Is dried fruit a healthy snack?
There's a reason dried fruit ends up in almost every lunchbox in the country. It doesn't bruise, it doesn't leak, it survives a week at the bottom of a nappy bag, and small children fall on it like it's a lolly. Which, in fairness, is roughly how it tastes to them.
That's also where the trouble starts. A child can put away three dried apricots before you've finished pouring their water, and the little yellow boxes are cheap enough to buy by the carton. Dried fruit sits in an odd spot on the healthy snack spectrum, well ahead of a chocolate bar and some way behind a piece of fresh fruit.
Key takeaways
- Dried fruit keeps the fibre, minerals and antioxidants of fresh fruit
- Removing the water concentrates the natural sugars and kilojoules
- The Australian Dietary Guidelines list dried fruit as an occasional choice
- One serve is only 30g, roughly 1½ tablespoons of sultanas
- Stickiness raises the risk of tooth decay
- Whole dried fruit is a choking risk for children under four
- Dried apricots often contain sulphite preservatives
Is dried fruit healthy for children?
Dried fruit is a nutritious food, and it counts towards the fruit group, though it's meant to be an occasional choice rather than a daily snack. The drying process removes the water along with some vitamin C and folate, keeps the fibre, minerals and antioxidants, and concentrates the natural sugars and kilojoules into a much smaller package.
Eat for Health, the National Health and Medical Research Council's guide to the Australian Dietary Guidelines, groups dried fruit with fruit juice under choices to have only occasionally. Its reasoning is short and practical: dried fruit is high in kilojoules, it sticks to teeth and raises the risk of dental decay, and it's very easy to eat more than you realise.
That last point is the one most parents recognise. A whole apple takes a while to get through and fills a small stomach. The dried equivalent disappears in a handful.
How much dried fruit counts as a serve?
One serve of dried fruit is 30g, which Eat for Health describes as four dried apricot halves or about 1½ tablespoons of sultanas. That's the same as one medium apple, two small plums or a cup of diced fruit, all of which weigh around 150g.
The daily fruit target is modest for young children. Eat for Health recommends one serve a day for two to three year olds and 1½ serves for four to eight year olds. A standard snack box of sultanas can therefore account for a child's entire fruit intake for the day, in about ninety seconds, without any of the water, volume or chewing that makes fresh fruit satisfying.
Four things worth keeping an eye on
1. Teeth
Dried fruit raises the risk of tooth decay because the sugars are sticky and stay on the teeth long after the snack is finished. Serving dried fruit with a meal rather than on its own helps, since more saliva is produced at mealtimes. A glass of water afterwards, a piece of cheese, and brushing twice a day with a small soft brush all do more than any single post-snack ritual.
2. How quickly it adds up
Because the kilojoules are concentrated into a small volume, dried fruit doesn't fill a child up the way fresh fruit does, and children can keep eating well past the point where an apple would have stopped them. The high fibre content can also cause tummy troubles and loose stools when a child works through a large amount in one sitting. Portioning it into a small container beats handing over the box.
3. Choking
Whole dried fruit is a choking risk for young children. Raising Children Network advises giving food in pea-sized pieces or smaller until a child can chew well, and holding off on whole nuts, seeds and similar hard foods until they're four. Sultanas and raisins are small, round and firm, which is the exact shape and texture that lodges in a small airway. Soaking them to soften, cutting larger pieces in half, and keeping children seated and supervised while they eat all reduce the risk.
4. Sulphites
Dried apricots and other light-coloured dried fruits are often treated with sulphite preservatives to keep their colour. Food Standards Australia New Zealand has concluded that sulphites are safe for most people, though some sulphite-sensitive people, many of whom also have asthma, can react with allergy-like symptoms. FSANZ has also found a potential for some children who eat large amounts of certain foods to exceed the acceptable daily intake.
Fresh fruit swaps that work at snack time
The importance of food variety cannot be overstated, and the simplest replacement for dried fruit is fruit. Offering a range of colours through the week, like green grapes, orange peaches, red strawberries and purple plums, covers a wider spread of nutrients than any single favourite can. Preparation is what makes it work for small children:
- Chopped or served as a salad. Small pieces are easier for little fingers and safer for small airways.
- Stirred through yoghurt. Adds calcium and slows the whole snack down.
- Rolled in desiccated coconut. Makes familiar fruit feel like a different food.
- Frozen in bite-sized pieces. Pineapple and mango work well, and frozen fruit is brilliant for teething.
- Blended into a smoothie. Milk or yoghurt turns a snack into something more filling.
- Blended and frozen as a slushie. Same fruit, different novelty.
Healthy snack ideas for under-fives
Snacks do real nutritional work for young children, whose stomachs are too small to get everything they need from three meals. If you need tips on how to assemble a health lunch box, some options that suit the under-five crowd are:
- Vegetable sticks with a dip. Carrot, zucchini or celery with mashed avocado or hummus, steamed soft for younger children.
- Rice cakes with a topping. Cream cheese, avocado or nut-free spread, keeping full-fat dairy for children under two.
- Vegetable pikelets or savoury scones. Both freeze well and defrost in a lunchbox by morning tea.
- Hard-boiled eggs. Quartered rather than halved for younger children.
- Small tins of baked beans. Reduced-salt varieties where you can find them.
- Yoghurt. Plain with fruit stirred through beats the pre-sweetened tubs.
- Cheese slices or sticks. Good for teeth as well as calcium.
- Trail mix with smooth nut butter rather than whole nuts. Whole nuts aren't suitable for children under four, and most services are nut-free anyway.
- Vegetable, meat or tuna patties. Fine warm or cold, and useful for using up leftovers.
The short version for busy parents
Dried fruit isn't a food to feel guilty about. It's fruit, it's portable, and there are worse things in a lunchbox by a very wide margin. It works best as a sometimes food in a small portion, served with a meal, cut or soaked for younger children, and followed by water.
The rest of the time, fresh fruit does the same job with more water (more volume and less stickiness) and it's usually cheaper by weight. If your child's current position is that sultanas are the only acceptable fruit, that's normal, and it passes. Offering the fresh version alongside without comment is still the approach with the best track record.
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