Dried fruits are a convenient source of nutrients in off seasons. Of the lot, raisins are indeed one of our favourite, as they are not only healthy but quite delicious, and are readily available. Moderate in iron and high in potassium, raisins are healthy, they retain more antioxidants as compared to most other dried fruits like dried apricot and dried plums. Nowadays, people have also labeled soaked raisins as ‘superfoods.’ Though it is a bit of very common advice to consume soaked raisins or raisin water even when fresh grapes are in season, does it make raisins a ‘superfood.’ Well an expert suggests otherwise. Nutritionist Bhuvan Rastogi, in his latest Instagram video, opined that consuming soaked raisins over grapes makes no sense.
Explaining that raisins are just dehydrated grapes, Rastogi said that there is no major benefit of rehydrating them. “All articles about the benefits of soaked raisins or raisin water talk about the benefits of raisins, not the added advantage of soaking. If there is, it’s nothing more than the usual better absorption of nutrients (same as soaking nuts),” he wrote in the caption of the video.
Further assessing the decision to pick soaked raisins over fresh grapes, Rastogi stated that “raisins are inferior to grapes.” According to the expert, when grapes are dehydrated they lose vitamins. He said that grapes have 15 times more vitamin K, 6 times more vitamin E and C, and 2 times more vitamin B1 and B2 than raisins.
He did mention that the numbers can vary from variety to variety and level of dehydration. But above all, the nutritionist highlighted that there is a major loss of vitamins and hence antioxidants, if one picks dehydrated grapes over fresh ones.
“So having raisins or soaked raisins over grapes makes no sense,” he wrote, suggesting that when grapes are in season – one should always pick them.
“Don’t treat raisins as some overcharged super foods but just another dried fruit, which should be taken when fresh is not available,” Rastogi adds.
