For most foods, the nutritional value retained is about the same as with freezing. Drying also destroys fewer vitamins than canning. In fact, the loss of nutritive value during most drying processes is small in comparison to the loss during cooking. This makes dried fruits a much healthier alternative compared to other commercially prepared foods with additives and preservatives.

Two Singaporeans Nicholas Lee and Winston Tan, have opened a shop selling dried fruits and dried nuts about two months ago. It sells 25 types of dried fruits, nine types of dried nuts and two seeds: pumpkin and sunflower.

Says Winston Tan, manager of Fave, The Dried Fruits & Nuts People: "We need about two to four servings of fruits per day. Instead, of munching of chips, why not eat healthy dried apple chips instead? Mention dried fruit to Singaporeans, they think of dried guava and mango, but there are actually dried apricots and figs too."

The Goodness in Dried Fruits
Fruits contain vitamin B complex vitamins, vitamin C, carbohydrates and mineral salts such as iron, phosphorous, potassium and calcium. Some vitamin C may be lost through the drying process but other nutrients are relatively unaffected.

Compared with fresh fruit, the shelf life of dried fruit is at least six months. If you refrigerate them, you can keep them for up to a year.

Finally, besides being a healthy snack, dried fruits can be used for pudding, baking and savoury recipes. Add some to your salads, fruit spreads, jams, or simply sprinkle some over your breakfast cereals.

Both Winston and Nicholas plan to do lots of marketing about the goodness of dried fruits and nuts for a population sold on fatty hawker food and salty snacks.

Says Nicholas: "We've been to shops and ask the nutritional value of certain food, but most times, we don't find an answer. We aim to provide both nutritional and medical benefits of what we sell, and that sets us apart from other retailers who sell snacks."

Date reviewed: 21 July 2000

Ditch the popcorn at your next movie outing. Pop some nuts and dried fruit instead. Faith Chang of HealthAnswers tells you how going nuts can save your heart.

Why Be A Nut-Case?

Nuts like macadamia, almonds and walnuts provide a good source of protein,  phosphorus, zinc, magnesium, carbohydrates, copper, selenium, folate, vitamins E & A and yes, fat.

Although nuts contain fat, but when balanced with low-fat foods, it makes a healthy snack.

You can include them in your eating plan if you watch your portion sizes. Nuts are high in fat, but mostly in unsaturated fat, and when consumed in limited amounts, they can help you lower your cholesterol.

These tasty foods derive 70 to 90 percent of their calories from fat. As a result, the crunchy, delicious morsels have been verboten for people on low-fat diets, especially those keen on preventing obesity, diabetes, heart disease and the fat-related cancers, particularly breast, colon and prostate cancer.

A study conducted in 1992 by Gary Fraser, PhD, professor of medicine at the Centre for Health Research at Loma Linda University in California, revealed that munching nuts is associated with a reduction of heart attacks.

Fraser based the 18-year study on annual surveys of the diet and lifestyles of 31,200 Seventh-Day Adventists (a group of well-educated vegetarians who typically abstain from cigarettes and alcohol) with people who munched on nuts once a week. Surprisingly, the latter had 25 percent fewer heart attacks, and five-times-a-week nut noshers cut their risk almost in half. Peanuts, almonds and walnuts were the most heart-protective nuts.

But how could high-fat nuts be good for the heart, you may ask. The answer is simple: nuts are like fatty fish. They are among the richest plant sources of omega-3 fatty acids. The rest of their fat is unsaturated - not the heart-hurting saturated variety found in meats, dairy products and coconut oil. Nuts also contain a good deal of selenium and vitamin E, which can help prevent heart disease.