Naked Science Forum

Life Sciences => Physiology & Medicine => Topic started by: pirunner on 08/12/2007 02:56:33

Title: Dried Fruit
Post by: pirunner on 08/12/2007 02:56:33

Does dried fruit have the same nutritional value as its "wet" counterpart?...Minerals, vitamins, etc.

Title: Dried Fruit
Post by: stana on 08/12/2007 10:36:57

Once a fruit or vegetable is picked, it starts to die, hence is looses its nurtitional values. The quicker you eat it, the more vitamins and minerals it has in. so theoretically, yes, if this vegetable or fruit has been left to dry out over time, then it will have lost its nutritional value, but if it has been manually dried, it may still have some goodnes left in it!

Title: Dried Fruit
Post by: Bored chemist on 08/12/2007 18:19:04

It rather depends what nutritional value you are talking about. If you wnat something tasty and with lots of calories in it as a snack when out walking you would do better to carry raisins than grapes. The sugar isn't lost when the grapes are drried, nor is the fibre, the mineral content or quite a lot of other things. Some of the vitamins are lost but most of what's lost is water. If you are somewhere where you can always find water then carrying grapes would be pointless- it's a lot of extra weight to carry and they get squashed easilly.
Also there's the risk with undried fruit etc that bacteria or fungi will infect the fruit rendering it inedible or toxic. Drying fruit preserves it quite well. Compared to mouldy fruit, dried fruit is much more nutritious.

BTW, stana, what does "manually dried" mean?

Title: Dried Fruit
Post by: stana on 08/12/2007 19:21:31

Quote from: Bored chemist on 08/12/2007 18:19:04

BTW, stana, what does "manually dried" mean?

Exactly what it says on the tin

Dried by you, using a hair dryer or some other item like that

Title: Dried Fruit
Post by: Alandriel on 08/12/2007 20:29:21

Manually dried still has some goodness left in it as vs eg sundried ??



Weight by weight dry fruit is actually a lot more nutritious than fresh fruit
~ but then that's not really a fair comparison  [;)]


As far as I know of all the vitamins, C is the one that is most easily 'destroyed' by heat or exposure to air. But that does not mean that *all* of it gets lost in the drying process.

Take rosehip as an example. 100g dry rosehips contain a lot more vit C than the same weight in fresh rosehips. But as I said, the comparison is not really fair.

By consuming a dried product you're ingesting a concentrated amount of calories and nutrients just as BoredChemist said.
The main stay of many a tough, nomadic people is based on dry products. They know why [;D] and todays would-be nomads definitely profit from that too
 [;D]

Title: Dried Fruit
Post by: Bored chemist on 08/12/2007 21:15:50

How does the fruit know it's been dried by hand rather than by machine?

Title: Dried Fruit
Post by: pirunner on 08/12/2007 22:46:40

This probably has something to do with the chemicals used. For example, I know that just about EVERY bag of dried fruit available has two ingredients on it: Dried (appropriate fruit) & SULFUR DIOXIDE (SO2). However there are "naturally dried" products available without SO2. SO2 is a gas and not a very good one at that. If it was, there would be no reason to sell products proclaiming that it is not used. So, I'm guessing that SO2 also has some "killing" effects on different nutrients.

Title: Dried Fruit
Post by: Bored chemist on 09/12/2007 13:30:17

SO2 kills fungi. It also causes asthma in some people.
If you don't get asthma then you may be better off avoiding the moulds that might occur on "naturally" dried stuff. The label is there for the benefit of a minority of the population.

Title: Dried Fruit
Post by: Carol-A on 09/12/2007 14:25:48

Quote from: pirunner on 08/12/2007 22:46:40

SO2 is a gas and not a very good one at that.

I am mystified by this comment! A gas is a gas.....

Title: Dried Fruit
Post by: pirunner on 09/12/2007 15:56:00

I was really refering to the fact that Sulfur Dioxide does cause breathing problems, acid rain, and is a big part of air polution. I guess I just don't see it as a "great" gas.

Title: Dried Fruit
Post by: Bored chemist on 09/12/2007 20:43:49

Most chemicals used to kill things are toxic.
In the interests of ballance I guess I should add that I wish they would stop adding SO2 to cider- it spoils the taste.