little, but additional sugar is present. When purchasing dried fruits in a store in a package, you should ask if sugar syrup was used. Although not every manufacturer mentions this.
It is believed that dried fruits differ from fresh ones only in increased calorie content, while vitamins and minerals remain in the same proportions. But it depends a lot on the drying technology. Large producers often blanch fruit in boiling water to speed up the process. The action takes only a few minutes, but partly destroys the vitamins.
Then the drying is carried out in huge plants - dehydrators at a temperature of 70-80 degrees, until 2/3 of the moisture evaporates. After that, the temperature drops to 45-55, depending on the particular fruit variety. Bypassing all stages of production technology, fruits leave with them calories and trace elements, of which there are exactly as many as in fresh ones.