DRIED FRUITS are trendy this DIWALI, Say NO to sweets

Sweets Vs dry fruits. It’s an ongoing, closely fought battle for demand this Diwali.

Fructose (fruit sugar) is broken down slower by the body allowing the body to react more efficiently to the sugar you have just eaten, sucrose (sweet sugar) is broken down quicker by the body and can cause your body's natural sugar levels to change more quickly.

Thus dried fruits are always better an option than sweets in this Diwali. But Dried fruits has some disadvantages. If these disadvantages are not kept in mind then one tend to consume more calories than consuming sweets or fresh fruits.

Key points to remember:

·         Water is removed from fresh fruits to make dried fruits. Thus the sugar & fibre in fruits gets concentrated.

·         No one eats one or two dried fruits. They take a handful of them. This causes more calorie and sugar intake. Because drying fruit removes its water content, the portion size shrinks by about three-quarters. If you dehydrate one cup of fresh apricots, you’ll get 1/4 cup of dried apricots.

·         Dried fruits contain preservatives like sulphites which causes digestive and respiratory problems

·         Concentrated Fructose in dried fruits doesn’t send alarm bells to the brain to say you’re full. It fails to stimulate – and, indeed, blocks – appetite hormones leptin and ghrelin. This is why we don’t stop at 1-2 apricot

·         Dried fruits are hard to digest. Fiber and water exist together in nature to help digest foods properly. Without water, dried fruit is hard to push through the gut and can cause some un-wanted problems.

To conclude when consumed in moderation dried fruits are far better than sweets this DIWALI. Just keep an eye on the portion size of the dries fruits you consume to restrict yourselves from consuming more calories and more fructose.

Dried fruit details:

Dried fruit caloric table
Product	Quantity	Energy (kcal)	Protein (g)	Fat	Sugar
				(g)	(g)
Almonds	100 g	572	20,0	52,0	20,5
Cashews	100 g	633	25,2	53,6	12,6
Cedar nuts	100 g	629	12,0	61,0	12,0
Coco nuts	100 g	380	3,4	33,5	29,5
Dried apples	100 g	238	2,1	2,1	62,3
Dried apricots	100 g	284	5,4	1,2	72,2
Dried apricots with stone	100 g	227	5,0	0,0	53,0
Dried bananas	100 g	390	3,9	1,8	80,5
Dried briar fruit	100 g	110	3,4	0,0	21,5
Dried dates	100 g	277	2,0	0,4	74,0
Dried figs	100 g	290	3,6	1,2	78,0
Dried peach	100 g	254	3,0	0,4	57,7
Dried pears	100 g	270	2,3	0,6	62,6
Hazelnuts	100 g	640	14,4	63,0	14,9
Mustard pits	100 g	474	25,8	30,8	23,4
Peanuts	100 g	560	25,7	46,1	19,2
Pecans	100 g	589	20,5	48,5	25,0
Poppy seeds	100 g	478	20,1	42,9	24,7
Prunes	100 g	267	3,5	1,2	68,9
Pumpkin seeds	100 g	556	24,5	45,8	18,0
Raisins	100 g	277	2,3	0,5	71,2
Roast chestnuts	100 g	182	3,2	2,2	33,8
Sesame seeds	100 g	565	19,4	48,7	12,2
Sunflower seeds	100 g	561	24,4	43,7	24,6
Walnuts	100 g	645	16,0	60,3	18,0

                                                                                                                           Dt. Deepalekha Banerjee