Do you often eating dragon fruit? Well, that’s good because dragon fruit has many benefits for our health. If you felt thirsty, eating dragon fruit can refresh you. No wonder because 90% of this fruit contains of water and the sweet taste is very delicious to be eaten. Dragon fruit is a tropical plant. This plant grow well in 600-1300 mm rainfall per year and 38-40 Celsius temperature. The most unique thing of dragon fruit is the flower. It begins to blossom slowly in the early evening until midnight. This bloom flower also spread a fragrant smell that is distributed throughout the night breeze in order to attract bats or insects to pollinate the flowers. Furthermore, its flower will wilt in the dawn day. So, some people said this dragon fruit flower as queen of the night or moon flower.
Some literature said dragon fruit originated from Mexico, South America. In 1870, the French brought this plant to Vietnam as ornamental plant. But, the ancient Chinese also already used dragon fruit as gift to God, they put this fruit between two green lions on the altar table. So, only royal and rich family who can eat dragon fruit, because it was very special fruit and the price was expensive. Today, the fruits already cultivated on many countries, such as Argentina, Peru, Indonesia, Malaysia, Australia, Okinawa, Israel, Hawai etc.
There are three types of dragon fruit, namely:
1. Hylocereus undatus, which has red skin and white flesh
2. Hylocereus polyrhizus, which has red skin and red flesh
3. Selenicerius megalanthus, which has yellow skin and white flesh
Despite the unique shape, dragon fruits also contain many nutrition that beneficial for our health. Here I’ll give you the nutritional value of dragon fruit.
The typical nutritional values per 100 g of dragon fruit: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitaya)
• Water 80-90 g
• Carbohydrates 9-14 g
• Protein 0.15-0.5 g
• Fat 0.1-0.6 g
• Fiber 0.3-0.9 g
• Ash 0.4-0.7 g
• Calories: 35-50
• Calcium 6-10 mg
• Iron 0.3-0.7 mg
• Phosphorus 16-36 mg
• Carotene (Vitamin A) traces
• Thiamine (Vitamin B1) traces
• Riboflavin (Vitamin B2) traces
• Niacin (Vitamin B3) 0.2-0.45 mg
• Ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) 4-25 mg
As you can see above, dragon fruit is rich in protein that beneficial for enhancing your body metabolism, fiber for improving digestion and reducing fat, carotene for maintaining the health of eyes and improving memory, calcium for strengthening the bones and teeth, phosporus for tissue development, Vitamin B1 for helping to metabolise carbohydrates and producing energy, vitamin B2 for improving appetite, Vitamin B3 for decreasing bad cholestrol level, then vitamin C for improving the immune system.
So, after you know all about the advantages of consuming dragon fruit, then there’s no doubt to neglect it. Personally, I have experience in consuming dragon fruit when I have problem with my gums. When I was suffering of swollen gums, I take the medicine to alleviate this disease, but to no avail. But when I eat dragon fruit regularly, the swell became decrease. Finally I realized that vitamin C in this fruit is high enough that very useful for improving the mouth and gum health.
Furthermore, before you consuming it, make sure that you choose the ripe dragon fruit. Because the nutrition of ripe fruit is much and the taste is good. Choosing the ripe dragon fruit is easy, the skin color should look bright, free of moldy of spots, and when the skin is pressed by your finger it feels a bit soft.
The common ways of consuming dragon fruit by cutting it in half then scoop the flesh with spoon. Then eat it. That’s so simple. Moreover, dragon fruit also can be juiced, mix in salad, mix with ice cream on your glass, or fermented into a wine.
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