Although fresh and frozen fruits are better choices, you can have dried fruit if you're a diabetic. The dehydration process that removes water from fruit causes it to shrink. For this reason, fruit is more concentrated than its fresh and frozen counterparts, so watch your portion sizes.
Considerations
The American Diabetes Association says you should eat fresh fruit three times daily: one small piece of whole fresh fruit or 1/2 cup of fresh fruit at breakfast, lunch and dinner. You can exchange dried fruit for fresh fruit, but consider portion size. A half cup of dried fruit may equal up to 2 cups of fresh fruit. Also, choose a variety of dried fruit that doesn't have added sugars.
Portions
A drawback of eating dried fruit on a diabetes diet is that you must keep your portions very small. And when your portions are smaller, you are less likely to feel satisfied. For example, 1 cup of raw, fresh grapes has 104 calories, but 1 cup of raisins has 488 calories.
Glycemic Index
In general, fresh and frozen fruits are low glycemic. Fruit, as well as all other carbohydrate-containing foods, affects your blood-glucose levels. But because fresh and frozen fruits are low on the glycemic index, eating them in moderate quantities won't cause your blood-glucose levels to spike dramatically. A limited amount of dried fruit, however, has a lot of carbohydrates, because it's concentrated. A mere 2 tbsp. of dried fruit has the same amount of carbohydrates as a small piece of fresh whole fruit.
Benefits
Dried fruit is a relatively healthy alternative to traditional desserts and candies. Because dried fruit is so concentrated, it tastes much sweeter than fresh or frozen fruit. For this reason, eating a small portion of dried fruit can satisfy your sweet tooth. Just be sure that your variety of dried fruit doesn't have any added sweeteners. Also avoid candied fruit -- treat it as you would any other kind of candy.
