How can the glycemic index for dried apricots be less than for fresh ones?

It sounds like you just accidentally came up with a neat kids school science project. As far as the fruit goes, there’s got to be some sort of chemical breakdown that would explain it. It’s interesting though, I’ll give you that.

Because much of the sugar is in the juice.

The glycemic index has to do with the absorption of sugar into the blood stream, which is why juice is not good for people trying to control their glucose level. It’s much healthier to eat an apple than to have the apple juice equivalent of an apple. Same thing with oranges versus orange juice.

It is counterintuitive. Your thinking is correct, why would it have a higher glycemic index?

I am no expert but I think it is because of the concentration by weight or composition of the dried apricot. While fibrous and desiccated, the natural sugars themselves are a much higher percentage of the total fruit.

The concentrated sugars are absorbed more quickly, hence the higher glycemic index.

Just a guess,

SRM

@zenvelo, What you say makes sense, but dried apricots seem to me to be about as sweet as fresh apricots. And prunes are sweeter than plums, but have a lower glycemic index.

Makes no sense to me either. I never knew this.

@LostInParadise It’s not the sweetness as much as the absorption into the blood stream. The glycemic index demonstrates the food’s effects on the body through the insulin response and how that energy is stored rather than used over time.

I get it. It just seemed natural to equate sweetness with sugar use, but I can see that there may not be a perfect correlation, even for two forms of the same fruit.

What @zenvelo said.

Think of them as dextrose tablets versus grapes.