Find out whether dried cranberries are good for weight loss or not to make sure you actually see results from your efforts.
The first thing to note is that dried cranberries can vary in nutrition.
This article uses the nutrition data from sweetened dried cranberries since these tend to be popular (1).
These dried cranberries are relatively high in calories and low in vitamins and minerals but also contain a nice amount of fiber.
You can say that dried cranberries tend to be a better treat than something like cookies due to the filling aspect of the fiber.
However, dried cranberries are still generally bad for weight loss due to their high amount of energy.
If you do really like them, you could see dried cranberries as an occasional treat that helps you stick to a healthy diet.
In this case, you would preferably choose the ones with no added sugar.
Calories in dried cranberries
To figure out whether dried cranberries are good for weight loss or not, you first want to look at the calories.
Dried cranberries contain around 308 calories per 100 grams (1).
If you are trying to follow a low-carb diet you may be sad to hear that 296 of these calories come from carbohydrates. In turn, dried cranberries are not keto either.
Carb contents aside, dried cranberries contain a relatively high amount of calories per 100 grams which is not that good for weight loss.
You still want to know what sources these calories come from. However, this is not the greatest start for dried cranberries.
Fiber in dried cranberries for weight loss
When considering plant-based foods like dried cranberries for your weight loss diet, you also want to look at the fiber in them.
Before going into the benefits of this nutrient category, dried cranberries contain around 5.3 grams of fiber per 100 grams (1).
This is a relatively big amount of fiber which is helpful when losing weight for a few reasons.
The main one is that fiber can help you feel a lot fuller without really adding a lot of absorbable calories to your diet.
Since hunger and cravings are big reasons why people find it hard to lose weight, this can be a big benefit.
Additionally, fiber can be beneficial for the health of your microbiome which in turn, could benefit weight loss although this area needs more research.
In short, dried cranberries contain nice amounts of fiber which is an aspect that is helpful for weight loss.
Vitamins and minerals in dried cranberries
While it is hard to put the effects into exact numbers, many vitamins and minerals influence your metabolism in one way or another.
In turn, it is helpful to take a quick look at what dried cranberries offer in this area.
100 grams of dried cranberries contain the following amounts of vitamins and minerals (1):
- Vitamin K: 10% of the DV (Daily Value)
- Vitamin E: 7% of the DV
- Niacin: 3% of the DV
- Copper: 3% of the DV
- Vitamin B6: 2% of the DV
And a few others in small amounts.
It is better than nothing but dried cranberries are not that high in vitamins and minerals compared to many other whole foods.
In turn, you want to consume other foods with vitamins and minerals to make sure your body does not anything it needs to burn calories optimally.
Do dried cranberries help you lose weight?
By now you know that dried cranberries do contain a nice amount of fiber but also a lot of calories and not that many vitamins and minerals.
In theory, there could be cases where the filling aspect of dried cranberries helps you eat less of foods that are even worse for weight loss.
For example, dried cranberries still tend to be more helpful for losing weight than cookies.
Additionally, you could argue that having some of the foods you really like every once in a while makes it easier to stick to a healthy diet.
However, in terms of nutrients alone, dried cranberries are not that good for weight loss and likely even fattening.
Even if you absolutely want foods like this, there are better dried fruits for weight loss.
Dried cranberries vs raisins for weight loss
Raisins are another popular dried fruit so you may wonder how they compare to dried cranberries when trying to lose weight.
100 grams of raisins contain about 299 calories, 4.5 grams of fiber, and more vitamins and minerals (2).
In simpler words, dried cranberries are slightly higher in calories, slightly lower in fiber, and slightly higher in vitamins and minerals than raisins.
This makes it hard to predict which of these dried fruits is better for weight loss. In any case, the difference will not be that big.
In turn, you can let your personal preferences for dried cranberries and raisins guide your choice (or switch things up).
