Passion fruit is an exotic tropical fruit full of different benefits for your health, they are gaining a lot of popularity and more and more people are starting to consume them. In some parts of the world, mostly in some countries of South America,they are called Maracuya Fruit too.
Even if it has a small size, it’s full of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, give them a try and take advantage all the benefits you can find in a delicious passion fruit.
What is a passion fruit?
This tropical fruit is the fruit of passiflora vine, this is a type of passion flower. The passion fruit have a hard outer, inside them are they are juicy and full of seeds.
We can find a lot of different sizes and colors in the market, the most common we can find are purple and yellow passion fruit. We can find two types:
- Passiflora flavicarpa: This type of passion fruit has yellow skin, has oval or round shape and they are usually larger than the purple ones.
- Passiflora edulis: These kind of passion fruit has round or oval shape, they are small and usually have purple skin.
They are considered as a tropical fruit but they can grow and survive in sub tropical weathers too. For this reason, because of their resistance and versatility, they can grow in almost any part of the world, they grow in Europe, North America, South America, Australia and Asia.
Passion fruit benefits
They are full of different nutrients that will benefit our body and health, here we show you the passion fruit nutrition we can find in them and what are good for:
1. They are full of nutrients
These type of tropical fruits are rich in vitamin A, a nutrient important for the health of skin, eyes and the inmune system, they also contain vitamin C, which is a powerful antioxidant.
In one passion fruit you can find the following nutrients.
- 63 milligrams of potassium
- 5 milligrams of magnesium
- 2 milligrams of calcium
- 229 international units of vitamin A
- 5.4 milligrams of vitamin C
- 0,29 milligrams of iron
- 1,9 grams of fiber
- Niacin
- Phosphorus
- Vitamin B-6
It’s also rich in different plant compounds, like carotenoids and polyphenols. A study done by some researchers showed that one of the biggest health benefits of passion fruit is that they are richer in polyphenols than other tropical fruits like lychee, mango or bananas.
2. High content of antioxidants
The antioxidants are capable to protect you from free radicals, they are unstable molecules that can destroy the cells of your body.
Antioxidants have an important role in the protection of your body system, they can improve the blood flow, especially in the nervous system and brain.
The polyphenols is an important compound of the antioxidants and they have anti-inflammatory effects, are capable to reduce the risk of chronic inflammation and different diseases of the heart.
3. Low glycemic index
This delicious tropical fruit has a low glycemic index value (GI), this doesn’t allow a steep increase in blood after eating them, for this reason, can be a great choice for people with diabetes. Actually, the majority of fruits have a low glycemic index value, but there are some that have a high content like melon and pineapple.
4. High source of dietary fiber
Just one passion fruit can provide you around 2 grams of fiber, actually this is a high amount for a small fruit like this.
Fiber can help you to keep a good health and prevent constipation, the soluble fiber can help you your body to slow the digestion of the food you eat, this can prevent blood sugar spikes, fiber also can reduce cholesterol and boosting heart health.
A diet with a high percent of fiber is recommended to reduce the risk different illness, like heart diseases, obesity and diabetes.
5. Improve insulin sensitive
Some studies suggest that the seeds you can find in passion fruits can improve the insulin sensitive in a person, this can reduce the risk of different diseases like diabetes for example.
The piceatannol found in this fruit could improve the metabolism, researchers found that people who were overweight and ingest 20 mg of piceatannol every day during one week improved metabolic health, including the insulin sensitive, compared with people who ingest pacebo.
6. Reduce anxiety
One of the best passion fruit health benefits are that they have a high content of magnesium, this is an important mineral that have been linked with decrease of stress and anxiety.
A review made in 2017 suggest that the magnesium can be great for controlling the anxiety levels, but the authors says that the evidences are not strong.
How we can eat passion fruit
To taste this delicious tropical fruit, you first have to slice the rind so you can see the juicy flesh, when it’s fresh they have a pleasant aroma, they are used as air refresher.
The seeds are edible, so don’t worry, you can prepare a juice with them and they won’t ruin the taste, the white layer is edible too, but It it’s not very common for people to eat it.
Passion fruits have a high versatility and can be eaten by many ways, you can eat them directly, prepare juice, desserts, ice cream, etc. Here we can see some popular uses:
- Desserts: Normally, they are used to flavor cakes, cheesecakes or mousse.
- Salads: They can add a crunchy texture and a sweet flavor.
- Drinks: You can squeeze them and mix them with different drinks like cocktails, or liquefy them for a delicious juice.
- Ice cream: You can prepare delicious ice cream mixed with other types of fruits.
So, after watching all these benefits of passion fruit, we can highly recommend you to add them to your diet, you will have variety and try a delicious and different tropical fruit. Your health, body and tongue will thank you.