You must have been bothered many times by the lack of cheap and available healthy snacks around you. Unfortunately, it has recently been reported that if you eat a packet of potato chips every day for a year, the amount of radioactivity that remains in your body is 100 times higher than when you live next year at a nuclear facility. So what to do?
Dried fruits are the best option for daily snacks
Dried fruits can be eaten in the morning in combination with milk and breakfast cereals or are the best option for daily snacks. Although these healthy foods can not completely replace fresh fruits, they can save us from starvation without shortening our lives or harming us.
Below is a translation of a CNN article by nutritionist Lisa Drayer:
Dried fruits are generally very nutritious. But if it is important for you to reduce the amount of sugar, carbohydrates and calories in your food, be careful about the amount you eat, because because of its good taste, you are more likely to consume it indiscriminately.
According to US diet, every person should eat between 1.5 and 2 cups of fresh fruit. But if you want to eat dried fruit instead of fresh fruit, you should consider every half cup of dried fruit equal to one cup of fresh fruit.
In dried fruits, due to the evaporation of water, nutrients as well as fruit fiber become more compact. For example, half a cup of fresh apricots has 1.6 grams of fiber, but the same amount of dried apricots contains 4.7 grams of fiber. Dried apricots are also a significant source of antioxidants and folic acid (vitamin B9).
A large study of more than 13,000 people found that people who ate dried fruits in their daily diet received more nutrients than those who did not. Interestingly, they also had a more proportionate weight. But in general, what should be kept in mind is that in dried fruits, natural sugar is also denser. For example, a cup of grapes has 23 grams of sugar and 104 calories, while a cup of raisins has 116 grams of sugar and 520 calories. That is approximately 5 times the original value. Of course, this is not a concern and is useful for those who are not worried about gaining weight or athletes who need instant fuel. But it is important for those who accurately measure their sugar intake, carbohydrates and calories.
There are also special instructions for diabetics who need to distribute their carbohydrates throughout the day. “When educating diabetics, they should be told to consider two tablespoons of dried fruit equivalent to one serving (15 grams) of carbohydrates,” says Lori Zanini, a nutritionist and education expert for diabetics. For example, 2 tablespoons of raisins is equivalent to 15 grams of carbohydrates. To get this amount of carbohydrates from fresh fruit, you should eat half a cup of fresh grapes.
The final recommendation is to minimize the consumption of dried fruits that are covered with a layer of sugar. It should also be noted that many producers of dried fruits add sulfur dioxide to make the product last longer. If you have trouble consuming sulfites or have asthma, look for organic brands with or without additives in dried fruits.
