Consuming dried fruit can be linked to better health

Reviewed by Emily Henderson, B.Sc.November 24, 2020

Don’t be afraid to throw a handful of raisins or dried apples into your Thanksgiving stuffing this year – a new Penn State study has found that dried fruit could be linked to better health.

The researchers found that people who ate dried fruit were generally healthier than those who didn’t, and on days when people ate dried fruit they consumed more of some key nutrients than on days when they skipped it. However, they also found that people consumed more total calories on the days they ate nuts.

Valerie Sullivan, a postdoctoral researcher at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and a Penn State student at the time of the study, said the findings suggest that nuts may be part of a healthy diet, with some caveats.

Dried fruit can be a great choice for a nutritious snack, but consumers may want to be sure to choose unsweetened versions with no added sugar. Portion sizes can also be tricky, as a serving of dried fruit is smaller than a serving of fresh since the water has been removed. But on the bright side, dried fruit can help people potentially consume more fruit because it’s portable, shelf stable and can also be cheaper. “

Valerie Sullivan, postdoctoral fellow at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Previous research has found that poor diet contributes to nearly half of cardiovascular disease deaths in the United States, with a lack of fruit being a major factor. According to the researchers, the fruits provide an abundance of nutrients, including fiber, potassium and several heart-healthy bioactives.

However, despite these benefits, other studies have found that people may not eat enough fruit for a variety of reasons, including limited availability, cost, and the fact that it can deteriorate rapidly, among others. In the current study, the researchers wanted to examine whether dried fruit could be a healthful alternative to fresh fruit, as it could be cheaper.

“Minimally processed forms of fruit, including frozen, canned, and dried, have some advantages over fresh fruit,” said Kristina Petersen, assistant professor of nutritional sciences at Texas Tech University and assistant professor of nutritional science at Penn State at the time this work was done. “They are available all year round, have relatively consistent quality, and can be stored much longer than fresh. Many are even cheaper per serving than their fresh counterparts.”

For the study, the team used data on 25,590 participants in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Participants provided data on all foods they had consumed in the previous 24 hours, including dried fruit. Data on the participants’ cardiometabolic health was also collected, including their body mass index, waist circumference and blood pressure, and the quality of their overall diet.

After analyzing the data, the researchers found that, on average, people who reported consuming nuts in the survey had healthier diets than those who did not. They also tended to have a lower body mass index, waist circumference, and systolic blood pressure.

Because some of the participants reported eating dried fruit on one day of the survey but not the second, the researchers were also able to examine how people’s diets look on days they ate dried fruit versus days they didn’t. they did.

“What I also found interesting is that people tended to eat more total fruit on dry fruit days than on days they didn’t eat,” Sullivan said. “On the days when nuts were not consumed, however, fresh fruit intake was not greater. So dried fruit could be a way to increase overall fruit intake in people who do not consume the recommended amounts.” .

Additionally, the researchers found that on the days they ate nuts, participants consumed more total carbohydrates, dietary fiber, potassium, polyunsaturated fat, and overall total calories.

“In our study, people who consumed dried fruit had a higher calorie intake but a lower BMI and waist circumference, which suggests they were more physically active,” said Penny Kris-Etherton, Professor of Nutritional Sciences. Evan Pugh University. “So when incorporating nuts, pay attention to the calories and make sure you replace the calories of low-nutrient foods with nuts to get the most benefit from eating nuts.”