Dried Apricots

Food · Fruit · Food, Typed Supps

1,428 mg of potassium per hundred — the highest of any fruit in the library.

Stage by stage

The colour (The fruit): Orange means sulphur dioxide; unsulphured apricots go brown and taste identical.
Potassium (Circulation): 1,428 mg per 100 g — the highest fruit figure here, about seven bananas by weight.
Beta-carotene (Systemic): 2,242 mcg per 100 g, giving 375 mcg of vitamin A activity.
Fibre (Gut): 8.3 g per 100 g, marginally above prunes.

Timing

Nothing to time. The two things that matter are sulphite sensitivity and, in kidney disease, the potassium load.

Time to effect

Per 40 g handful: About 570 mg potassium and 900 mcg beta-carotene.
Cumulative: Potassium and carotenoid contribute over time.

Allergens

None of the fourteen major allergens. May contain: Sulphites. Derived from what this food is, not from a product label.

Eating patterns

Fits: Vegan, Vegetarian, Pescatarian, Halal, Kosher, Gluten-free. Depends on the product: Low-FODMAP.

Satiety

Not scored: the satiety index is measured on 240 kcal servings, and nobody eats a 240 kcal serving of this. The question does not apply rather than the answer being unknown.

Environmental footprint

1.1 kg CO2e and 199 litres of freshwater per kg, matched to "Other fruit" in Poore & Nemecek (2018), Science 360.

Cost band

Cheap — roughly £3 per kg, as a band midpoint rather than a price.

Key nutrients

Nutrition per 100g

Calories: 232
Protein: 4.2g
Carbohydrate: 48.4g
of which sugars: 42.3g
Fat: 0.4g
Fibre: 8.3g
Sodium: 22mg

Food vs. supplement

Potassium supplements are capped at low doses in Australia because of the arrhythmia risk from a rapid rise. A 100 g bag of dried apricots delivers 1,428 mg without any such limit, which is why food potassium is where renal dietary advice actually focuses.

Kitchen tip

If you have sulphite-sensitive asthma, buy the brown ones. They are unsulphured, they taste the same, and the orange is only the preservative.

Common myth

“The bright orange ones are the good-quality dried apricots.” In reality: The orange is sulphur dioxide, added to stop the fruit browning. Unsulphured apricots turn dark brown and taste the same — the colour tells you about the preservative and nothing about the fruit. For the minority of asthmatics with sulphite sensitivity, the brown ones are the ones to buy.