Grapes are a snack food and side dish due to their sweet flavor, durability and transportability. But whether or not they are a healthy, low-calorie treat, as many fruits are, is often determined by how they are presented: fresh, canned or dried.
Background
Grapes fall under the plant genus Vitis, with species Vitis vinifera, the European grape, being the most popular for wines and table grapes. They are called European because they are native to Europe, however they are grown widely in the U.S. as well, particularly in the northeast, northwest, California, Texas and Florida. These are the grapes used to make many popular wines, such as Chardonnay, Merlot and Pinot Noir. There is an enormous difference in the nutritional value and calorie content of European grapes, depending on the form in which they are consumed.
Calorie Counts
A cup of fresh grapes contains only 104 calories, and canned grapes packed in water have a similar number of calories at 98 per cup. Canned grapes packed in syrup, however, have about twice the calories, at 195 per cup due to the added sweetener in the heavy syrup. Raisins, by comparison, have far more calories than either fresh or canned at 438 per loosely packed cup. That difference is simply due to the fact that fresh or canned grapes contain a lot more water in the same volume.
Fat Content
Regardless of form, grapes are an extremely low-fat food. The fresh and canned varieties contain only 0.2 and 0.3 grams of fat per cup, respectively. Raisins, due to their density, have just a little more, at 0.7 grams per cup, but this is still essentially negligible. If you are trying to reduce fat in your diet, grapes in any form are an excellent way to add volume with virtually no impact to the fat gram tally.
Carbohydrate Content
What they lack in fat, however, grapes make up for in carbohydrate content. As one of the sweeter fruits, grapes are packed with natural sugars. Fresh and water-pack canned grapes have 27.4 and 25.2 grams of carbohydrate, respectively, most of which is natural sugar--23.4 and 23.8 grams per cup. Those packed in syrup have about twice that amount, with 50.3 grams of carbohydrate and 48.8 grams of sugar in a cup. Due to the density of dried fruit, raisins have far more than either fresh or canned. A loosely packed cup of raisins contains almost 115 grams of carbohydrate, about 75 percent of which is natural sugar, totaling almost 86 grams. That is about the amount of sugar you would find in three cups of marshmallows.
For all their carbohydrates, grapes are relatively weak providers of dietary fiber. The fresh and canned fruit offer only a gram and a half of fiber per cup, while the dried fruit does a little better at 5.4 grams.
Protein Content
As with most fruits, grapes do not contain a lot of protein. Fresh grapes only have 1.1 grams of protein per cup, and canned grapes in water or syrup have 1.2. Raisins offer a bit more, with 4.5 grams in a loosely packed cup.
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