This is an archived article and the information in the story may be outdated. Please check the time stamp on the story to see when it was updated last.
It’s unavoidable. Fruits, though extremely healthy, contain sugar. And some fruits actually contain quite a bit of sugar — as much as you’d find in a dessert, believe it or not.
Of course, there’s a major difference between enjoying a handful of grapes and sitting down to a slice of cake. Fruit comes packed with good-for-you antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals that make the sugar trade-off a worthy one. At the same time, if you are trying to lose weight, there are some fruits that will support your weight loss goals more than others.
This is the one fruit you should avoid because it slowly destroys your metabolism in the morning.
Dried Fruits
They seem like a great idea — and dried fruits are certainly more convenient than fresh fruit as they last a lot longer. But they’re also packed with sugar.
One of the worst offender is dates, which have four times the amount of sugar as dried figs (13.5 teaspoons per serving).
There’s a perfectly good explanation why dried fruits tend to have far more sugar than fresh fruit.
According to Healthline: “Because the water has been removed from dried fruit, this concentrates all the sugar and calories in a much smaller package.
For this reason, dried fruit is very high in calories and sugar, including both glucose and fructose.”
If you’re wondering which dried fruits contain the most natural sugar, the list looks a little something like this:
Raisins: 59%.
Dates: 64–66%.
Prunes: 38%.
Apricots: 53%.
Figs: 48%.
Unlike other sweetened foods, like soda, there are plenty of redeeming qualities about dried fruits that may make you want to consider eating them in moderation. Dried fruits are especially high in fiber content and fruits like prunes and dates have a natural laxative effect.
Adding a handful of raisins to your diet can actually have four major health benefits, according to Healthline:
Lower blood pressure.
Improve blood sugar control.
Decrease inflammatory markers and blood cholesterol.
Lead to increased feeling of fullness.
Bottom line: dried fruits may prove too sugar laden to eat every single morning if you are trying to lose weight, but enjoying them in moderation can provide a number of health benefits.
