Dried fruits are a valuable food product, enriched with vitamins and minerals. Almost every diet contains snacks with this delicacy in its menu. Dried berries and fruits (including nuts) are great as an afternoon snack while losing weight. It is only important to choose the right portion, otherwise you can get the opposite effect.
The effect of dried fruits on the body during weight loss
When you add small amounts of dried fruit to your diet, your body receives the required daily amount of minerals and other beneficial microelements. And most importantly, dried fruits significantly dull the feeling of hunger and are a delicious sweet dessert during a diet.
During weight loss, the body begins to experience a lot of stress, thereby causing severe hunger and unpleasant weakness. A properly selected set of dried fruits will help replace rich and high-calorie foods. It is especially useful to eat them on fasting days.
Dietary products that can be partially or completely replaced with dried fruits:
But you should understand that you shouldn’t eat dried fruits alone, they still contain sugar, and their excess can significantly spoil digestion and bring the whole diet to naught. You need to eat dried fruits in small portions, no more than 5 times a day.
If you add nuts to dried fruits, then this mixture will perfectly replace a full lunch while losing weight.
Rules for fasting days on dried fruits
Before such days, according to the rules, you can carry out a detox-unloading on dried fruits for greater efficiency (for example, a fasting day on the “Brush” salad).
It is worth combining fruits with nuts (walnuts, cashews, hazelnuts) for a more complete composition.
The daily amount of fruit and nut mixture should be divided into 5-6 doses.
During fasting days, drinking coffee, carbonated drinks and alcohol is not recommended. You can drink still water and green tea.
What dried fruits are recommended for weight loss?
A diet based on dried fruits is considered one of the healthiest and most delicious diets. In just 2-4 weeks you can lose significant weight and, on top of that, saturate your body with vitamins and strengthen your immune system.
Most dried fruit diets include a mixture of healthy and nutritious nuts, so when we talk about dried fruit we mean dried berries, fruits and nuts.
- Prunes are the first famous dried fruit, designed to quickly rid the body of harmful substances, improve digestion and remove excess fats, preventing them from being fully absorbed. Prunes also contain beneficial substances that improve mood.
- Dried apricots are the second in line of the healthiest dried fruits for weight loss. It replenishes calcium, potassium and magnesium reserves. Regulates heart function and reduces hunger for 1 hour.
- Raisins are a vitamin-rich dried fruit that contains healthy sugars and iodine. Improves thyroid function. Included in any diet. Gives the body strength.
- Dates are popular dried berries that have a special “date” diet. However, many nutritionists do not recommend consuming these sweets as a product for weight loss. Most dates are not dried naturally, but using saccharification. That is, all dates are first soaked in sugar syrup and then only dried. As everyone losing weight knows, excess sugar spoils your figure. And only a small proportion of the dates available on the shelves, dried without the use of sugar, are suitable for dietary nutrition for the purpose of losing weight.
- Apples and pears are also actively used in diets and promote active weight loss. But unlike other dried fruits, apples and pears are preferable to use as a base for compote.
- Figs are an ancient dried fruit designed to cleanse the intestines and stimulate the process of weight loss. In addition to the weight loss effect, figs are considered the most active source of stimulating the immune system. Figs also cope well with colds and saturate the body with a large amount of vitamins. Separately, we can note the small grains of figs - they play the role of fiber - they remove everything unnecessary and harmful from the intestines.
- Nuts are the main source of satiety during weight loss. Any mixture of dried fruits is not complete without adding healthy nuts.
These include:
- almond;
- cashew nuts;
- pistachios;
- hazelnut;
- Walnut.
It is not recommended to eat salted nuts, sweetened nuts or chocolate while losing weight.
Benefit
In order to answer the question in detail and clearly: “Why a fasting day on nuts with apples and dried fruits?”, you should understand the composition of these products and study their beneficial properties.
Although nuts are a high-calorie product, their inclusion in diets and fasting days makes sense. The huge amount of polyunsaturated fatty acids and protein they contain makes nuts a “slow combustion” product. This means that you can eat a small amount of nuts in the morning and then not feel hungry for a long time.
Important! Peanuts are a member of the legume family and not a nut.
Also, the content of vitamins B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, B9, C, E and the minerals potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, calcium, iron, zinc and sodium makes nuts and dry fruits a good inclusion in diets and fasting days. However, they are heavy foods that clog the intestines. And the main task of a fasting day on apples and nuts is to “cleanse” the intestines. To accomplish this task, nuts must be combined with fresh fruit, such as an apple, or dried fruit.
Dried fruits and apples have a lot of fiber, which helps cleanse the body. Dried fruits are very rich in carbohydrates, which are a source of energy. A fresh apple consists of 95% water, and it is necessary for the body to function efficiently.
Thus, a combination of high-calorie nuts with apples or dried fruits will be ideal for a fasting day. The body will be cleansed without harm to health.
Advantages and disadvantages
Like any other dietary product, dried fruits have their pros and cons. The main thing here is to maintain a happy medium and not overeat them.
Losing weight with dried fruits has several benefits:
- heals and strengthens the entire body;
- Helps effectively fight excess weight;
- reduces hunger;
- normalizes the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract;
- helps to gently reduce the size of the stomach.
Dried fruits also have their disadvantages:
- Contraindicated for people with diabetes.
- In case of gastrointestinal diseases they can be dangerous. If you eat dried fruits for too long and too often, you may experience digestive problems.
- Frequent counterfeits (especially candied fruits).
- Failure to comply with sanitary and hygienic conditions. Dried fruits are often sold by weight. All day long, open boxes with dried delicacies stand in the open air - flies land on them, dust settles, hundreds of people pass by, who can sneeze, touch or even spit on the dried fruit.
- Treatment with chemicals. It is better not to trust those dried fruits that are sold in market stalls. Many unscrupulous sellers spray products with chemicals to repel pests and improve the appearance of the product.
Flaws
Like any other diet, eating dried fruits has a number of disadvantages. Such nutrition cannot be called balanced, so the diet may not be suitable for everyone who wants to try it for themselves. It is important to consult a specialist before choosing a diet based on dried fruits. Only the attending doctor can recommend it or advise against this method of losing weight. Proper nutrition combined with physical activity will achieve the desired result. We offer ready-made rations. The prepared dishes are not only tasty, but also healthy, since our specialists prepare based on the number of permissible calories.
Dried fruits + nuts
Some 5-7 years ago, nuts were considered the enemy of all those losing weight and were prohibited in any diet. The reason was the large amount of fat and calories. But thanks to modern research, nutritionists have come to the conclusion that a small amount of nuts eaten during a diet will only be beneficial and will not slow down the process of losing weight.
Nuts contain fiber and protein - one of the main components of a proper diet. They also have a beneficial effect on overall energy.
The ideal combination when losing weight would be a mixture of dried fruits (75%) and nuts (25%). You can make healthy and tasty bars based on dried fruits, nuts and grains; you can read more about them here.
How to choose the right dried fruits
In order for the weight loss process to go smoothly without compromising your health, it is important to know how to choose quality products correctly. This is especially true for mixtures of dried fruits and nuts. Remember a few rules and tips for choosing dried products:
- Any dried fruits (including mixtures) must be hermetically packaged.
- Dried fruits should not smell of acid or wine.
- The dried apricots should not be very soft and definitely not hard.
- Dried apricots and prunes should have no seeds.
- Avoid bright orange dried apricots and black shiny prunes - these are all dyes.
- There should be no plaque on dried fruits. The presence of dust, dirt, grayness is a sign of contamination or even the beginning of mold.
- Do not buy loose dried fruits in tents near the road - dirt and machine exhaust settle on them.
- If you doubt the freshness of dried fruits, ask the seller to show documents for the products. There must be a date and expiration date. If the seller refuses to show the documentation, immediately pass by.
- Avoid buying sticky and candied dried fruits. They were most likely dried using sugar syrup. High-quality and natural dried fruit should not stick to your hands and sugar crystals should not form on it.
Reviews
People have shared different reviews about the effectiveness of fasting days on nuts.
Anna, 29 years old: “At the age of 25 I gave birth to a daughter and after that my weight settled at 63 kilograms. I had never weighed that much, so I decided to take charge of myself and began doing fasting days once a week. After the first time, there was an immediate feeling of lightness. The weight began to drop, I began to feel much better. A very effective way to lose weight and start leading a healthy lifestyle, which requires virtually no sacrifice.”
Elena, 35 years old: “I want to tell you about how I cleansed my body and lost a few extra pounds. It always seemed to me that it takes enormous willpower to go on a diet and then strictly adhere to it. Therefore, a fasting day turned out to be a great option for me. I have been doing fasting days for 2.5 years once a week. In the first 6 months I lost 10 kilograms and began to weigh only 58, the same as I weighed when I was 20 years old! And now for 2 years my weight has remained at one point and has not changed at all. There was also a feeling of lightness. And the main thing is that it’s not at all difficult, just get used to fasting days, and after a few months you won’t even remember that you once lived without them.”
Useful tips
For more effective absorption of dried fruits, we recommend that you familiarize yourself with useful tips and tricks.
- Do not store dried fruits in bags or plastic. They can quickly deteriorate and become moldy. It is better to use cloth bags.
- Before eating dried fruits, rinse them thoroughly.
- Dried fruits can be eaten in four cases:
- instead of a snack;
- overcome strong feelings of hunger;
- enjoy something sweet;
- drink delicious compote.
- Eat dried fruits in small quantities, do not overeat on them.
- Consume no more than half a handful of raisins per day.
- Dried fruits are best consumed in the morning. You should not eat them at night.
Recipe for dietary dessert made from dried fruits
This recipe is not just a delicious dessert, but is also a valuable strengthening, anti-inflammatory and immunostimulating agent that should be consumed even during the most severe diet. This sweet tastes very aromatic and tart. Ideal for tea. And most importantly, preparing such a vitamin charge is very simple:
- You will need dried fruits in equal quantities. Depending on the final volume you need. For the first time, you can do quite a bit for testing. Take a handful of prunes, dried apricots, raisins, walnuts and hazelnuts. In addition there is 1 lemon and honey.
- We thoroughly wash the fruits and nuts and let them dry from the water.
- Next, you need to grind all the dried fruits. You need to remove all the seeds from the lemon, otherwise the mixture will be very bitter. You can use a blender, but a meat grinder is best.
- Mix the resulting ground mixture thoroughly and season with honey. 1-2 tablespoons is enough.
You need to eat this “vitamin” every day before meals. And then any diet will be tasty and effective for you. This delicacy can fully replace the use of vitamins in tablet form.
This mixture of dried fruits is very sweet and has a high calorie content, but it does not have any negative effect on the weight loss process. But such vitamins perfectly relieve hunger and the need for sweets. Plus, this mixture is great outside of the diet.
We bring to your attention a video with a famous nutritionist from the Ionova Clinic about which dried fruits are healthy:
Menu
Nutritionists around the world express a positive opinion regarding fasting days on nuts. They also compiled several different options for carrying them out.
Option #1
You should buy 350 grams of various nuts and 350 grams of dried fruits. The more varied their selection, the better. If this is the first fasting day, then you can buy the dried fruits and nuts that you like most so that eating them brings pleasure. This will help the body cope with stress.
You should divide the food into three to four meals. If the feeling of hunger comes, and eating is not soon, then you need to drink a glass of water.
According to reviews, this version of the fasting day is easy, the feeling of hunger practically does not occur. Headaches and weakness are rare.
Option No. 2
You should buy 100 grams of nuts and 500 grams of dried fruits. It is necessary to rinse the dried fruits well and soak them overnight in warm water, and in the morning mix them with nuts and then divide the resulting mixture into 10 doses. On average there will be one serving for every two hours. It is necessary to chew soaked dried fruits thoroughly, this will allow you to quickly experience a feeling of fullness and facilitate further work of the gastrointestinal tract.
This option is heavier than the previous one, and the feeling of hunger will most likely be present throughout the day. However, this method is more effective for losing weight than the first.
Option #3
Suitable only for people with a healthy stomach. You need to buy 2 kilograms of sweet and sour apples, 2 liters of water and 150 grams of nuts. Then you should divide the apples and water into 3 meals, and eat nuts between meals throughout the day.
Contraindications
Despite the high usefulness of the dried fruit diet, there are a number of contraindications to its use as a stimulant for weight loss:
- presence of diabetes mellitus;
- flatulence;
- dysbacteriosis;
- exacerbation of gastritis;
- stomach ulcer;
- intolerance to certain dried fruits;
- allergy.
If you find at least one indicator that suits you in the list, don’t despair. There are many other effective weight loss methods that lull the feeling of hunger and benefit the body.
When losing weight, dried fruits perfectly complement your diet and protect your figure. The main thing is to choose the right dietary menu and calculate the required amount of dry treats. The best decision would be to go to a nutritionist, where they will explain everything to you in detail and select a suitable diet.