This could be an advantage if you are hiking and want more calories that are easy to store and carry, she said. It could be a disadvantage if you are trying to lose weight.

The heat used in drying fruit also decreases the amount of some of the heat-sensitive nutrients, like vitamin C.

As for how much to eat, she said, the general recommendation is two cups of fresh fruit a day, the more variety the better. A half cup of dried fruit counts as a cup of fresh.

Percentages of water, calories and amounts of vitamins and minerals vary by type of fruit.

For example, for apricots, a cup of fresh halves is 86 percent water, with 74 calories, and a half cup of dried fruit is 76 percent water, with 212 calories. Fresh apricots have 3.1 grams of fiber versus 6.5 for dried; 0.6 milligrams of iron versus 2.35 milligrams; 15.5 milligrams of vitamin C versus 0.8 milligrams; and 149 retinol activity equivalents of vitamin A versus 160.

A cup of fresh Thompson seedless grapes is 80 percent water, with 104 calories, and a half cup of raisins is 15 percent water, with 434 calories. The grapes have 1.4 grams of fiber, versus 5.4 grams for the raisins; 0.54 milligrams of iron versus 2.73 milligrams; 288 milligrams of potassium versus 1,086 milligrams; and 16.3 milligrams of vitamin C versus 3.3 milligrams.