How to eat dried fruit without diarrhea

February 17, 2005 8:40 PM

How can I glut my powerful lust for sweet sweet dried apricots without enduring such dire consequences as gaining intimate familiarity with tiled flooring and experiencing spewful crappings?
posted by kenko to Health & Fitness (12 answers total)

Eat fewer of them at a time. 1 dried apricot = 1 whole apricot (sans the water, natch,) so when you polish off a whole bag of the delightful beasts, you're eating a peck of apricots. Nothing short of cementing your colon closed is going to stop the natural effects of that much fiber.
posted by headspace at 8:58 PM on February 17, 2005 [1 favorite]

everything in moderation
posted by pmbuko at 8:59 PM on February 17, 2005

or, if it's physically/mentally impossible for you to stop before you reach the bottom of a bag, buy smaller bags, or subdivide larger ones into ziplocks.
posted by pmbuko at 9:00 PM on February 17, 2005

Best answer: You might try your local middle eastern grocery for a foodstuff called Amerideen. It's apricot deliciousness times 1000, literally, the original fruit roll up. It's made from finely ground apricot so the roughage factor might be a little lower, but more importantly the flavorful apricot joy is so concentrated that a few bites might just satisfy your craving all at once.
posted by scarabic at 9:05 PM on February 17, 2005

Along scarabic's line -- Mom used to make apricot "fruit leather" for us when we were young 'uns. It was a bit like preserves, but just spread out flat on the fruit dryer. Tasty stuff.
posted by weston at 9:07 PM on February 17, 2005

Best answer: Some people are sensitive to the sulfites in dried fruit, which can cause diarrhea, among other things. You could look for an unsulfured brand - they aren't as pristinely orange and don't keep as long, but they taste fine (although if you're eating a gazillion of them in one sitting, you're probably in trouble regardless).
posted by introcosm at 9:39 PM on February 17, 2005

Counter with Constipator! Heavy iron supplements, perhaps? (um, while this might do something I'm not a doctor, and only know that high iron intake over long periods of time isn't good--dunno what "high" is defined as either).

Or wait it out and look on the bright side--you're lowering your risk for colon cancer!
posted by Anonymous at 9:47 PM on February 17, 2005

I've heard "high" defined, for a male, as any iron supplement at all. Supposedly most men need no iron supplement, and as too much can be harmful, you'll find "mens" marketed vitamins with no iron at all in them.
posted by scarabic at 10:03 PM on February 17, 2005

It's apricot deliciousness times 1000

Yes, what you want is Apricot Paste. At the middle-eastern grocery by my house you can get a big sticky mass of it for $.99
posted by J-Garr at 10:42 PM on February 17, 2005

Most natural foods supermarkets should sell sulfite-free ones in the bulk section. This might also help because you could buy them in bulk, then divide them up into smaller servings.
posted by sixdifferentways at 11:56 PM on February 17, 2005

It's really easy to tell the sulfite free ones from the sulfites ones.

Sulfited dried fruit: shiny and pretty, as well as containing the mandatory 'sulfites added' label.

Nonsulfited dried fruit: looks like shoe leather, but very tasty, and probably healthier. As mentioned before, can usually be found in the bulk foods section.

I'd try the nonsulfited dried fruit, to see if you're having a reaction to either the sulfites, or the fruit itself.
posted by spinifex23 at 10:51 AM on February 18, 2005

You could also buy your own drier and make your own sweet sweet dried apricots! Plus, it makes your house smell like fruit as it dries!
posted by tomble at 1:45 PM on February 18, 2005