Thursday 17 February 2011

Oops, Figs

I probably should have checked the GI of figs before I bought a whole tray. But I didn't.

There's a lot of figs in a whole tray
Turns out fresh figs have not been tested for GI level. Dried figs have a medium GI of 61. Most fruits seem to have a higher GI when fresh than when died, so I presume that figs are higher than 61, and so high GI. Ooops. But they are sooo delicious. And in season for such a short time. And I haven't bought a tray in a few years.


All perfectly justifiable really. They are good for the disposition of course, and that can use a bit of help most days. Figs are also frightfully good for you- with lots of fibre, calcium and antioxidants. They're probably just a bit high GI.

5 comments:

  1. This brings back memories of one of the houses I lived in as a child. It had a huge fig tree in the back garden. We lived there for only one summer, but the joyous gluttony of feasting on those figs lives with me forever!

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  2. I'm thinking more and more of planting a fig tree in the back yard Lisa. We've had some rather unfortunate experiences with the red pear, and peach trees that we planted. I think that I should replace them with figs, and enjoy some joyous gluttony- it would be nice if someone in the house shared my love of figs though.

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  3. Oh, Louise, I'll happily eat all these high GI figs for you if you want! Figs are like a forbidden fruit to me... I crave them and yet they're so expensive I can rarely justify it. But they're so so tasty!

    P.S. Can you pair them with something low GI, like nuts, to help the count?

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  4. I find it surprising that the GI is higher for fresh fruit than dried - I'd expect the drying to concentrate the sugars. Interesting. And enjoy the figs - fresh, perfectly ripe fruit is one of the best desserts ever, and that has to be better than, say, ice cream.

    Also, I like Hannah's line of thought. Figs are fantastic with cheese.

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  5. Hannah- I can jusitfy almost anything based on anti-oxidants and micronutrients, so I'm not particularly bothered by the GI of figs. I figure one tray of figs every year or two isn't really the problem. They're so delicious.

    Camille, I'm not quite sure why the GI of dried fruit is lower than fresh. I've been using dried apple as a snack, and also some dates. Maybe it's something to do with the fibre content? I really don't know

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