Dried apricots: chemical composition and benefits
1. It contains calcium, potassium, phosphorus, vitamin A, iron and vitamin C.
2. One cup of dried apricots contains 158 micrograms of vitamin A. These dried fruits supply many nutrients that are essential for health, fighting many diseases and for good vision.
Vitamin A is a powerful antioxidant that helps scavenge free radicals and support healthy cells and tissues. The presence of free radicals in the body can damage vision or lead to cataracts.
3. Dried apricots are a good source of iron, which is very useful in combating anemia. It also contains copper. Dried apricots should be included in your daily diet as they help increase hemoglobin.
4. Dried apricots contain pectin, which contains fiber and is a mild laxative and treats constipation . Cellulose acts as insoluble fiber and maintains water levels during constipation.
5. It is better to consume dried apricots before meals to stimulate digestion. It contains alkali, which neutralizes acids.
6. Dry fruits help reduce fever. You can prepare a drink from the fruit with honey and thus quench your thirst.
7. The health benefits of dried apricots also include the ability to cure symptoms of tuberculosis, asthma and bronchitis.
8. Dried apricots provide a very good source of potassium. Potassium is a mineral and electrolyte that is useful in regulating fluid balance. This helps the muscles work properly and regulates the heartbeat.
9. Dried apricots can be used as herbal medicine to treat infertility, bleeding and spasms. Dry fruit paste helps cure vaginal infections. Consumption of fruits should be moderate during pregnancy and for nursing mothers.
10. Dried apricots contain 3 times more potassium than bananas and help keep blood pressure normal. The potassium in dried apricots also protects against cardiovascular disease.
11. Potassium contained in dried apricots is necessary for metabolism in tissues, organs and cells. Dry fruits are essential for bodybuilders as they help regulate acid levels in the body and are beneficial for protein synthesis.
12. Dried apricots contain vitamin K, which is essential for blood clotting in case of injury and to prevent excessive bleeding. By consuming a cup of dried apricots daily, you get 4 mcg of vitamin K.
Dried apricots for weight loss
Dried apricot color. What do we need to know
Pay attention to the color of the dried apricots. Dried apricots can range in color from orange to yellow and brown. Gray or brown color may well correspond to natural dried apricots. But bright orange can be suspicious. Is something that is bright and slightly shiny useful?
Manufacturers go to all sorts of tricks for the sake of a spectacular presentation. Wholesale producers use chemicals when drying apricots. This could be an anhydride, a toxin that provokes poisoning, allergies, and asthmatic attacks. This could be the preservative E-220, that is, sulfur dioxide - an equally dangerous toxin. For large volumes of dried apricot production, alkalis and caustic soda (E524) can be used.
If coal, gas or fuel oil was used when drying apricot fruits, then the dried fruits will be rich in carcinogens and will not have a fruity aroma at all. The most valuable in terms of taste and beneficial properties are those types of dried apricots that have been dried in the shade.
Naturally dried apricot fruit will darken. To give dried apricots shine, low-quality oils and fats can be used.
Too bright orange, or less often yellow, dried apricots are most often a sure sign of chemical processing and the use of food coloring.
What do we need to know when buying dried apricots? Natural dried apricots will have a grayish or brown color. It should also be dry and not shiny, matte. Such dried apricots have benefits for the body, and the taste is much higher. This dried apricot can be bought for children. Today there are four varieties of dried apricots. These are the highest, first, extra and table.
For weight loss
Dried apricots contain little fat, but a significant amount is occupied by complex carbohydrates. They are digested slowly, saturate the body with energy and the person does not feel like eating for a long time.
In addition, dried apricots contain a low glycemic level. This means that sugar enters the blood slowly, and a person does not feel hungry for a long time.
To feel full, you need to slowly chew dried apricots and drink 2 glasses of drinking water.
It is better to consume dried fruits before lunch, when metabolic processes are active. Dried apricots help those who lose weight with tasteless porridges or unleavened bran. A piece of dried apricots will improve the taste of a tasteless dish if you add a couple of steamed and crushed pieces of dry apricot.
Dried apricots for women
Daily intake of dried apricots, how much should you eat?
How much dried apricots should you eat per day for health benefits? It is enough to eat 50-100 dried apricots per day. It is worth choosing clean, moderately soft fruits. They should smell nice, and in no case have the smell of wine. Dried apricots should not be overly sour.
Dried apricots must be washed before eating. And it’s best to pour boiling water over it for 15 minutes and let it sit there, drain the water, dry it a little and eat. Boiling water is poured over dried apricots to get rid of possible dyes and what can be used to treat the fruits. You can eat it separately or add it to other dishes. I really like adding it to cottage cheese.
You can also cook compotes, desserts, cereals, salads, soups, and meat dishes with dried apricots (dried apricots go with meat as a sweet and sour seasoning). Dried apricots harmonize with nuts and prunes. In jam, in porridge, in fruit salad or in the form of a wonderful thirst-quenching compote, dried apricots will bring pleasure and take care of our health.
For woman
1. Dry apricots have a lot of fiber. Therefore, eating dried apricots will help a woman cleanse her intestines of toxins, waste and cholesterol. This helps improve complexion, healthy hair and nails. In addition, fiber helps relieve constipation.
2. Dried apricots contain a lot of sucrose, glucose and fructose; they can be eaten as a substitute for sugar.
3. Women often follow a diet, and therefore experience a deficiency of vitamins and beneficial microelements. Then the person becomes lethargic, has a headache, and constantly feels sleepy.
Eating dried apricots will help correct the situation. You should consume about 5 pieces daily. dry apricots.
4. Dried apricots strengthen the body, normalize blood pressure; in women, especially in old age, blood pressure often fluctuates. Dried apricots also reduce the risk of cholesterol deposits in blood vessels.
5. Dried apricots improve blood quality and prevent the development of anemia.
6. Dry apricots are useful to eat for diseases of the pancreas, thyroid gland, and kidneys. Dried fruits normalize the amount of insulin, so patients with diabetes should consume dried apricots in small quantities.
7. After suffering a serious illness or surgery, dried apricots will help you recover quickly.
8. The dried fruit contains carotene and vitamin A, which helps maintain visual acuity even in the dark. Phosphorus preserves mental abilities and strengthens bone tissue, because women often suffer from osteoporosis.
9. A large number of antioxidants improve the condition of the epidermis and reduce hair loss.
How to use?
Dried apricots, apricots, and kaisa should be eaten in small quantities. This is the basic rule for consuming these dried fruits, following which makes it possible to extract maximum benefit from them and minimize possible harm.
Anyone who wants to eat healthy, and even more so wants to lose weight, needs to remember the following.
- Dried fruit gives the body a colossal boost of energy. This is good for high energy expenditures, that is, with an active lifestyle and intense physical labor. But if you just sit in a chair at the computer, and all your physical activity is limited to a 15-20 minute walk a day, you will not be able to burn all the energy that you get from the product. And therefore it will become fat.
- Dried fruits demonstrate their beneficial, for example, antioxidant, activity only when they are consumed in small quantities. Since when massively included in the diet, a lot of sugars enter the body. And the harm of these compounds often outweighs the benefits of the healing components.
How much can you eat per day?
It is impossible to indicate exactly, in pieces, how much dried apricots can and should be eaten per day. After all, this is not a medicine, but an ordinary food product. That is, no strict dosage has been developed for it.
If you do calculations based on the amount of fructose in this product, it turns out that:
- people who want to lose weight, have a pre-diabetic condition, metabolic syndrome, can eat a little less than 1 glass;
- healthy individuals – 1.5 cups.
However, in this case, the calculation based on fructose is not completely correct. Since dried apricots, apricots, kaisa are sweets. And they have a negative effect on the brain, regardless of what compounds they contain.
Therefore, if you eat a glass of dried fruits every day, you will constantly feed your brain with sweets. And he will demand more and more and more.
Therefore, if you really want to switch to a healthy diet, you should limit your daily consumption of dried apricots to a maximum of half a glass. And that’s provided that this is the only sweet you eat during the day. If you eat other sweets, baked goods, etc., then this amount should be reduced.
The optimal dose per day is 5-6 pieces.
Rules for inclusion in the diet
- Dried apricots should not be combined with easily digestible carbohydrates. Including fast cereals, even if the packages of such foods indicate that they are “whole grain.” And also with honey.
- You should not eat dessert after the main meal. Dried apricot makes a hearty snack rather than a light dessert.
- Instead of carbohydrates, dried fruits should be combined with fats and proteins. Especially with fats, as they help the absorption of fat-soluble vitamin A, which is so abundant in this dried fruit. Therefore, it can be added to natural fatty cottage cheese. And also eat it with nuts. Just don’t forget that dried apricots + nuts are a colossal boost of energy. And if you decide that your body needs it, then you must understand how you will burn it.
- Dried apricots are good to take with you on those days when you don’t have the opportunity to have a normal lunch and you need a lot of energy. But they cannot be used as a snack before training for weight loss. Since this will complicate the process of burning fat deposits and will make the exercise useless if you are exercising specifically to lose weight.
- Dried apricots can be used in a diet of protein-carbohydrate alternation, which is indicated for those who train for athletic achievements, and not for weight loss.
During pregnancy
During pregnancy, women especially need to take care of their health.
1. Dry apricot helps reduce blood pressure, which often rises in the last months of pregnancy.
2. A decoction of dried apricots helps resolve tumors.
3. A pregnant woman is prohibited from consuming foods containing sugar. It can be completely replaced by eating dried apricots.
4. The kidneys, heart, blood vessels and thyroid gland work hard during pregnancy. Dried apricots help these organs cope with their functions.
5. Anemia in pregnant women can be dealt with by eating dried apricots.
6. Dried apricots reduce the risk of constipation, which often occurs in the second half of pregnancy.
1. However, you should not eat dried apricots if you have low blood pressure or bronchial asthma.
2. Large consumption of dried apricots provokes obesity and upset stomach.
3. If a woman is allergic to apricots, then she will have to refuse dried apricots.
I recommend reading:
Apricots: composition, calorie content, benefits and harm to health and beauty
Harm of dried apricots to the human body
Eating dried apricots is good for human health in most cases, but you should also be aware of the negative aspects of this product, which are mostly associated with their processing. Here's how dried apricots are harmful to the human body:
- Many dried apricot manufacturers add preservatives such as sulfur dioxide. This makes the dried apricots more attractive because they turn a bright orange color.
- Some people may be sensitive to sulfur dioxide and may experience stomach cramps, skin rashes, and asthma attacks after consuming them (15, 16).
- To avoid sulfur dioxide, choose dried apricots that are brown or grayish in color rather than bright orange or yellow (17).
- Dried fruits that are not properly stored and handled can also be contaminated with fungi, aflatoxins, and other toxic compounds (18, 19, 20).
Ingredients: dried apricots, prunes, raisins, nuts, honey: benefits
It is useful to take each product separately, but it is advisable to use them together. Dried apricots and prunes are rich in healing vitamins and microelements.
Dry apricot increases hemoglobin production, calms the nerves, helps the heart function and stabilizes blood pressure. Both dried fruits improve digestion, enhance intestinal motility, and remove harmful substances from the body.
Nuts are rich in antioxidants and can prevent certain types of cancer. Microelements in nuts are useful for healing the body. Vitamin K found in walnuts prevents the destruction of bone tissue. Fatty acids in the nut remove cholesterol from blood vessels.
Raisins, due to their high content of organic acids, vitamins and minerals, help with problems of the nervous system and heart muscle.
Honey is used as an anti-inflammatory, antiviral and antibacterial agent. Consuming honey improves blood quality and helps the heart function.
Dried apricots: application
The benefits and harms of dried apricots have already been discussed, now let’s talk about how dried fruit is used. First of all, the product is indispensable for maintaining health. There are many recipes that will help improve the condition:
What are the benefits of dried apricots: use in folk medicine
Dried apricot is widely used to normalize the functioning of the cardiovascular system. To prepare the medicine, follow the following algorithm:
- Take 100 g of dried apricots, raisins, prunes and figs.
- Soak in water and leave overnight.
- After time has passed, place the ingredients in a blender bowl, add 30 g of walnuts and grind to obtain a homogeneous consistency.
- Consume one tablespoon before going to bed for ten days.
Recipe with dried apricots, prunes, honey, nuts and raisins
To prepare the nutritional mixture you will have to take 200 grams. dry pitted plums, dried apricots and raisins. Dried fruits are washed and poured into warm water to soften them. Next, the mixture is scalded with boiling water to destroy microbes.
Nuts are poured into a hot frying pan to eliminate germs. The ingredients are passed through a meat grinder and strengthened with about 6 tablespoons of honey heated a little in a water bath.
Fill a glass or porcelain container with the mass, seal it with a lid and place it in a cold and dark room. You should take one and a half small spoons before breakfast and then 3 times throughout the day between meals. For children, the norm should be reduced by half. If you are allergic to honey, you will need to reduce the intake of the mixture.
1. It is useful for every person to take a vitamin mixture to improve the health of their body. You can use it instead of sweets.
2. The mixture will help you lose extra pounds.
3. Consumption of the mixture increases the production of hemoglobin in the blood.
4. It is better to take the mixture in the cold season and during epidemics to prevent colds and vitamin deficiency.
5. A person with a heart condition or weak nerves will benefit from taking a vitamin mixture.
6. The mixture will enrich active people and athletes with energy and increase their vigor.
Dried apricots: harmful properties
Despite the fact that dried dried apricots are not dangerous to health, their incorrect consumption or excess in the diet can lead to the following undesirable consequences:
- a decrease in blood pressure, which is unsafe in case of hypotension. Based on my practical experience, I recommend that people with persistent low blood pressure consume dried fruit in extremely small quantities. Self-medication can harm your health. Therefore, be sure to visit your doctor to get qualified recommendations regarding the rate of consumption of dried apricots for your body;
- increase in blood sugar concentration. Therefore, remember that dried fruit is contraindicated for diabetes.
What kind of dried fruits are these?
Dried apricot or dried apricots are a fruit that has an excellent vitamin composition and is very tasty. The process of drying the fruit allows you to preserve the benefits and taste; such fruits are much easier to take with you for a light snack.
There are two types of this product:
- dried apricots or pitted fruits directly;
- fruits with seeds are called apricots.
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There are no fundamental differences in these types, except for color. Fruits with seeds are usually brown in color, while those without seeds are orange. The benefits are also the same if the drying process was not carried out using preservatives and other chemicals.
