This week, freeze-dried fruit 101 – should we or shouldn’t we? A new Alzheimer’s book – not from me, don’t get excited – seasonal tips for May and more. Enjoy x
Freeze dried fruit – should we or shouldn’t we?
This week’s paid subscriber question comes from K, who asked about the environmental and health aspects of freeze-dried fruit.
C kindly found Arbuckle’s who do freeze dried fruit so we started there. They referred us to this about the environmental impact of freeze drying, which concludes:
Energy Use: Freeze drying uses significant energy, but advancements are improving efficiency.
Food Waste Reduction: The extended shelf life and preservation of nutrients help reduce food waste.
Sustainable Packaging: Using eco-friendly packaging options minimizes environmental impact.
In other words, it takes a lot of energy, but you’re likely to get less waste as it stores for longer and it should be stored in environmentally-friendly packaging – like glass jars.
As to where they come from, I guess you’d have to ask each supplier, and I’m sure it varies too. I notice, for example, that some companies say ‘packed in the UK’ i.e. they are not from the UK. Whereas, others say it’s freeze-dried on their own farm. I did get a spec sheet from one wholesale supplier and it said re origin:
Raspberry: Poland, Serbia, Chile, China, Bosnia Herzegovina, Ukraine, Macedonia, Spain. Other origins are possible.
I would imagine the origin changes depending on how cheap they are at each given time of ordering.
How freeze-drying works
Freeze-drying involves first freezing a fruit and then placing it in a vacuum under very low pressure. Low pressure causes ice crystals to rapidly ‘sublime’, turning them straight from solid ice into water vapour. This process removes water much more efficiently than traditional drying.
Freeze-drying is meant to be able to retain most nutrients because it doesn’t use any heat treatment. I looked into the process and asked several companies how it was done. It’s quite technical but seems quite OK for TGFs/corn sensitives, but you’d need to check they hadn’t sprayed them with eg. maltodextrins or citric acid/added ascorbic acid/Vitamin C or a corny oil etc etc etc depending on which make you buy, so be mindful. I say this as we have come across it before when querying supposedly-clean cherry Vitamin C products – no maltodextrin declared, but it was used in manufacture. Half the time, if suppliers are buying in, they have no clue – until we ask!
I think, to be safest if you are sensitive, you would do better to dehydrate your fruit yourself, or just eat it fresh with all the fibre and hydration they bring to the table, literally. The fresh, in season, is going to be best for the environment and unprocessed, although may still be crop-sprayed, as we discussed here.
Is freeze-dried fruit still healthy?
Frozen fruit and veg is usually still pretty high in nutrient value – especially if it is frozen quickly. I always try to get fish that has been frozen on the boat – much lower in histamine and much higher in nutrients. You are always going to lose some, especially of the antioxidants like Vitamin C, but actually some foods might benefit from the process nutritionally, so it’s swings and roundabouts.
I looked up what PaleoMom/Nutrivore expert, Sarah Ballantyne, had to say about freeze-dried fruit and veg and came across a useful podcast if you’re the techy type and want to know more. The comments on this actual page are worth skimming through too. She makes a good point about the fibre change possibly affecting the gut microbiome actions:
The details of fiber structure matter. The detail of the molecular structure matters in terms of what types of bacteria can access it, how easily they can access it, and how easily they can use it as food.
She concludes, as I do, that freeze-dried is great, especially if it helps you eat more fruit and veg generally, but that we need to get a mix of all types and forms of it for the best health – in moderation, as per.
One other thing to bear in mind is that fruits become little sugar bombs as the sugar is so much more concentrated. I did read this statement here:
Fresh strawberries contain 4.9% sugar. But freeze-dried strawberries contain 71% sugar, a 14-fold increase.
It’s not that they have more sugar than their fresh counterparts necessarily, more that they are tiny and we are likely to eat more, plus the water has gone so it’s not diluted, if you see what I mean. They are pretty fibrous though, so that helps to slow sugar-bombing down a bit. The trick is to be mindful of how many you are having.
You might eat 15 strawberries – with their fibre and water intact – and be perfectly satiated with that amount. But 15 tiny freeze dried strawberries as a snack might not seem enough so you have a tendency to eat more of them, and get more sugar that way. Think grapes and raisins: which would you eat more of?
One way to offset that is to always eat them as part of a meal or ‘clothe’ them with fibre, fat and/or protein eg. eat some nuts or seeds with them or have a few on your porridge. I think, essentially, my advice would be have some in the cupboard for when you run out of fresh, make sure you store them really well, preferably in glass with a tight lid – a Kilner jar type thing – and never snack on them on their own, especially if you are diabetic.
Ok, hope that answers K’s question and gives you some useful info – I enjoyed researching that! To chime in, here’s a load of ideas how to use them from Arbuckle’s. I think one of the most simple ways is to sprinkle them on yogurt or porridge, but you could also grind them into a powder and use in smoothies or baking.
How about an iced strawberry milkshake (it’s hot out there as I type!)? Plant milk, strawberries or powdered freeze-dried, of course. Enjoy x
Alzheimer’s prevention – new book from Patrick Holford
I did a note this week with this shocking quote.
Alzheimer’s is a preventable disease. Less than 1% of cases are caused by genes. We already know how to prevent at least 8 out of 10 cases and cut your risk by at least 80% if not completely for the vast majority of people. Later in life you may lose your hair but you never need to lose your memories. Patrick Holford.
It comes from Patrick Holford’s new book: Alzheimer’s Prevention is the Cure. I couldn’t agree more. I’ve yet to write much about it – see my Brain factsheet for some info – but I will. In the meantime, I think Patrick’s book would be great and we could all learn from it. I rate a lot of what he has to say, and have done for years. Check it out here – that link is for Food for the Brain as it nets them charity money, but you can also get it on Kindle etc from Amazon. It’s one I will certainly be reading.
May Goodies
Yep, it’ll be 1st May when I send this newsletter out. May. Blimey! Here’s a reminder of what foods are seasonally best in May to start you off:
Cabbage, Spinach, Spring greens, Radicchio, Watercress, Lettuce, Sorrel, Chervil, Mint, New potatoes, Radishes, Spring onions, Asparagus, Peas, Broad Beans. Rhubarb, Nectarines, Grapefruit.
Try combining some of those – new potatoes, spring onions, broad beans and asparagus with fresh mackerel would be lovely, for example. Fresh – not supermarket – mackerel was a revelation to me when I moved to Looe and tried day-boat mackerel. Oh. My. Word. Totally different taste, much more delicate. Try, if you can, to get fresh from your local fish market/fishmonger. No more than a day or two old. Honestly, you’ll be shocked. Should be much cheaper at the moment too as it’s also in season.
Here’s an idea for you to try this week from Riverford Organics.
Serve that with some fresh mackerel and it’ll be delicious. If you can’t get fresh, use smoked, tinned, peppered, whatever you fancy. It’s not as good as fresh, sure, but it’s oily fish – get some in 🙂 If you can’t stand mackerel, I reckon sea bass or even a cod loin would be lovely with that. Even easier, stir in a jar or tin of tuna. I know it’s expensive, but I use this tuna – safer for sensitives as it is in glass, so no corny tin linings.
May Garden tip: Weeds go mad in May, so get your hoe out. Do 10 mins first thing in the morning on a dry day and let the wind and sun kill them off for you. I should take my own advice. I hate weeding. Note to self: get a long-handled hoe!
And finally… I watched the shocking new Louis Theroux documentary about Israel and Gaza – he’s so clever at what he does, but I really don’t know how he holds his nerve. Just gives people enough rope… To offset that, I’m enjoying a funny, fluffy Marian Keyes novel, Last Chance Saloon, that I picked up for 50p in a charity shop. I’ve enjoyed her since my sister brought me an audio of book of hers from the library to listen to when I was poorly once. I have fair-snorted at some of the excellent one liners.
I really tried to buy a Ruggable washable rug for the bathroom this week – mainly because some eejit (see Irish idioms rubbing off on me from Marian) put polished VERY SLIPPY tiles in the bathroom of our new flat. I went flying, one foot on the bath mat and the other karate-kicking the bath rack in two. Quite impressive. As are my bruises. P and I are both doing competitive grunting noises now as we move!
I couldn’t make myself buy it – too expensive!
That’s it for this issue, folks!
I truly hope you find my Purehealth newsletters useful. If you like what I’m doing, please subscribe here, like and share on your socials; it really helps others get life-changing info they may need x
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