Do freeze dried fruit contain any nutrients?

Question

My daughter loves freeze dried mangoes and strawberries, but I wonder if they have any redeeming value other than taste.

Answer 1

Actually yes, they are a great source of nutrients. However you have to be careful with the quantity. For an adult a portion of dried fruit should be about the size of a golf ball because they are condensed forms of fresh fruit you have to remember that it will still have the same amount of natural sugar.

Also be sure that you are giving dried fruit that has no sugar to preserve it, although 100 fruit juice is okay.

Mostly though fresh is better, and you have to really eat a lot to get too much because most fruits are primarily water. Try frozen also, or whole fruit and yogurt with soy or regular milk smoothies.

If you go to the Yahoo Homepage there is a short video called "Fattening 'healthy' foods" that explains this plus other foods.

Answer 2

Most of them do not, infact they contain more sugar.

Answer 3

They sometimes are higher in sugar because when they dry they get smaller. The nutritional value IS dimished, but there are still vitamins and minerals as long as these are just the regular dried fruits and not candied ones. The nutritional value of any fruit starts to go the second it is picked, but there should still be enough vitamins and minerals for it to be considered a healthy snack, as long as she is only eating a normal portion size.

If she is eating it like one would eat  a bag of candy, that could be a little excessive, but there is nothing wrong with eating them. Just make sure she doesn't eat too many.

Answer 4

My understanding is that if they are snap frozen and don't contain any added sugar that they have the same nutritional value as fresh fruit.  But remember even though they're they still do have the same natural sugar content as the fruit in it's whole form, so 2 mangoes for instance would be quite a lot of natural sugar for a little girl !

Answer 5

i think as long as they have No added sugar yes. it is heating fruits and veggies that kills nutrients

Answer 6

Yes, but I think that they lose some nutrients compared to having fresh fruits.