Have a dried fruit question

[poobears1972]

I know I read on here or in the book a week or two ago something about dried fruits not being allowed. It said you can add back in fruits (but no dried fruits). I can't find anything in the book so I guess it was here since this is the only site I read.

I need to know the official answer is there a problem with dried fruit? If so is it because it changes the chemical make up of the sugar when it dries? If the info was wrong, that's good because we plan on making up some homemade trail mix or fruit roll ups for our vacation this summer to take along with homemade jerky to eat in the parks.

[atkinsgal08]

Re: Have a dried fruit question

I would look at the GI of the dried fruit.

For some reason, dried apricots don't have as high a glycemic load/index as other dried fruits ... so I do eat them on occasion.

I don't think that dried fruits are forbidden ... as with any food, you would have to test to see how YOU react.

Because the sugars are more concentrated, you will have to be careful with serving size. Also, it's not always easy to find dried fruit without added sugar ... so reading the list of ingredients is important.

[poobears1972]

Re: Have a dried fruit question

We purchased an Excalibur dehydrator so we'll be making our own dried fruit, no sugar will be added. I'm not a huge dried fruit eater, I prefer fresh, so I dont' think there's any worry about me over eating them but I could see Dh eating too many since he likes them. I'll try to stick to lower GI ones, apricots sound good, I'll just toss in a few with the nuts and dried berries in the mix.

Thanks

[liv]

Re: Have a dried fruit question

Dense and concentrated. People eat dried fruit like candy for a good reason. They are sweet. So careful - careful - Make sure most of your carbs come from veggies. I do dried cranberries on occasion (add them to muffins I bake) Eating them just like that give me sugar shock.

[atkinsgal08]

Re: Have a dried fruit question

>>People eat dried fruit like candy for a good reason.>>

I can have one dried apricot ... and leave it at that ... for maybe another month or more.

Obviously everyone is different!

[poobears1972]

Re: Have a dried fruit question

I'll be sure to add them sparingly to his mix. I figured I'd use sunflower seeds, nuts, a few berries and a few dried fruits. Put them in a little snack bag for an afternoon snack while we are walking the theme parks so if we get hungry we don't have to try to find something at the parks to eat. I'll also have our homemade jerky along.

Any other ideas to take? It's not until June so we'll be further on the rungs by then, about to move onto 4 now. We rented a condo a mile from Universal so we will have breakfast and dinner at home. Just need snack ideas.

[atkinsgal08]

Re: Have a dried fruit question

An Atkins bar ... it's legal and filling.

A flax muffin (baked) ... travels well and you can add blueberries to them.

[poobears1972]

Re: Have a dried fruit question

I haven't tried the flax muffins yet, blueberry ones sound good. We'll experiment with those before we go. That sounds good. I can toss in an a couple of bars too as a back up if we need them.

Great ideas Thanks!

[mizski]

Re: Have a dried fruit question

On dried fruits, I do hope to add them back in later down the OWL road. My thoughts are to think of the serving size as if they were the actual whole fruit meaning that I would only eat 1 apricot or fig or a few grapes so I should not have a bunch of the dried just because they are small.

I think in this way they will be OK.

p.s. I actually didn't have many dried figs (pre-Atkins) as I have a couple fig trees in my yard.

[yellowzinnias]

Re: Have a dried fruit question

As everyone said, watch your portion size: just because it's smaller doesn't mean the whole fruit isn't in there. lol My family is big on using the dehydrator, so I have always eaten a lot of dried fruit, something I am getting un-used to. Making your own dried fruit is a good idea since a lot of commercial products have sugar added to them. I did notice in one of the stickies it says that a dried version of a fruit has more natural sugar than the raw; this is a little off. Dehydrating doesn't create sugar, rather it concentrates the total amount of sugar in the fruit down into the dried version, meaning that you may feel like you need more of the smaller dried fruits -- thus, more sugar -- to feel satisfied.

[2big4mysize]

Re: Have a dried fruit question

many "dried fruits" have a sugar coating on them to assist with the drying like that white crust on the pinapple is not from pineapple sugar alone.

if you dry your own or can get they without a sugar coating they should be fine but do your measuring before you dehydrate them so you know your serving size.

for your gorp you could add shredded unsweetened coconut, any seed any nut, and if you are on rung 8 some dehydrated carrot slivers along with some dried induction veggies like zuchini cauliflower radishs to go along with your dehydrated fruit and berries. I buy mine from a survial site and you can get freeze dried too but you don't want those unless you got a lot of water availible to rehydrate them and wash them down with so they don't rehydrate throat.

[miamibabymama]

Re: Have a dried fruit question

In the baby section of the grocery store, look for something called "Graduates for Toddlers mini fruits" by Gerber--they are in foil packages. These are freeze-dried fruits (I think they have banana only, and banana + strawberry) in little cubes that are perfect for trail mix. I started buying them for my daughter's homemade trail mix because, as everyone said, most of the commercial dried fruits have added sugar. These have no preservatives, additives, etc; the ingredients are "freeze dried bananas and freeze dried strawberries". 1/4 cup = 5 net carbs.
Not soft and chewy, but for your purposes might work really well!

[not2late]

Re: Have a dried fruit question

Those are okay for OWL phase. I've had them before----they kind of disintegrate in your mouth, so there isn't much to chew on. Just remember....berries are added in the Berry Rung. Bananas and apples in the Other Fruit Rung.

[miamibabymama]

Re: Have a dried fruit question

That's true, not2late, if she isn't into that OWL level by this summer, the product wouldn't be much good--I just looked at the website and the flavors all all fruits from the higher fruit rung (apple, pineapple, banana + strawberry).

[mizski]

Re: Have a dried fruit question

Trader Joe's has excellent freeze dried fruit...it's just fruit. I like the strawberry or blueberry.

p.s. Don't go by the serving size on the bag. It says one serving is a whole bag.