Dragon fruit also known as pitaya is a beautiful fruit that is also good for you. It is bright pink with black seeds and looks like a gem from nature’s art gallery. This strange fruit isn’t just pretty, though. There are a lot of nutrients in it that can help your immune system, digestion, skin, and even help you lose weight.
“Dragon fruit is more than just a pretty fruit. It has a lot of antioxidants and fibre that help digestion, boost immunity, and keep your skin looking young.” Prachi Jain, a clinical nutritionist at the CK Birla Hospital, adds, “I often recommend it as a snack in the middle of the day for people who want to lose weight in a healthy way.”
If you’re looking for healthy, low-calorie foods to add to your diet, this article has all the information you need on dragon fruit’s health advantages, nutrition, how to eat it, and who shouldn’t eat it.
1. Immunity Superfood
The number one health benefit of a dragon fruit is that it helps to boost your immune system naturally, with high levels of vitamin C and antioxidants. It will fortify your body’s defences, making it easier for you to fight off infections and stay healthy, all round the year and specially during winters.
2. Helps Keep Your Heart Healthy
The most effective naturally present nutrients that help keep your heart healthy are omega fatty acids. Finding strong plant based omega-3 and omega-9 fatty acids in the seeds of dragon fruit gives vegans and vegetarians a wonderful new option in their diet. It will effectively keep rising cholesterol levels under check and protect overall heart health. If your family has a history of cholesterol problems or high blood pressure, it is time you included this fruit in your basket.
3. Helps Keep Gut Healthy
The fibre in dragon fruit makes it a great prebiotic food in our diet. Dragon fruit (pitaya) helps the healthy bacteria in your gut, which boosts digestion, metabolism, and nutritional absorption. Dragon fruit is one of the few fruits that naturally has a lot of prebiotic fibres like oligosaccharides that can nourish our good gut bacteria like Lactobacillus and Bifidobacterium. With regular intake, you will have good digestion and mental health.
4. Prevents Oxidative Stress On Skin
Dragon fruit is good for your skin, because it protects it from oxidative stress and early aging. People who live in cities are exposed to stress, pollution, and blue light every day, and are susceptible to oxidative damage. This starts showing on the skin as signs of aging. Pitaya is loaded with antioxidants, flavonoids, phenolic acids, and betalains that fight free radicals that trigger this oxidative stress. Over time it will not reverse aging, but will surely slow down the effects of aging, make skin more supple, and boost the cell’s repair mechanism too. Think of it as a detox for your skin and cells that you can eat.
5. Helps You Lose Weight
It has a lot of fibre and not a lot of calories, which helps you stay full longer and control your cravings. A fantastic addition to your weight loss diet that is actually good to eat.
6. Helps Control Blood Sugar
Some research suggests that dragon fruit can fight insulin resistance by increasing insulin sensitivity in our bodies. Therefore, dragon fruit can also be included in a diabetic-friendly diet, only if ingested in moderation.
7. Good for Pregnant Women
Dragon fruit comes with loads of vitamin C, iron, and folate, which safeguards our immune system, restores and maintains haemoglobin levels, and even helps in the growth of the fetus. Yes, it is safe and even good for you to eat dragon fruit while pregnant.
8. Helps the body absorb iron
Dragon fruit doesn’t have a lot of iron on its own, but its vitamin C levels help the body absorb iron from other foods. So the key lies in pairing dragon fruit with iron-rich foods. Eating iron-rich foods like spinach, lentils, or jaggery with dragon fruit will keep you feeling less tired and also help manage anaemia more successfully.
9. Helps with mood swings and anxiety
Healthy gut flora helps you feel better, have less anxiety and exhaustion, and sleep better. With the gut bacteria favouring properties of dragon fruit, regular consumption will help maintain your gut-brain axis, which in turn makes you feel much calmer and more focused.
10. Makes Teeth and Bones Stronger
Dragon fruit has magnesium, calcium, and phosphorus, which help strengthen bones and teeth, lower the risk of osteoporosis in women, and improve the function of nerves and muscles overall. Adding calcium-rich foods like yoghurt or sesame seeds to dragon fruit can make these advantages even stronger.
Here’s how to eat dragon fruit correctly if it’s your first time:
You may use dragon fruit in smoothies, juices, sorbets, and healthful treats. It goes great with other tropical fruits like mango, kiwi, and pineapple.
Dragon fruit has many health benefits, including boosting the immune system, helping with digestion, making skin look better, and supporting a healthy pregnancy. It shows that eating well can be tasty, colourful, and very good for you.
So the next time you see this pink beauty in the store, remember that it’s not just lovely; it’s also good for you.
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