Something Everyone should know about Fruit based Healthy Snacks
Taste of Nature Aim to match a need for a Healthy, Nutritionally Dense, Natural Snack that helps connect with Mother Nature and still satisficing our taste buds and stomach without compromising the quality of Food. Our Unique method that produce these Delicious & Tempting Snacks comes from a dedication to Mother Nature, Local Community and You.
Dehydrated Fruit is gaining momentum across the world as a healthy snack that provides increased nutrition and energy. If you are uncertain to the value they provide, read on with skepticism and allow us to share 7 reasons which could change your mind-
· Natural
How often have you taken a look at the back of a snack found in the grocery store and seen the ingredients?
Chances are you would find a long list of unpronounceable ingredients. In the event that you do see a few ingredients, such as coconut oil, sugar, nuts, etc.. what percentage of that is in the product? We are not always sure what additives have been put, and to what quantity. Which brings us to why we say that dehydrated fruit is natural, and one of the main reasons to choose it as your go-to snack. There is only one ingredient. The fruit. There are no other ingredients added. Since the fruit contains all the necessary flavor, and is a complete food, there is no need to add anything.
We must warn you, however. After exploring the market in India, we noticed that some products include sugar syrup or simple preservatives to extend shelf-life and improve the taste. This usually is not necessary when you begin the dehydration process with high-quality fruit. With that said, dehydrated fruits are natural. You get exactly what you see.
· Time-saver
Life today is actually quite unreasonable. There are a constant stream of thoughts or responsibilities that keep us stuck in the high gear. Due to this fast-paced lifestyle, something often gets neglected. That something is ourselves.
Our health is important. When we neglect our nutritional intake, or feast on unhealthy snacks, we hurt ourselves. This leads to us underperforming in all our daily interactions. It then becomes a rinse and repeat cycle.
You save a lot of time choosing dehydrated fruit. It takes a few seconds to get your dehydrated fruit out, and a few more seconds to begin chewing on natural food that has the necessary nutrition for You. Did we mention that you don’t get your hands dirty, with mango juice dripping down your hand, and papaya seeds to scoop out? And how many of us have neglected a banana that was in our bag, only to find it squished and brown a few days later causing all sorts of trouble? I know I have. Health is essential, we will live in our bodies our entire lives, so let us take care of ourselves. There is enough time in the world for this type of snack.
· Dense Nutrition
Let’s start off with a simple fact – Watermelon contains a lot of water. Surprise, surprise. In fact, Watermelon contains about 92% water. Even if you slice up a 2 kilogram watermelon and munch on the whole thing, you are certain to be filled with a full bladder and empty stomach shortly.
Other fruits are not that different to watermelon in their water content. Banana is 75%, Mango 84%, papaya 88%.
Dehydration reduces the water content of fruits drastically. When we dehydrate, the water content of most fruits drops down to about 5%. What this means is that 1 kilogram of banana when dehydrated yields 180-200 grams of dried banana.
This is both good and bad. Let’s start with the bad. If the quality of the fruit is low, and the product is filled with pesticides or other chemicals, you get a concentrated dose of the bad stuff. The good news is that we get an 800% increase in nutritional value for the same amount of food eaten. Just a few minutes of mindlessly snacking on dehydrated fruit will result in a high amount of vitamins and minerals rushing through our body. It is important, however, to make sure you start with high quality, naturally-grown fruits.
Dehydrated Fruits can help you reach your nutritional intake for optimum health much faster and with greater ease.
· Portability
Imagine you are rushing out the door, and you didn’t have time to eat something. You see a papaya on the counter, and you stuff the ripe, soft papaya into your bag or purse along with a knife and rush out the door.
While sitting on the bus, train, uber or latest transportation gadget, you go ahead and bring out that lovely orange/golden papaya and begin slicing through the middle. A stranger notices that you need to scoop out the seeds and shares his spoon with you, which you use to scoop out all the black seeds out the window or into a disposable bag you magically had in your bag or purse. After scooping the seeds and slicing the papaya into pieces, you return the spoon and share a few pieces of papaya (you are really nice like that) with the stranger.
You then begin enjoying the fruits of your labor in harmony, while the other bystanders in your transportation of choice applauding you for your dedication to health. Oh, did I miss out the papaya juice that happened to spill on your clothes and drip down your hands? Sorry, do add that to your imagination.
Okay. That was a little exaggerated. Maybe you smiled, and hopefully you got the point.
Dehydrated fruits are highly portable. They are:-
· Dry. You don’t get your hands dirty and they can be squished in your bag.
· Cut up into small pieces. You can nibble on a few pieces whenever needed, without committing to an entire fruit.
· Store easily in any container.
· No worry of them getting brown or spoilt. They are there when you need them.
One note we must make on this, again regarding the market, is that if you purchase dehydrated fruit that went through a freezing process, you need to eat the fruit rather quickly after opening, usually within 15 minutes.
Just a heads up. Dehydrated fruits are highly portable, and are a reliable source of nutrition in any situation (including while skydiving).
· Shelf-life
In the Indian heat, it has become quite apparent that fruits are not only meant for humans. No, they belong to all of nature. This means that not only do ants, insects and other creatures find the fruits on our countertop a healthy night-time snack, fungus also call it home as well. The fruits we have expire. And they do it quickly in this weather. Sometimes, we are forced to eat fruits even when not in the mood to make sure they don’t get spoilt.
The water content is what allows for this quick deterioration of fruit. When we remove the water through dehydration, it increases the shelf life of the fruit to 6 months. You can also seal the fruit easily into air tight containers and packaging to avoid any interaction with wildlife and fungi. All good things. You may also plan ahead, long-term. Going for an extended family trip to the mountains? Take some dehydrated fruit! Planning a few weeks of constant work to bring forward the next world-changing apple product to the market? Stock up on dehydrated fruit! Visiting a friends fruit farm for 5 days? Pack your dehydrated fruit! (But don’t eat it until you ate all of his/her fruit first, we need to be polite…)
· No waste
No waste when choosing dehydrated fruits has multiple meanings. Often, food gets thrown out because it got spoiled or rotten. With dehydrated fruits, this just does not happen. You don’t waste much time preparing your fruit either, it’s ready whenever you need it. Finally, by choosing dehydration, all the seasonal fruit that usually is lost because of a mismatch of supply and demand is preserved for humanity to thrive on.
· Single ingredients helps digestion
The other points I made are a given. You read it and would have most probably nodded along. In the case of this point however, you might be a little puzzled. Allow me to expand on this. Our food is broken down into nutrition in different ways. The molecular structure of food is scientifically stated to be of 3 kinds, protein, fats and carbohydrates. When we eat these types of foods, our body has to break them down so that the nutrition can be assimilated through our digestive tract walls into the blood. For this to happen, our body produces enzymes (one such enzyme is your saliva, so chew your food!). These enzymes act as catalysts for breaking down the food. The difficulty here is that each enzyme behaves well in a different environment, that is in different acid/alkaline environments inside our stomach.
When we eat different combinations of food, we cause problems for our digestion. Pepsin is an enzyme that breaks down protein and requires an acidic environment. If another enzyme requires an alkaline environment, say a type of fatty food, then there is competition in your stomach to break both of the foods down. In one case, the food is not broken down effectively, and therefore the nutrition is not appropriately absorbed. In the worst case, we face health issues as the food stagnates, ferments resulting in bloating, gas or inflammation.
This topic is better served for another post, however allow me to summarize as follows: foods that are eaten alone work better with your digestion to promote a greater increase of energy and nutritional intake, with little side-effects.
Therefore, enjoying dehydrated fruits, which are all carbohydrate based, and usually of one variety, reduces the energy needed by your digestion to break down the food. This in turn results in a higher energy release for you in any given task, and promotes a greater intake of the minerals and vitamins available in the food.
There you have it. Why you should choose dehydrated fruit. I hope you enjoyed reading.
With Love & Blessings
Team – Taste of Nature