Health Benefits of Dragon Fruit

Dragon fruit is a vibrant red skinned tropical fruit with a combined taste of a pear and a kiwi. It is quite popular these days as people want to enjoy the health benefits it provides like aiding digestive problems, lowering the risk of a spike in blood sugar, etc.

In addition, by eating this exotic fruit, you can get a lot of antioxidants, iron, magnesium and fibre content. However, to learn about the health benefits of dragon fruit in detail, keep reading this piece!

Dragon fruit is a good source for gaining the required vitamins, nutrients, and disease-fighting content for the body. In fact, by eating this fruit regularly, you will be able to experience the below health benefits:

1. Lowers Risk of Cancer

One of the top health benefits of eating dragon fruit is reducing the risk of undergoing colon cancer. In other words, as this fruit is rich in anti-cancer properties and is a primary source of Vitamin C, it strengthens your immunity preventing you from suffering from chronic diseases like Alzheimer's Patient, diabetes, cancer, etc.

2. Prevents Diabetes

This exotic fruit contains fibre in high amounts, which helps you maintain a healthy blood sugar level and avoid sudden spikes. It is a widespread problem when suffering from diabetes, but by regularly consuming dragon fruit, you can avoid it and control other medical consequences related to diabetes as well.

3. Aids Digestion

Another advantage of dragon fruit consumption is it helps promote gut health for proper digestion. In other words, when you consume this fruit regularly, it provides your body with fibre and maintains bowel regularity. This, as a result, prevents and treats constipation problems (if any) along with other health conditions.

4. Improves Cardiovascular Health

The most significant benefit of consuming this fruit is improving cardiovascular health by providing the body with omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. In addition, it also reduces the risk of undergoing heart attack and stroke by keeping the arteries clean. In other words, by regularly consuming this fruit, you can ensure better flow of blood to and from the heart properly.

5. Helps in Weight Loss

If you are trying to lose weight, then consuming dragon fruit can help you reduce your calorie intake and sugar in the body. In other words, when you have dragon fruit as a snack in between your meals, you appear slimmer due to its fast melting capability. Moreover, it keeps your stomach full for a long time and prevents your urge to keep snacking. Lastly, it is rich in fibre that boosts the metabolism rate and initiates weight loss.

6. Betters Skin Health

Consuming dragon fruit can also help you better your skin health more than any skin product. This is because, in this fruit, vitamin C is present in abundance that can prevent acne and treat dry skin. In addition, it can fight ageing signs like wrinkles, fine lines and age spots. Furthermore, since this fruit is also a rich source of Vitamin B3, it helps prevent premature ageing and treats sunburns.

Apart from this, antioxidant properties present in the fruit will clean out your skin pores, flush out all the toxins and provide you with smooth-glowing skin. However, the best part is it can help repair damaged skin cells by enriching your body with adequate minerals and nutrients.

7. Ensures Healthy Pregnancy

There are pregnancy benefits of eating dragon fruits, too, since they contain high amounts of folate, iron, and vitamin B. In this regard, vitamin B and folate keep the mother safe from going through congenital disabilities. In addition, calcium helps in the bone development of the fetus. Also, the magnesium content of the bone prevents postmenstrual complications in women.

The following is the nutritional value of dragon fruit if you consume 6-ounce of these exotic fruit cubes:

• Protein: 2 grams
• Fat: 0 grams
• Calories: 102 cal
• Fibre: 5 grams
• Carbohydrate: 22 grams
• Sugar: 13 grams

In addition to this, you can also extract the following vitamins and minerals from your regular consumption of dragon fruit:

• Iron: 0.1 milligrams
• Vitamin C: 4 milligrams
• Vitamin A: 100 international units UI
• Calcium: 31 milligrams
• Magnesium: 68 milligrams

There are many ways to include dragon fruit in your diet:

1. Salad

You can either have them as fruit salad for a snack between your meals. Just toss some fresh cut healthy fruits like watermelons, bananas, strawberries, black grapes, pineapple, etc., and mix them with dragon fruit in a bowl.

2. Shake

Make yourself a dragon fruit shake for a healthy breakfast. For this, you need to blend a banana into small pieces with 1 dragon fruit, 1 glass of milk, 4.5 glasses of water and 3 spoonfuls of sugar (optional).

3. Dragon Fruit & Yogurt Mix

Dragon fruit also tastes good when cut into small pieces, mixed with Greek yoghurt and topped with chopped nuts.

4. Fruit Slice

You can also simply slice it up and enjoy it as it is during any time of the day.

In the following conditions, experts recommend avoiding dragon fruit:

• Allergy: Consumption of dragon fruit usually is safe. However, it may turn allergic in some people, so if you experience any unnatural situation after consuming it, like redness or swollen throat/ lip/ tongue or inflammatory sensation, it is best to stop the intake immediately.
• Diabetes: It is best to avoid eating dragon fruit if you have diabetes. This is because it interferes with the blood sugar level to a large extent. However, if you take it anyway, keep checking your sugar level as, due to its nature, dragon fruit can lower your blood sugar.
• Surgery: As this fruit changes your blood sugar level, experts recommend avoiding it at least two weeks before surgery.

Overall, there are no health risks associated with consuming dragon fruit as such, but to provide some side effects according to the best possible data, here are some to mention:

• Diarrhoea: Since dragon fruit is rich in fibre and helps your bowel movement. This keeps the stomach clear and expedites the defecation process. However, sometimes overconsumption of dragon fruit can initiate diarrhoea.
• Reddish faeces: Although consuming dragon fruit helps treat many chronic conditions like diabetes, heart disease and others, some people have reported a rosy appearance when they urinate or defecate.
• Allergic reactions: Dragon fruit has some hypersensitive reactions on people, like their lips, tongue and throat get swelled up. Their skin appears red, and there is a consuming sensation in the throat.
• Hypotension: This can be another side effect of overconsuming dragon fruit due to increased antioxidants in the body. This fruit is a good source of antioxidants which improves blood flow to and from the heart. Naturally, it reduces hypertension and similar cardiovascular issues. however, one should be careful about the right proportion of intake. Excess intake of this fruit may increase the heartbeat causing hypotension.

This is all the information on the numerous health benefits of dragon fruit and the nutritional value you can extract from its regular consumption. Make sure to read it, and if you think you need help with any of the conditions discussed above, adopt the fruit to your daily diet. However, be mindful of the consumption level so that you do not attract any of its side effects.