Raisins

Currants

Nutrients in This Food: 

Raisins are dried grapes. Raisins with seeds big enough to see or feel with your tongue are dried Muscat grapes. Raisins whose seeds are barely perceptible are dried Thompson grapes. Raisins with no seeds at all are dried sultana grapes. “Currants” are dried, dark-skinned black Corinth grapes.

All raisins are high-carbohydrate food, rich in sugars, with moderate amounts of dietary fiber (insoluble cellulose and lignin in the skin; soluble pectins in the fruit) and small amounts of vitamin C and nonheme iron, the inorganic form of iron found in plant foods.

One 1.5-ounce serving of seedless raisins has 1.6 g dietary fiber, 1 mg vitamin C (less than 1 percent of the RDA for either a woman or a man), and 0.8 mg iron (4 percent of the RDA for a woman, 10 percent of the RDA for a man).

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The Most Nutritious Way to Serve This Food: 

With meat or with a food rich in vitamin C. Nonheme iron is five times less available to the body than heme iron, the organic form of iron found in meat, fish, poultry, milk, and eggs. Eating raisins with meat or vitamin C increases the amount you absorb because meat increase the secretion of stomach acid (iron is more easily absorbed in an acid environment), while vitamin C may change iron from ferric iron (which is hard for your body to absorb) to ferrous iron (which your body absorbs more easily).

Diets That May Restrict or Exclude This Food: 

Low-fiber diet
Low-carbohydrate diet

Buying This Food: 

Look for: Tightly sealed packages that protect the raisins from air (which will make them dry and hard) and insects.

Storing This Food: 

Store sealed packages of raisins in a cool, dark cabinet, where they may stay fresh for as long as a year. Once the package is opened, the raisins should be stored in an air- and moistureproof container at room temperature and used within a few months. Check periodically for mold or insect infestation.

Preparing This Food: 

To use raisins in a bread or cake, “plump” them first by soaking them in water (or wine, rum, or brandy for a fruit cake) for about 15 minutes. Otherwise the raisins will be hard and dry when the cake or bread is baked.

What Happens When You Cook This Food: 

If you cook raisins in water, their pectins and gum will dissolve and the raisins will soften. They will also absorb liquids and swell up. Cook them long enough and the water will leak out again, allowing the raisins to collapse.

Medical Uses and/or Benefits: 

Iron supplementation. See About the nutrients in this food, above.

Adverse Effects Associated with This Food: 

Sulfite allergies. To keep light grapes from drying to a dark brown color the grapes are treated with sulfites such as sulfur dioxide. People who are sensitive to sulfite may experience serious allergic reactions, including potentially fatal anaphylactic shock, if they eat raisins treated with sulfites.

Food/Drug Interactions: 

MAO inhibitors. Monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibitors are drugs used an antidepressants or antihypertensives. They inhibit the action of natural enzymes that break down tyramine so that it can be eliminated from the body. Tyramine is a pressor amine, a chemical that constricts blood vessels and raises blood pressure. Tyramine, a natural by-product of protein metabolism, occurs naturally in many foods, particularly fermented or aged foods. If you eat a food rich in tyramine while you are taking an MAO inhibitor, the pressor amines cannot be efficiently eliminated from your body and the result may be a hypertensive crisis (sustained elevated blood pressure). There has been one report of an adverse side effect (severe headache) in a patient who ate two small packages of dark raisins while using an MAO inhibitor.

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