Dragon fruit is the latest craze among people, especially fitness freaks who like to eat healthy. It offers excellent proven health benefits of dragon fruits such as preventing blood sugar spikes and aiding digestion; The cut of its face gives it the name of a dragon, and it looks exactly like a dragon. How do you eat this unique fruit? Let’s find out.
Dragon fruit sounds like a fruit straight from the fiery pits of hell. You may not know it, but it’s a sweet and relaxing experience inside and out. They have been used in Central America and Mexico for hundreds of years to combat diarrhea and other gastrointestinal issues. It has the sour taste of grapefruit with a delicious, refreshing taste.
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Nutritional Health Benefits of Dragon Fruits:
The nutritional fact checked by the U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE in 100g
- Calories: 57
- Protein: 0.36 g
- Fat: 0.14 g
- Carbohydrate: 15.2 g
- Dietary fiber: 3.1 g
- Sugars (total): 9.75 g
- Sodium: 1 mg
- Vitamin C: 4.3 mg
- Folate: 7 mcg
- Vitamin A: 1 mcg
- Vitamin E: 0.12 mg
- Vitamin B-6: 29 mcg
- Calcium: 9 mg
- Iron: 0.18 g
The nutritional value of dragon fruit will help you to check yourself while preparing healthy recipes loaded with health benefits.
List of dragon fruits health benefits
- Aid in Diabetes
- Reduce the risk of cancer
- Good during pregnancy
- Good for skin, hair, and eyes
- Help dengue Patients
- Aid in Immune booster
- Improves digestion and cardiovascular health
- Help in weight loss
How Dragon fruits help in Diabetes
According to research published in the journal PLOS ONE, The available evidence on prediabetes is interesting. This will show some light on the prevention of diabetes. The effect was not significant in type 2 diabetes. However, a trend towards greater blood glucose reduction was observed with higher doses.
How dragon fruit reduces the risk of cancer
The red color flesh and skin of the dragon fruit are related to the high antioxidant, and one of its functions is to help in radical scavenging activity.
Apart from antioxidant properties, dragon fruit has the potential for chemoprevention of cancer and anti-inflammatory [1]. As per Asmah et al., the dragon fruit red and white pulp had excellent effects on the treatment of cervix cancer cells and cytotoxic effects on human oral cancer due to its antioxidant and antiproliferative capacities.
Another study in order to find the chemopreventive potential and chemical composition of dragon fruit grown in Thailand and Israel found promising cytotoxic activity against colon and prostate cancer cells and, most importantly, no toxicity against normal cells [2].
Hence the result suggests that dragon fruit benefits in cancer in various types of cancers like prostate cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer, etc. Therefore, by consulting the respective physician, a cancer patient may consume for a speedy recovery.
Benefits of dragon fruit during pregnancy
During pregnancy, the nutrition requirement is hence the consumption of more fruits and vegetables is advisable. Moreover, dragon fruit is preferred for its high vitamin B and folate, which helps in preventing birth defects and boosts energy [4].
Anemia is quite common among pregnant ladies; hence in order to prevent anemia or iron deficiency, they can consume dragon fruits; since it is a rich source of iron. Studies have found that the consumption of dragon fruit during pregnancy exponentially increases hemoglobin and erythrocyte levels [3].
Dragon fruit is good for Skin and eye health.
Increasing pollution and chemical products, we use on daily bases in makeup and hair care are proven to be a threat to the skin and hair health and increasing the concern day by day. However, what if I say you can improve your hair and skin health cost-effectively in a natural way? Yes, dragon fruit consumption can do the magic; since it is rich in antioxidants, which can fight oxidative stress and act as an anti-aging portion [4].
The vitamin C content of the fruit can be used to treat the hyperpigmentation of the skin and hence added benefit in preserving skin health [5].
For a healthy eye, you need to consume foods containing dietary vitamin A, pro-vitamin A, or carotenoids, which will act as a precursor for vitamin A. Nevertheless, dragon fruit has 6 mcg of dietary beta-carotenoids and 12 mcg of other dietary pro-vitamin A, which our body has the mechanism for the transformation into vitamin A and, therefore, can play a crucial role in eye health [6].
Help dengue Patients
Dengue fever is a vector-born infectious disease caused by the dengue virus transmitted to humans by female Aedes aegypti mosquitoes. Dengue fever is commonly distributed in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Specifically, very few medicines actually claim to treat dengue completely.
Nonetheless, the in vitro research published by the microbiology society claims the virucidal effect of the betacyanin of dragon fruit against the dengue virus. Moreover, the study is supported by in silico study, according to which the dragon fruit seeds 11 phytochemicals showed an affinity towards the NS5, a therapeutic target for dengue drug development [7].
Hence there are possibilities for the positive effects of dragon fruit consumption on patients with dengue fever.
Aid in Immune booster
According to studies, dragon fruit can help boost the immune system as dragon fruit contains 4 milligrams of vitamin C and other antioxidants, which boost the immune system.
Improves cardiovascular health
It is evident if you like to include anything in your daily diet. You must try it once to know its health benefits, so if dragon fruits are your next addon, then I’m sure your answer to the question of whether dragon fruits help in cardiovascular is right here. Heart disease is commonly found in diabetic patients, and as I mentioned earlier, dragon fruit may help in pre-diabetes, so indirectly, it helps in the prevention of diabetes as well as heart disease; A recent study found that if a person regularly consumes dragon fruit, it may have a meaningful effect on the risk of heart disease due to its high betaine content [8].
Help in weight loss
Dragon fruit is rich in antioxidants, fiber, and other essential minerals like vitamin C, which help improve metabolism and digestion; hence consuming these benefits leads to weight loss. Yet, I haven’t found any research data directly correlated to weight loss.
How to eat dragon fruit
Dragon fruit is a delicious fruit with many health benefits; hence, whatever your way of eating dragon fruit, the important thing you include in your diet. Having said that, I am going to link some methods/dishes from which you can choose.
- The easiest way to eat is to eat the whole fruit.
- You may blend the dragon fruit into a juice and drink it if you are not fond of eating whole fruit.
- If you want to add a twist to the tail, you can use the dragon fruit by transforming it into jams, salads, smoothies, and yogurt.
- You can slice the fruit into cubes and freeze it for future use in smoothies or eating.
- If the dragon fruit is not readily available in your locality, you may consider using freeze-dried dragon fruit powder available commercially.
