Health-conscious individuals enjoy food due to its unique appearance and perceived superfood properties.
Dragon fruit is good for you in many ways, and you don’t have to live in the tropics to enjoy it. In fact, you can buy it fresh or frozen in grocery stores all over the world.
Benefits of Dragon Fruit
In these seven ways, there is proof that dragon fruit is good for your health.
1. Rich in Nutrients
Dragon fruit is full of vitamins and minerals that your body needs but doesn’t have many calories. Additionally, it has a large amount of healthy fiber.
Here is a list of the main nutrients that are in a cup (227 grams) dose.
- Calories: 136
- Protein: 3 grams
- Fat: 0 grams
- Carbohydrates: 29 grams
- Fiber: 7 grams
- Iron: 8% of the RDI
- Magnesium: 18% of the RDI
- Vitamin C: 9% of the RDI
- Vitamin E: 4% of the RDI
In addition to important nutrients, dragon fruit has healthy plant chemicals such as polyphenols, carotenoids, and betacyanin.
2.High in Fiber
Dietary fibers are unbreakable carbohydrates that offer numerous potential health benefits.
According to the government, women should eat 25 grams of fiber per day, while men should eat 38 grams. Fiber pills, like antioxidants, don’t help your health as much as the fiber you get from food.
Dragon fruit is an excellent whole-food source because it contains 7 grams of fiber per cup.
Fiber is most likely best known for helping the digestive system. However, studies have shown that it may also help protect against heart disease, control type 2 diabetes, and maintain a healthy weight.
Diets high in fiber may help prevent colon cancer, according to some observational studies, but more research is required.
Even though no studies have linked any of these conditions to dragon fruit, eating a lot of it can help you meet your daily fiber needs.
It’s important to remember, though, that high-fiber meals can be bad for you, especially if you’re used to eating low-fiber. To avoid stomach pain, slowly increase your fiber intake and drink a lot of water.
3. Promotes Gut Health
There are about 100 trillion different kinds of microorganisms living in your gut. More than 400 types of bacteria live there.
Many experts believe that this group of microorganisms could potentially impact your health. Both humans and animals have linked health problems like asthma and heart disease to imbalances in the gut.
Because dragon fruit contains prebiotics, it may help maintain a balance of good bugs in your gut.
Prebiotics are a type of grain that promotes the growth of beneficial bacteria in your gut.
They are threads, so your gut can’t break them down. But the bacteria in your gut can break them down. They use the fiber to grow, and you benefit from it.
Specifically, dragon fruit mostly helps two types of good bacteria grow: lactic acid bacteria and bifidobacteria.
If you regularly eat prebiotics, you may lower your risk of getting an infection in your digestive system and diarrhea. This is because prebiotics help good bacteria grow, and scientists think that these bacteria may be able to beat the bad ones.
For instance, a study of tourists found that those who ate prebiotics before and during their trips had fewer and milder cases of traveler’s diarrhea.
Some studies also show that prebiotics may help people with inflammatory gut disease and colon cancer feel better. These results are not reliable, which is a shame.
Prebiotics have garnered a lot of positive research, but the only studies on dragon fruit’s prebiotic action have taken place in test tubes. We need to do more research to find out what effect it really has on the human gut.
4. Fight Chronic Disease
Free radicals are molecules that are not stable and damage cells. This can cause inflammation and sickness.
Eating foods high in antioxidants, such as dragon fruit, is one way to combat this.
Free radicals cause cell damage and inflammation, but antioxidants stop them by reducing them.
Studies show that eating a lot of antioxidant-rich foods may help keep you from getting long-term diseases like gout, heart disease, cancer, and diabetes.
Dragon fruit contains a variety of potent vitamins.
- Vitamin C: Observational studies have found links between the amount of vitamin C you eat and your chance of getting cancer. One study that looked at 120,852 people found that those who ate more vitamin C had lower rates of head and neck cancer.
- Betalains: Studies have shown that betalains can fight oxidative stress and may be able to stop cancer cells from growing in test tubes.
- Carotenoids: The rich color of dragon fruit comes from plant chemicals called beta-carotene and lycopene. Cancer and heart disease are less likely to happen in people who eat a lot of foods high in carotenoids.
Antioxidants function best when consumed as food, not as pills or supplements. In fact, antioxidant pills might be bad for you, so you shouldn’t take them without a doctor’s advice.
5. Improve Immune System
The quality of your food is one of the things that affects your body’s ability to fight off infections.
Dragon fruit’s antioxidants and vitamin C may protect your white blood cells from damage, boosting your immune system and keeping you from getting sick.
Your immune system’s white blood cells fight off and get rid of dangerous things. But they are very vulnerable to damage from free radicals.
Vitamin C and carotenoids are strong antioxidants that can fight free radicals and protect your white blood cells from damage.
6. Source of Magnesium
One cup of dragon fruit gives you 18% of your RDI for magnesium, which is more than most vegetables.
Your body normally has 24 g of magnesium, which is about an ounce.
Even though this amount seems small, the element is in all of your cells and is involved in more than 600 important chemical reactions in your body.
To give you an idea, it’s part of reactions that turn food into energy, make muscles contract, build bones, and even make DNA.
More research is required, but some studies suggest that increasing magnesium intake may reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke.
Studies have also shown that eating foods high in magnesium is good for bone health.
7. Boost Low Iron Levels
Dragon fruit is one of the few fresh foods that contain iron.
Iron is essential for bringing air to all parts of your body. Not only that, but it also helps turn food into energy.
A lot of people don’t get enough iron, which is a shame. Iron deficiency affects 30% of the world’s population, making it the most common nutrient shortage globally.
To maintain your iron levels, it’s important to eat a variety of iron-rich foods. Meat, fish, beans, nuts, and grains are all good sources of iron.
One serving of dragon fruit has 8% of your daily suggested intake (RDI), so it may also be a good choice. Plus, it has vitamin C, which helps your body take in iron.
How to Eat Dragon Fruit
The thick, scaly skin of dragon fruit can be scary, but it’s really easy to eat.
The hard part is getting one that is just right.
An unripe dragon fruit will be green. Find one that’s very red. Some spots are normal, but if there are too many that look like bruises, it might be too ripe. The best way to tell if a dragon fruit is ripe is to see how soft but not mushy it is.
Here’s how to consume fresh dragon fruit:
- Utilize a sharp knife to bisect it lengthwise.
- Use a spoon to remove the fruit, or use a knife to cut it into cubes by making lines across the pulp but not through the peel. Push on the back of the skin to get to the cubes, push on the skin’s back. To remove them, use a spoon or your fingers.
- You can enjoy it in soups, yogurt, salads, or just eat it by itself.
Some food stores also sell dragon fruit frozen, already peeled, and cut into cubes. This is an easy way to get a tasty snack that is also high in nutrients.
The Bottom Line
You should definitely try dragon fruit, a tasty tropical fruit. In a low-calorie dose, it tastes great, adds color to your plate, and gives you important nutrients, prebiotic fibers, and healthy plant compounds.
If you want to eat more fruits and vegetables, dragon fruit is a tasty choice that may also be good for you in many ways.
