There are pluses and minuses,” said Christina Stark, a nutritionist at Cornell University. “The main difference is that taking out the water concentrates botnutrients and calories.”
This could be an advantage if you are hiking and want more calories that are easy to store and carry, she said. It could be a disadvantage if you are trying to lose weight.
The heat used in drying fruit also decreases the amount of some of the heat-sensitive nutrients, like vitamin C.
As for how much to eat, she said, the general recommendation is two cups of fresh fruit a day, the more variety the better. A half cup of dried fruit counts as a cup of fresh.
Percentages of water, calories and amounts of vitamins and minerals vary by type of fruit.
For example, for apricots, a cup of fresh halves is 86 percent water, with 74 calories, and a half cup of dried fruit is 76 percent water, with 212 calories. Fresh apricots have 3.1 grams of fiber versus 6.5 for dried; 0.6 milligrams of iron versus 2.35 milligrams; 15.5 milligrams of vitamin C versus 0.8 milligrams; and 149 retinol activity equivalents of vitamin A versus 160.
A cup of fresh Thompson seedless grapes is 80 percent water, with 104 calories, and a half cup of raisins is 15 percent water, with 434 calories. The grapes have 1.4 grams of fiber, versus 5.4 grams for the raisins; 0.54 milligrams of iron versus 2.73 milligrams; 288 milligrams of potassium versus 1,086 milligrams; and 16.3 milligrams of vitamin C versus 3.3 milligrams.
Sources: The New York Times
