One day I’m going to do an entire 7-Eleven appreciation post. I love that damn store. But I’m a realist and I don’t love everything they do.

Like this sweetened, dried fruit medley:

Let’s get this part out of the way right now: Yes, it is tasty!

But there are also 17 grams of sugar. Sugar is not good for us. But it’s addicting, and tasty, and stimulates that part in the brain that says “ahhh yess. Just one more.”

Sugar is in most of the foods available in the store. When I’m seen in the store, the number one thing I check the nutrition label for is … the sugar content.

Most of the time, after checking it, the product is back on the shelf before I think to check if there is milk or gelatin in it. That’s because the astronomical amount of sugar added literally stops me in my tracks.

One more thing about sugar grams, (& I’ll get back on topic track ASAP) but notice on the nutrition labels they don’t tell us how much of the daily value we’re consuming. That’s because we’d all be dismayed to discover we ate 2 fancy donuts and it put us over the daily limit.

The Nutrition Label.

So there are a couple things we need to discuss.

We can look and say “17 grams, that’s not bad.” But before it’s officially “not bad,” take a look at the top where the serving size is indicated.

There are 4.5 servings in one bag.

If someone were to enjoy one serving a day, this should last the entire work week.

But, sadly, and yes it is sad, this decent sized bag probably wouldn’t last more than 3 days.

The honest truth is that consuming an entire bag of these would supply your body with over 70 grams of sugar.

That’s just crazy. Especially because this is a snack food and you are pretty much guaranteed to be eating more food with added sugar later on.

Many people may be fooled into thinking these are healthy when it’s just as bad as a Snickers bar.

Now, what about the sugar that occurs naturally in fruit? How much of the 17 sugar grams comes from fruit? I would really like to know.

However, as the amazing resource that 7-Eleven is, they do have much healthier dried fruit options that do not have added sugar 💛 I’ve seen mango and pineapple so far! However, before we switch food products, I have one more bone to pick with these:

Look at that green fruit in the package preview window. Now, scroll back up and look at the ingredients. If that’s too much, I’ll jump right to the point:

There are no green fruits in the ingredients:

Pineapple & star fruit are yellow 🍍

Papaya & mango are orange (and sooooo delicious😋)

Cantaloupe is also orange, but there’s a loophole here as there is a green variety of cantaloupe. But it’s usually called by its name, Honeydew melon. And also, it’s fruity parts are light green.

The added yellow #5 and blue #1 make the color green. Oh no, artificial ingredients.

Look, enjoy this as a snack if you must. Consider it real fruit candy But keep in mind a real serving is like 5/6 pieces.

The 100% natural, no sugar added dried fruit is different.

We can tell that this one doesn’t have much added to it. On the package they say the whole pineapple was dried, then they sliced and packaged it.

It tastes good but it’s not pretty. That is, if you want a vibrant yellow pineapple ring, it does not look like that.

Of course, it is still beautiful in its own way.

The sugar content of these claims to be 14g per package. At least we know with this, the sugar comes from the fruit.

Give it a try and let me know what you think 🙂