Candied fruit is actually a healthy food, right?

To get the nutritional content of fruit, now there are various kinds of fruit preparations that are also refreshing. One of them is candied fruit which many people like. Even though it offers a fresh and delicious taste when consumed, is this candied fruit good for the health of the body? Come on, see the full review below.

What is the way to make candied fruit?

From the name, of course, you already know that candied fruit comes from fruit that is given an additional sweetener. Almost all types of fruit can be processed into wet or dry sweets, but the fruit chosen is certainly not arbitrary.

Usually, fruit that is used as the main raw material for making sweets is fruit that is ripe, but still hard enough and not physically defective. The shelf life of the sweets is very dependent on the concentration of sugar added. This is because the sugar content determines the sweets can be stored for a relatively long period of time.

Even though sugar has been added, candied fruit still needs preservatives to prevent the fruit rot. Materials used include sodium benzoate or sodium meta-bisulfite. The sulfite content is used to preserve and ward off browning aka browning that usually occurs in fruit soaked in sugar.

To make sweets, the fruit to be candied is soaked with a 40 percent sugar solution first. After stirring evenly, the solution is added a little salt and preservative to add a crunchy sensation to the sweets. The candied solution is then heated to a boil until the fruit is half cooked.

After draining the half-baked sweets, the vanilla extract is added to the leftover water to scent the candied fruit. Furthermore, the fruit that has been drained will be put back and let stand overnight. Then the candied fruit is ready for consumption.

The nutritional content of candied fruit

As is well known, fruit contains nutrients, minerals and calories that are good for the body. However, some of the nutritional content will be lost or reduced due to processing, including when made into sweets.

In one serving of candied weighing 21 grams, candied fruit contains 83 kilocalories; 0.04 grams of fat; 20.58 grams of carbohydrates; 13.21 grams of sugar; and 8 milligrams of sodium. When calculated as a whole, sweets contain almost 100 percent of carbohydrates in one serving.

As previously explained, the processing of sweets uses sugar which functions as a preservative and sweetener. The amount of sugar used varies, on average it takes 200 kg of granulated sugar to produce 500 to 800 kg of sweets. Sugar needs are determined by the taste of the fruit which is the raw material. If the fruit is sweet, then the need for sugar is certainly not as much as less sweet fruit.

Watch out, the sugar content in candied fruit is not good for your health

Judging from the manufacturing process and nutritional content, sweets are high-sugar foods. This means that if you eat candied fruit too often, you put a lot of sugar into the body. This of course can make blood sugar spike and endanger the health of your body.

Excessive sugar consumption can disrupt the body's metabolic system and have an impact on the onset of disease. Reporting from the Healthline page, added sugars (such as sucrose and high fructose corn syrup) contain a number of calories without other important nutrients (so-called empty calories). So, you only accumulate calories in the body without getting the nutritional benefits.

Excessive sugar intake in the body can make you prone to dental and mouth problems, diabetes, insulin resistance, obesity, and end up at risk of heart disease. Therefore, you should avoid excessive consumption of candied fruit so that your blood sugar remains stable.

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