Is Dehydrated Food Healthy? What Happens to Nutrition When Food Is Dried?

Dehydrated food has come a long way from dried fruit and emergency rations.

Today you’ll find dehydrated vegetables, soups, meals and snacks everywhere from supermarket shelves to hiking packs. But there’s one question we hear a lot:

Is dehydrated food actually healthy?

The short answer is yes, it certainly can be.

Drying food does change it, but removing the water doesn’t suddenly remove everything that made the food nutritious in the first place. What matters is what the food is made from, how it is prepared, how it is dried and what, if anything, has been added to it.

Here’s what actually happens.

What is dehydrated food?

Dehydration is simply the process of removing moisture from food.

Fresh vegetables naturally contain a lot of water. By gently removing much of that moisture, food becomes lighter, smaller and much more shelf stable.

Add water again and it can rehydrate, which is why dehydrated foods are so handy for quick meals, tramping, camping and keeping in the pantry.

There are a number of different ways to remove moisture from food, including freeze drying and air drying.

If you’re curious about the difference, we’ve gone into much more detail in our guide to air drying vs freeze drying.

Does dehydrated food lose nutrients?

Some nutrients can be affected by drying, but it is not quite as simple as saying that dehydrated food “loses its nutrition”.

Many parts of the original food remain.

Fibre

Dietary fibre is generally well retained during dehydration because drying removes water rather than removing the plant material itself.

That’s especially relevant when you’re drying vegetables, legumes and other naturally fibre-rich foods.

Minerals

Minerals such as iron, potassium, calcium and magnesium are generally much more stable during drying than heat-sensitive vitamins.

Again, the water disappears. The minerals don’t simply evaporate with it.

Protein and carbohydrates

Protein and carbohydrates also remain in the food after dehydration.

Because a dried food contains much less water, these nutrients are actually more concentrated by weight than they would be in the equivalent weight of fresh food.

What nutrients can be affected by dehydration?

Heat-sensitive vitamins are more vulnerable.

Vitamin C is one of the best examples. Some B vitamins can also be affected by heat, oxygen, storage time and the drying method used.

That doesn’t make dehydrated vegetables unhealthy.

It simply means dehydrated vegetables shouldn’t be viewed as a perfect replacement for every fresh vegetable you eat.

We’re big believers in eating plenty of fresh vegetables when you can.

The problem is that sometimes “when you can” is the tricky bit.

Are dehydrated vegetables as healthy as fresh vegetables?

We don’t think this needs to be a competition.

Fresh vegetables are fantastic.

So are frozen vegetables.

And dehydrated vegetables can be an incredibly useful way of getting more vegetables into meals when buying, storing, chopping and cooking fresh vegetables just isn’t practical.

Think:

• a quick dinner after a long day

• lunch at work

• a meal at the bach

• food for a camping trip

• a lightweight tramping meal

• something nutritious sitting in the pantry for the nights when the fridge is looking rather bleak

The best vegetable is often the one you actually eat.

Is all dehydrated food healthy?

Definitely not.

This is where reading the ingredient list matters.

Removing water from something doesn’t automatically transform it into a healthy food.

Some dried products can contain lots of added sugar, salt, flavourings, preservatives or highly refined ingredients.

So rather than judging a food simply because it says “dehydrated” on the packet, look at what went into it before it was dried.

Was it made predominantly from real food?

Does it contain vegetables?

How much fibre does it provide?

How much sodium or added sugar is there?

Is the ingredient list something you recognise?

The ingredients still matter more than the drying method.

Why we slow dry Vince

Vince started with vegetables.

Lots of them.

We cook our vegetables together with herbs and spices first so the flavours have time to develop before the food is slowly dried.

That is quite different from simply drying individual ingredients and combining them afterwards.

Our slow air-drying process removes moisture while creating the rich, savoury flavour and hearty texture we wanted Vince to have.

It also gives us something incredibly practical:

real vegetables that can sit in your pantry until you need them.

Add boiling water and they come back to life.

That means you can have vegetables built into a meal without peeling, chopping, food waste or discovering a forgotten courgette slowly turning to soup in the bottom of the fridge.

Does dehydrated food count as processed food?

Technically, yes.

Cooking is processing.

Freezing is processing.

Drying is processing.

Chopping a carrot is processing it too.

The word processed tells you very little about whether a food is nutritious.

There is an enormous difference between vegetables that have been cooked and dried and a highly refined food containing very little of its original ingredients.

Again, the more useful question is:

What is actually in it?

The advantage of removing the water

Removing water gives dehydrated food one particularly useful superpower: convenience.

It makes food:

• lighter

• easier to transport

• easier to store

• less dependent on refrigeration

• much longer lasting

For vegetables in particular, that can also help reduce waste.

Instead of buying fresh vegetables with the best intentions and throwing some of them out a week later, dried vegetables can simply wait in the pantry until you need them.

So, is dehydrated food healthy?

It can absolutely be part of a healthy diet.

Dehydration retains fibre, minerals, protein, carbohydrates and many other components of the original food, although some heat-sensitive vitamins can decrease during processing and storage.

But perhaps the bigger question is whether dehydration makes nutritious food easier to actually eat.

That’s exactly why we use it.

We’re not trying to replace the fresh vegetables in your fridge.

We’re trying to make sure there’s another way to eat vegetables on the days when washing, peeling, chopping and cooking them simply isn’t going to happen.

More vegetables. Less fuss.

Want to know more about how Vince is dried?

Read our guide to Air Drying vs Freeze Drying: Which Is Better for Taste, Nutrition and the Planet? to see why we chose slow air drying for Vince.