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The Health Risks of Sulfur Dioxide in Dried Fruits

Dried fruit can cause respiratory problems if you have sulfite sensitivity.

Sulfur dioxide might not sound good enough to eat, but this food preservative does make its way into a number of edibles, including dried fruits such as raisins, dried apricots and prunes. Sulfur dioxide is one type of sulfite, a preservative whose name might be more familiar. Even a small amount of sulfite can wreak health havoc if you’re sensitive to it. If you have asthma, sulfite sensitivity or sulfite allergy, eating dried fruits might cause serious health problems, including breathing problems, life-threatening allergy-like symptoms or, in rare cases, death.

Sulfites in Dried Fruits

Dried fruits are among the foods highest in sulfites, with raisins and prunes containing between 500 and 2,000 parts per million, Dr. Gregory Möller of the University of Iowa reports. By comparison, wine – a food thought by many to be high in sulfites – contains between 20 and 350 parts per million. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration mandates that foods containing more than 10 parts per million of sulfites must list this information on the food label. Countries have different standards for sulfites. The Australian government limits the amount of sulfites in foods to 3,000 ppm, while the British government limits sulfites in food to 2,000 ppm, according to the Food Intolerance Network.

Asthma and Sulfite Sensitivity

If you have asthma, you have a much higher risk of developing a reaction to sulfur dioxide than a person without asthma. By contrast, if you don’t have asthma, you have a very low risk of having sulfite sensitivity, a condition that causes asthma-like symptoms such as wheezing and difficulty breathing, the Cleveland Clinic explains. While only around 1 percent of Americans overall have sulfite sensitivity, between 5 and 10 percent of asthmatics might react to sulfites, the Cleveland Clinic explains. If you eat dried fruit, always have your inhaler and other asthma or allergy medications on hand. Seek immediate attention if you can’t breathe, start wheezing, develop hives, facial swelling or collapse.

dried-fruits

Sulfite Allergy

Sulfites are inorganic salts and don’t contain the proteins that cause true allergic reactions to foods. Fruits themselves do contain a small amount of protein and can cause a true allergic reaction. If you develop asthma-like symptoms, hives, facial swelling or a rash after eating dried fruits, you could have allergy to fruit rather than sulfite sensitivity, although the symptoms might be very similar. A sulfite reaction can cause symptoms very similar to an allergic reaction, such as wheezing and difficulty breathing.

Sulfite-Related Deaths

Approximately 20 known deaths have occurred as a result of severe sulfite sensitivity, according to Möller. Death from sulfite sensitivity occurs from anaphylaxis, a severe sensitivity or allergic reaction that causes collapse of the circulatory system and throat swelling. If you have a severe sulfite sensitivity, ask your doctor to order injectable adrenaline and carry it with you at all times.

Avoiding Sulfite in Dried Fruit

To avoid sulfites in dried fruit, choose organic brands that don’t use preservatives including sulfur dioxide, in their produce. Organic dried fruits won’t last as long as fruits containing preservatives, but freezing fruit will extend its shelf life, according to National Geographic.

References 
University of Florida IFAS Extension: Sulfites: Separating Fact from Fiction
Food Intolerance Network: Dangers of Dried Fruit
University of Iowa: Food Intolerance and Metabolic Disorders
University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Sulfite-Induced Asthma
Cleveland Clinic: Sulfite Sensitivity
National Geographic: About Organic Dried Fruit


by Sharon Perkins , Demand Media

About the Author
A registered nurse with more than 25 years of experience in oncology, labor/delivery, neonatal intensive care, infertility and ophthalmology, Sharon Perkins has also coauthored and edited numerous health books for the Wiley “Dummies” series. Perkins also has extensive experience working in home health with medically fragile pediatric patients.


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Is Dried Fruit Just a Giant Sugar Bomb?

Mandy Oaklander      @mandyoaklander      Oct. 22, 2015     

Nope. It’s healthy, say 4/5 experts.

Call your grandma, because prunes—and other shriveled dried fruits—really are awesome, say four out of five of our experts.

But there’s one very important fact to remember: drying fruit shrinks everything about it, including how much of the food you should reasonably let yourself eat. “If you remove the water from fresh fruits, it will reduce the serving size to about 75 percent,” says Kristi King, senior clinical dietitian at Texas Children’s Hospital.

That smaller serving size can make dried fruits easy to overeat.You get a measly number of raisins (also known as dried grapes) in a serving: those 1.5-ounce boxes at the bottom of your trick-or-treating bag is one serving. But if you’re eating fresh grapes, a serving is a whole cup.

The spookiest part of overeating dried fruit is all the sugar, says dietitian Kristin Kirkpatrick of Cleveland Clinic’s Wellness Institute. That Halloween box of raisins has 25 grams of sugar. “You just can’t justify the added stress on the body to process such large amounts of sugar at one time, or the inflammation roller coaster that occurs on a high-sugar diet,” she says. Our experts agree that you shouldn’t eat dried fruits that contain added sugar; always check the ingredient list to make sure. “When the native sugar of the fruit is combined with extra added sugar, you are now in the realm of candy,” says David Katz, MD, director of the Yale University Prevention Research Center.

raisins



But the small, concentrated portions of dried fruits are part of the reason they’re so beloved. “Dried fruit is convenient, portable and durable, so it is a staple in my travel snack pack,” says Katz. They’re a great and high-quality source of fiber; the box of raisins has 1.6 grams of fiber, which can be a lot easier to eat than the whole cup of grapes you’d need to get the same amount.

Dried might even have an edge over fresh. In a study where researchers compared the amount and quality of antioxidants in certain dried fruits to fresh fruits, they found that figs and dried plums (also known as prunes) contained the best-quality antioxidants. “Dried fruits are an excellent source of fiber and a concentrated source of antioxidants,” says study co-author Joe Vinson, professor of chemistry at the University of Scranton. Texas A&M University professor Nancy Turner, who has also conducted research on prunes, agrees that dried fruit can be great, so long as it doesn’t contain added sugar.

Antioxidant- and fiber-filled snacks that last for months and can survive a crushing at the bottom of a backpack? Huh. Prunes sure are more badass than we thought.

source: time.com


by Leave a comment

Is Dried Fruit Just a Giant Sugar Bomb?

Mandy Oaklander      @mandyoaklander      Oct. 22, 2015     

Nope. It’s healthy, say 4/5 experts.

Call your grandma, because prunes—and other shriveled dried fruits—really are awesome, say four out of five of our experts.

But there’s one very important fact to remember: drying fruit shrinks everything about it, including how much of the food you should reasonably let yourself eat. “If you remove the water from fresh fruits, it will reduce the serving size to about 75 percent,” says Kristi King, senior clinical dietitian at Texas Children’s Hospital.

That smaller serving size can make dried fruits easy to overeat.You get a measly number of raisins (also known as dried grapes) in a serving: those 1.5-ounce boxes at the bottom of your trick-or-treating bag is one serving. But if you’re eating fresh grapes, a serving is a whole cup.

The spookiest part of overeating dried fruit is all the sugar, says dietitian Kristin Kirkpatrick of Cleveland Clinic’s Wellness Institute. That Halloween box of raisins has 25 grams of sugar. “You just can’t justify the added stress on the body to process such large amounts of sugar at one time, or the inflammation roller coaster that occurs on a high-sugar diet,” she says. Our experts agree that you shouldn’t eat dried fruits that contain added sugar; always check the ingredient list to make sure. “When the native sugar of the fruit is combined with extra added sugar, you are now in the realm of candy,” says David Katz, MD, director of the Yale University Prevention Research Center.

But the small, concentrated portions of dried fruits are part of the reason they’re so beloved. “Dried fruit is convenient, portable and durable, so it is a staple in my travel snack pack,” says Katz. They’re a great and high-quality source of fiber; the box of raisins has 1.6 grams of fiber, which can be a lot easier to eat than the whole cup of grapes you’d need to get the same amount.

Dried might even have an edge over fresh. In a study where researchers compared the amount and quality of antioxidants in certain dried fruits to fresh fruits, they found that figs and dried plums (also known as prunes) contained the best-quality antioxidants. “Dried fruits are an excellent source of fiber and a concentrated source of antioxidants,” says study co-author Joe Vinson, professor of chemistry at the University of Scranton. Texas A&M University professor Nancy Turner, who has also conducted research on prunes, agrees that dried fruit can be great, so long as it doesn’t contain added sugar.

Antioxidant- and fiber-filled snacks that last for months and can survive a crushing at the bottom of a backpack? Huh. Prunes sure are more badass than we thought.

source: time.com