Lychee

Some people don’t know what is lychee, their benefits and flavor. This is because its an exotic tropical fruit. They are also known as litchi fruit or lichee. Lychee belongs to soapberry family.

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Lychees are grown in regions where their weather is subtropical all around the world, but they are native from china and are really popular there. Are known for their sweet flavor, you can eat them when they are fresh, but normally are used for juice, ice cream, smoothies, wine, jelly, etc.

They are full of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, besides delicious, lychees are really good for your health.

What does a lychee look like? This tropical fruit has an inedible pink or red leathery skin, you have to remove it before you eat them, the seed has a dark color and it’s surrounded by a white flesh, their texture is similar to a grape.

What does lychee taste like?

Sweet: In a scale from 0 to 10 of sweetness, we can say that the qualification is 8, the flesh has a beautiful and soft smell like roses.

Sour: In a scale from 0 to 10 of sourness, lychees are 4, the sour is not unpleasantly unless they are not ripe.

Salty: Naturally they are not salty, but if you want you can add some salt to eat them.

Bitter: If they are grown, the bitter of this tropical fruit should be 0, but when they are unripe, they have sour and bitter flavor.

Floral: They smell a little bit like a rose and lychee flavor is slight too.

Lychee fruit can taste like a grape too, but has a stronger acidic touch, as we seed before has a floral flavor, some people say that has a watermelon or pear taste, but everything depends on the balance of sweetness, for some people can taste different, but definitely lychees are delicious.

Benefits of eating lychee

You can find different health benefits of lychee, they are composed of water and carbs, the percent of each components are 82% and 16.5%. 100 Grams of fresh lychee berry can provide these nutrients:

• Carbs: 16.5 grams
• Fiber: 1.3 grams
• Calories: 66
• Sugar: 15.2 grams
• Fat: 0.4 grams
• Protein: 0.8 grams

Lychee nutrition like vitamins and minerals

1. Lychees are rich in vitamin C, vitamin B-complex and phytonutrient flavonoids.
2. Lychee is full of the nutrients that our body require to a correct production of blood, contains manganese, magnesium, copper, iron and folate, which are required for the production of RBC.
3. They are rich in fiber and vitamin B-complex, this is necessary to increase metabolism fat, protein and carbohydrate. Foods which are rich in fiber have been proved that can suppress appetite and increase metabolism.
4. Lychee is rich in vitamin C, this antioxidant is effective to protect you against free radicals and oxidative stress, this means that can protect you from degenerative diseases and arthritis.
5. These tropical fruits contains several amounts of antioxidant which are effective against early aging.
6. Other of the great lychee benefits is that they are full of potassium, which is required to maintain the sodium levels, potassium is also required to maintain fluid level i.e. Balance electrolyte. All this contribute to maintain a correct blood pressure and it reduces the risk of stroke and heart attack.
7. Lychees are good for prevent and protect from asthma.
8. They a rich in dietary fiber, this promotes a better cardiovascular health.

Other compounds of lychees fruit

They are reported to have high level of antioxidant polyphenols, the amount of this is higher than other fruits.

• Epicatechin: This flavonoid may improve the health of the heart and very important, can reduce the risk of getting cancer and diabetes.
• Rutin: This flavonoid can contribute in the protection against chronic diseases, like diabetes, heart diseases and cancer.
• Oligonol: This is a dietary supplement, it’s a mixture of antioxidants like proanthocyanidins, this one is extracted from the lychee skin and green tea. Some researches show that Oligonol can help you in the reduction of abdominal fat, fatigue and inflammation after exercise. But this is not found naturally in lychee fruit because it’s developed by Amino Up Chemical Corporation in Japan. So actually this can’t be considered as a lychee fruit benefits.

Top lychee producing countries

The cultivation of these tropical fruits started in China several centuries ago on a small scale, but nowadays, the production has spread all around the world, mainly in the southeast of Asia and Indian subcontitent. From China, the fruit was introduced in many other countries, even arrived to the United States. China is the leader producer and exporter of this fruit, for the propagation if this plant, they use air layering and budding, and across the years, the cultivars have improved the way they cultivate them. The biggest competitor of China is Taiwan, is the only country that produce a huge amount of lychees fruit.