How much dried fruit should you eat a day?

The one-portion-a-day cap people quote for dried fruit was never written about dried fruit: the NHS applies it to juice and smoothies. Ask how much dried fruit per day is sensible and the honest starting point is 30 g, about a heaped tablespoon of raisins. The prunes on our 4ecoshop shelf print 240 kcal and 38 g of sugars per 100 g, which turns that portion into real numbers. Measure your own handful against them before the next refill!

Key takeaways:

• One portion: the NHS puts it at around 30 g, roughly a heaped tablespoon of raisins or sultanas.
• Five a day: dried fruit counts, and the one-portion cap belongs to juice and smoothies.
• Sugars: 38 g per 100 g on a no-added-sugar prune label, all of it naturally present in the fruit.
• Timing: the NHS suggests dried fruit with a meal rather than between meals, because of teeth.
• Buying: the shortest ingredients list wins, ideally the fruit and nothing else.

What is dried fruit?

Take a plum, an apricot or a bunch of grapes, remove most of the water, and what is left is dried fruit: the same fruit with its sugars, fibre and flavour packed into a far smaller piece.

The differences appear around the drying. The dried fruit we list runs from single-ingredient prunes and figs to sweetened banana chips and pieces coated in chocolate, and only the ingredients list shows which is which.

What is the recommended daily portion of dried fruit?

The NHS puts a portion of dried fruit at around 30 g, and that figure holds whether the pack contains raisins, apricots or prunes. It is a portion by weight rather than by piece, because a fig and a sultana are nowhere near the same size.

Weigh 30 g once to see what it looks like in your own jar, and serve it into a dish instead of eating from the bag, where a portion vanishes in a minute.

How many grams of dried fruit is one portion?

Thirty grams is the figure, described by the NHS as about a heaped tablespoon of raisins, currants or sultanas. Pack sizes make the arithmetic quick: a 150 g bag holds five portions, and a 250 g pack of prunes a little over eight.

Does dried fruit count towards your five a day?

A 30 g serving counts as one of your five a day, exactly like a piece of fresh fruit. The rule people half-remember, that something can count only once however much of it you have, was written for juice and smoothies, and the NHS sets no equivalent cap on dried fruit.

How many dried apricots should you eat a day?

Enough to reach 30 g, which in most packs is a small handful. How many dried apricots that is depends on their size, which varies enough between brands to make counting pieces guesswork. Weigh the first portion and the pack tells you its own number.

Can you eat too much dried fruit?

Portion size is the whole of the answer, because dried fruit is dense and easy to keep picking at. A pack of prunes with no added sugar lists 240 kcal per 100 g, which puts a 30 g portion at about 72 kcal, while the same pack finished across an afternoon runs into several hundred.

Nobody can set a single figure on how much dried fruit is too much, so the NHS advice is practical instead: eat it as part of a meal, as a dessert for example, and keep fresh fruit for the gaps in between.

How much sugar does dried fruit contain?

A 250 g pack of prunes made from 100% dried plums lists 64 g of carbohydrate per 100 g, of which 38 g are sugars, working out at roughly 11 g in a 30 g portion. Those sugars came with the fruit: drying removes water, not sugar, so the same fruit sugar ends up in a much lighter piece. A pack with sugar added to it has to say so, as sweetened banana chips and juice-infused cranberries do.

Which dried fruits are good for you?

The ones whose ingredients list holds the fruit and nothing else, which on a shelf of near-identical packs is the only difference you can verify.

Packs on the same shelf fall into four groups:

• Plain dried fruit: one ingredient on the list, such as prunes given as 100% dried plums.
• Sweetened pieces: banana chips or cranberries carrying sugar or fruit juice on the list.
• Chocolate-coated: raisins, prunes and inca berries in chocolate, confectionery by composition.
• Freeze-dried: crisp pieces in 20 g and 30 g pouches, a different product from the chewy kind.

Every group has its place, and the label tells you which one you are holding. Read the list first, and the question of whether dried fruit is good for you answers itself.

What is the difference between dried and freeze-dried fruit?

Method is the whole of it, and the texture gives it away. Dried fruit loses its water slowly in warm air, which leaves it chewy and heavy for its size, while freeze-dried fruits are frozen first and dried under vacuum, so the piece stays crisp and weighs almost nothing. Weight is where it matters: 30 g of raisins is a tablespoon, 30 g of freeze-dried raspberries fills a bowl.

How can you eat dried fruit every day?

Attached to a meal, which is where the NHS suggests dried fruit belongs, and that single decision covers most of the week. Chopped into porridge, stirred through yoghurt or served after dinner as dessert, it does the sweetening a spoonful of sugar would otherwise do.

A week of dried fruit usually looks like this:

• Breakfast: chopped dates or sultanas in porridge, weighed out before the pan goes on.
• Baking and stewing: figs and prunes soften into cakes and compotes, where 30 g spreads across several servings.
• Something to carry: a weighed handful in a tub keeps its portion visible in a way an open bag never does.

Between meals the NHS suggests fresh fruit instead, and when a mix does have to travel, dried fruit alongside the healthiest nuts at least keeps the portion countable.

What should you look for when buying dried fruit?

The ingredients list settles it in seconds: a plain pack names one thing, a sweetened or coated one names several. Our dried prunes with no added sugar are the shortest version of that: one ingredient and nothing else, with no sweetening step anywhere on the list.

The label settles it in four checks:

• Ingredients: the fruit alone, or the fruit plus sugar, juice, oil or chocolate.
• Preservatives: some light-coloured fruit is treated with sulphur dioxide, which has to appear on the list.
• Sugars per 100 g: the row that lets two packs be compared honestly, whatever the front says.
• Pack weight: divide it by 30 g and you know how many portions you are carrying home.

Mixed bags of dried fruit and nuts ask for one extra look, since one pack can hold plain fruit, roasted nuts and chocolate-covered pieces at once.

Dried fruit in your diet: where to start

Begin with one plain pack, weigh 30 g of it, and let that measure live in the jar. Once the portion is a habit the rest is taste: prunes and figs for cooking, apricots and dates for breakfast, sultanas for baking. Our dried fruit shelf keeps the plain packs beside the sweetened and the chocolate-coated ones, which leaves the ingredients list to do the choosing for you!

Frequently asked questions about dried fruit

Is dried fruit as healthy as fresh fruit?

They are the same fruit at two different water contents, and that is what changes the portion: around 150 g of grapes dries down to roughly 30 g of raisins. Weight, sugars and fibre concentrate into the smaller piece, so a portion is a tablespoon where fresh fruit is a bowl.

Are dried apricots good for you?

Plain dried apricots are a single-ingredient food, so the answer sits in the ingredients list rather than on the front of the pack. Check two lines before buying: whether sugar appears among the ingredients, and whether the fruit has been treated with sulphur dioxide, which turns the pieces bright orange instead of brown.

Is dried fruit gluten-free?

Dried fruit holds no gluten in itself, being fruit with the water taken out. Several packs state it in the name, among them dried apricots, sultanas and dates, while chocolate-coated fruit and mixes with cereal or nuts need the whole label read.

Should you soak dried fruit before eating?

Soaking belongs to cooking: twenty to thirty minutes in warm water softens prunes, figs and apricots for cakes, compotes and stews. Eaten straight from the jar the fruit needs nothing.

How should you store dried fruit at home?

An airtight jar in a cool, dry cupboard away from light keeps the texture even, and decanting the bag after opening does more for it than a folded clip. Warmth and damp turn the pieces sticky or hard.

Can children eat dried fruit every day?

The NHS gives children the same advice as adults: dried fruit sits better with a meal than between meals, because sugars that stick to teeth stay there. Whole pieces are firm and sticky, so they are usually cut up for small children, and questions about a child's diet belong with a GP or a dietitian.