PCOS Foods
Are Dried Apricots Good for PCOS? A Subtype-by-Subtype Look
Dried apricots are the quiet standout among dried fruits: a glycemic index around 31 and a load near 7 for roughly five of them, plus real fiber, iron and potassium. Drying concentrates the sugar, so they taste sweeter than fresh apricots, and the tested numbers still land genuinely low.
Does it fit your subtype?
Insulin-Resistant PCOS
At a glycemic index near 31 and a load around 7 for five apricots, these are among the gentlest sweet foods measured — the fruit's fiber slows them, and nuts alongside tend to steady the curve further.
Post-Pill PCOS
A whole, minimally processed food carrying iron, potassium, carotenoids and fiber — squarely the nutrient-dense repletion this transitional phase leans on, and a more useful sweet option than anything built on refined sugar.
Inflammatory PCOS
Polyphenol- and carotenoid-rich, apricots sit comfortably in an anti-inflammatory pattern. The variable is sulfur dioxide, used to keep them orange — commonly discussed for people sensitive to it, and unsulfured brown apricots do not carry it.
Lean PCOS
Dried apricots are nutrient-dense energy in a small, portable form, carrying iron, potassium, carotenoids and fiber. For lean PCOS the priority is sufficient energy and nutrient density, and apricots offer both — they fit easily and often.
Nutrition snapshot
| Glycemic Index | 31 |
|---|---|
| Glycemic Load | 7 |
| Fiber (g) | 2.9 |
| Protein (g) | 1.4 |
Tips
- Sulfured apricots are the bright orange ones and unsulfured are brown, stickier and more caramel-tasting; both are real apricots, and the color difference is sulfur dioxide used as a preservative rather than a sign of quality.
- Dried apricots and almonds are a long-standing combination with some physiology behind it — the fat and protein in the nuts slow how quickly the fruit sugar arrives, and the two keep happily in the same jar without any fuss.
- Turkish apricots, the small sweet whole ones, and the larger tarter Mediterranean style behave much the same glycemically, so pick on taste and price rather than hunting for a health difference between them.
- Chopped into plain yogurt, oatmeal or a grain salad, apricots arrive with protein and fiber in the same bite, which tends to make the response steadier and the bowl more interesting. Straight from the jar they are still apricots, and still low.
- Dried apricots are one of the better plant sources of iron and potassium, and iron absorbs more readily alongside something acidic like citrus or tomato — a detail worth knowing if iron is already something your clinician has raised with you.
- They stew beautifully: simmered with a cinnamon stick and a splash of water they collapse into a compote that works over yogurt, inside porridge, or alongside roast chicken, with no added sugar needed at all.
- Store them airtight so they stay soft, and a bag that has gone hard and dark at the back of the cupboard is still perfectly good food — those apricots simmer straight into a sauce or a tagine.
- Published glycemic index values cluster around 31 in the University of Sydney data, with some secondary sources listing figures up to about 42; low either way, but the number shifts with variety and how far the fruit was dried.
FAQs
Are dried apricots too high in sugar for PCOS?
Drying removes water, so the sugar in dried apricots is concentrated by weight compared with fresh fruit — that part is simply true. What usually gets left out is that apricots start low and stay low. The tested glycemic index sits around 31, among the lowest of any dried fruit measured, and a small handful lands at a glycemic load near 7. That is gentler than most breads, most breakfast cereals and nearly every other dried fruit on the shelf. The fiber, the fruit acids and the intact fruit structure all contribute, and alongside nuts or yogurt they sit more steadily again.
Dried apricots or raisins for insulin-resistant PCOS?
Dried apricots test meaningfully lower. Raisins come in at 64 in the University of Sydney data, with a cited range across studies of roughly 49 to 66, while dried apricots sit around 31 — and apricots bring more than twice the fiber per serving, plus iron and potassium. If you like both, that is not a problem to solve: raisins scattered through a bowl of oats with nuts behave very differently from raisins eaten straight from the box, and what sits alongside does most of the work either way. Apricots are simply the gentler of the two on the numbers, which makes them an easy everyday thing to keep in the cupboard.
What are the sulfites in dried apricots, and do they matter?
Sulfur dioxide is used to stop dried apricots browning, which is why supermarket ones are that vivid orange. For most people it passes without incident. For people with asthma or a known sulfite sensitivity it can trigger symptoms, which is why unsulfured apricots — brown, chewier, more caramel-flavored — are widely sold in health food shops and online. There is no PCOS-specific evidence that sulfites affect insulin resistance or inflammatory markers, so this is a personal-tolerance question rather than a PCOS one, and a useful thing to raise with your clinician if you already know you react to them.
See more foods for: Inflammatory PCOS · Insulin-Resistant PCOS
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