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Exotic lychee berry and its beneficial properties. Useful properties of lychee

Lychee (Wikipedia even knows about such exotic fruits) is the fruit of an evergreen tree called “Chinese lychee”. it fruit tree growing in the subtropics belongs to the Sapindov family. The lychee tree grows mainly in China, but it can be seen in South America, Africa, Asia, and occasionally in Australia. Lychee reaches a height of 30 meters. Fruits appear on the tree from about May to June.

The lychee fruit (the photo will not let you lie) is a small berry up to 4 cm in diameter, covered with a skin resembling scales with numerous sharp tubercles. The peel of the berry is tough, easily peeled off, revealing a delicate, jelly-like and slightly transparent pulp. It is surprising that under such a “crocodile” skin there is such a delicate fruit. And inside there is a large oval bone, which keeps the shape of the pulp. Lychee has a sour, slightly astringent taste and quite a bit resembles a refined white.

Lychee. How to choose and store

From China, the path is not close. Therefore, lychees are plucked in whole bunches with leaves. The optimum temperature for transportation is not lower than one degree and not higher than six degrees Celsius. Under such conditions, the berries can last up to a month. But with room temperature begin to deteriorate after a few days - this can be seen by the color and structure of the skin.

When buying lychee at the market or supermarket, take a close look at the skin. The peel of a ripe berry is red, and a slightly overripe or stale one is brown. The peel should be whole, of medium hardness, without rotten parts, cracks.

It is better to eat lychees right away, since after 4-5 days they already lose some of their properties. They are stored in the refrigerator at a temperature of less than 5-7 degrees. Look on the label when the bunch was picked or transported - from this date we store the berry for no more than a month in the refrigerator.

Lychee. How is a berry eaten?

Lychees are used in different ways in cooking.

  • You can eat lychees fresh - wash, peel, if you wish, take out the bone, put it in your mouth and enjoy the sweet and sour taste.
  • You can add it to ready-made or homemade ice cream, curd mass or yogurt, after cutting the berries.
  • Do you like to bake? Instead of apples or plums, add lychee to the pie - the taste will surprise you. Fortunately, the prices for this exotic product do not bite.
  • Boil jams, lychee marmalades, jellies and mousses.
  • Lychee is a fruit, but it is not only suitable for sweet dishes. It can be served with fish and meat, pate and chicken. Yes, in salads, he will not be superfluous.

Lychee Ice Cream Recipe

Squeeze the juice from five medium-sized lemons and mix with a kilogram of lychee. First, the berries must be peeled, cut and pitted. Add half a liter of juice to the mass.

Pre-soaked gelatin (you will find instructions on the gelatin package) is filtered and a quarter of a kilogram of sugar and a little lemon juice... All this is poured into lychees, the mass is mixed, laid out in molds or in a container and left in the freezer for several hours.

Delicious-tasting sherbet ice cream is ready. Enjoy.

The composition and useful properties of lychee

In China, lychees were used in medicine as early as the 2nd century BC. And the Chinese, oh, how they are watching over their health. Judge for yourself, one berry weighing about 20 grams contains potassium, manganese, fluorine, phosphorus, sodium, iodine, calcium, zinc, chlorine, iron, magnesium, sulfur, copper. What kind of fruit or berry do you know that contains so many elements of the periodic table? And no medicine is needed. Lychee also contains vitamins C and H, K and E, PP and group B.

The berry is medium sweet, it can contain from 5-6 to 13-14% sugar. It depends on where the lychee grows and on the type of tree. The calorie content of one fruit is not more than 66 kcal, it contains vegetable, carbohydrates and proteins.

Such a rich content of useful properties in lychee has a beneficial effect on the general health of a person, no matter how pretentious it sounds.

  • , of which there are a lot in lychee, fights viral infections,.
  • Potassium is indispensable for cores, for those who have high levels of potassium in their vessels.
  • Vitamin PP is a means of combating atherosclerosis.

The combination of other trace elements also successfully copes with diseases of the kidneys, lungs, liver, stomach and intestinal colic, normalizes blood sugar levels and the activity of the pancreas (you need to eat 10 berries per day).

Lychee contains oligonol, which is. If you take some other herbs with lychee, you can treat cancer or at least slow down the development of this scourge.

Hindus appreciate lychee for strengthening masculine strength, so they eat it regularly. Do you want to know what else this valuable product is useful for? Please!

  • It relieves thirst as it contains a lot of water. Although the advantage is rather controversial - you can just drink water ...
  • A few ripe berries eaten before lunch will saturate your body a little, and you do not eat too much at the table.
  • Treats constipation.
  • Bronchitis, tuberculosis, asthma are also subject to the action of lychee.
  • Relieves stress.
  • Stimulates brain activity.
  • Treats anemia.
  • Lychee is filling, so it helps to lose weight or keep it normal. Naturally when used correctly.
  • Pediatricians will agree that lychee is useful for children as a means of helping to form a skeleton, strengthen teeth and bones.

Having eaten the pulp, do not throw away the peel and bones. Having boiled the peel, we get a remedy that removes excess water from the body. The same broth is a tonic and tonic drink. We dry the seeds, grind them and drink a decoction from them in case of intestinal problems, pain of various kinds, with orchitis, myositis and neuralgia.

Who shouldn't eat lychee?

Lychee is not able to harm anyone. Unless for those who are allergic to this exotic fruit... And nutritionists do not advise eating more than one hundred grams of berries per day. Oversaturation threatens with bloating and gas formation.

Can lychees be grown at home?

Lychee is a subtropical culture and it will be difficult to grow it here. And is it necessary, given the growth of the tree. Remember, it can reach 20 or even 30 meters in height!

For those who want to try their hand at breeding and cultivation, the following information will be useful.

  • For lychees, it is worth creating a dry climate, like in the subtropics. If the air is humid, lychee may not produce fruit.
  • You can grow lychees vegetatively or from seedlings.
  • You can wait for fruits already in the sixth year with vegetative propagation or in the 10th year, if grown from seeds.

For the sake of experiment, you can try to grow a decorative lychee at home on a windowsill from a bone - you didn't throw it away when you ate the pulp?

  • Moisten the cloth and wrap the washed bone in it. Put in a warm place for a week or two. Do not forget to moisten the cloth.
  • The stone can be planted in the ground when it swells a little. The top layer of the earth is about 2 cm.
  • We buy the soil for lychee drained, sourish, generously flavored with fertilizers,
  • To make the seed sprout hatch faster, you can split it a little.
  • Water our bone with water at room temperature that has settled for a couple of days. Do not forget to loosen the ground.
  • You can fertilize the soil as soon as a sprout appears from it.

Make sure that the ground does not become waterlogged, otherwise the plant will die. As the lychee grows, repot it in a larger pot so that the roots are not cramped. For the first couple of years, the tree can be shaped by pruning.

Whether the tree will bloom and bear fruit is difficult to say. Yet this is an overseas guest, and he has his own character. But if you do not try to grow it, then it will definitely not bear fruit ...

Lychee, Chinese plum, laiji, dragon eye, fox - all this is one exotic fruit that grows on low trees with elongated leaves in countries with mild climates.

Lychee berries have a set of useful properties and have practically no contraindications.

Twenty years ago, such a curiosity could not be found in grocery stores, but now this fruit has become commonplace along with carambola and. Those wishing to feast on lychee, of course, are interested in what kind of fruit it is, what are its useful and harmful properties and possible contraindications.

What kind of fruit?

Exotic fruit grows in warm countries

Lychee fruits grow in clusters of 15-20 berries per cluster. During ripening, they are covered with a soft skin, which can be damaged even with your fingers, and then it hardens and becomes more like a shell. It is less durable, red in color, but with the same unique natural pattern. The peel of the fruit is removed, and behind it is a white, jelly-like pulp with a dark elongated bone in the middle. It is juicy, aromatic, and tastes like the quintessence of currants, strawberries and raspberries.

You may be interested in learning about the benefits of raspberry leaves. Read the details

Most often, the "insides" of lychee are white, but there are fruits with yellow or pinkish pulp. In consistency, it is similar to grape or plum, which is why the berries are called Chinese plum. Lychee size does not exceed the average strawberry. Depending on the variety (and there are more than 220 of them), the fruits are covered with a smooth, thorny or terry-hairy skin. Lychee is a berry, but Europeans often called it a fruit that it is no longer considered a mistake. Only a pedantic agronomist can offend such a name.

There is also a fruit similar to lychee - longan. It is also grown in China and Thailand. The berries are identical in size, structure of the peel and even the color of the pulp, but differ in taste and shade of the shell. Longan has a soft beige color with a creamy sheen, and there are obsessive musky notes in the aroma and taste.
Let's find out if it is possible to get poisoned by the fruit, whether they eat lychee bones and what useful qualities he possesses.

What vitamins are in the fruit and how many calories

Beneficial features lychee fruits are determined by their composition. The Chinese plum contains vitamins B5, B9, B1, B2, B6, PP, H, E and C.

The highest concentration of minerals is:

  • potassium;
  • calcium;
  • fluorine;
  • Selena;
  • iodine;
  • zinc;
  • manganese.

It is rich in minerals and such a famous delicacy as halva

Also in the berries are present:

  • beta carotene;
  • folic acid;
  • choline;
  • pectin;
  • essential oils;
  • fiber and water.

Is this fruit allergen or not? Cases of intolerance with serious consequences are extremely rare. There are no active substances that can cause an acute allergic reaction in lychee.

The fruit is classified as a carbohydrate product, since its KBZHU looks like this:

  • Proteins - 0.8;
  • Fat - 0.3;
  • Carbohydrates - 14.4.

How many calories are in this aromatic fruit berry? His energy value(caloric content) is only 65 kcal per 100 grams of product, and the glycemic index is at the lower border of the average: 57. Accordingly, you can pamper yourself with berries both with diabetes and with weight loss.

What is useful for the human body?

The lychee berry, when consumed regularly, brings invaluable benefits to the body:

  • Chinese plum - a diuretic, used to relieve edema and remove fluid from the body in diseases of the bladder and kidneys;
  • With regular use, the product copes with chronic constipation and normalizes the digestive tract;
  • The main benefits of lychee for the body are mild but effective cleansing of toxins and cholesterol;
  • It is used as a therapy and prevention of atherosclerosis: the active substances that make up the berries increase the tone of the vascular walls and reduce plaques that form in advanced cases;
  • The presence of potassium makes the Chinese plum an excellent remedy for maintaining the health of the cardiovascular system;
  • The usefulness of lychee is also manifested in diseases of the upper respiratory tract. The product has an expectorant effect, therefore it helps with tuberculosis, colds, bronchitis.

The product has almost no contraindications. The only contraindication to the use of a fruit can only be an individual intolerance to its individual components. Overeating may cause skin rashes and irritation of the oral mucosa.

You will learn more about the benefits and dangers of lychee from the video:

Useful properties for men

In eastern countries, berries are considered "stimulants of love", that is, a strong aphrodisiac. They normalize blood circulation, prevent blood from stagnating, and, accordingly, provide a stable erection - this is the main benefit of lychee for men. It is especially effective to regularly eat 15-20 berries for the stronger sex after 35-40 years. They will simultaneously support their masculine strength and cleanse the blood vessels of cholesterol, which the body over middle age accumulates with particular persistence.

It is useful to eat and pomelo to maintain men's health.

Benefits for women

Lychee pulp is used in cosmetology: it is included in many hair and skin care products. At home, you can independently make a face mask from berries. It perfectly nourishes the skin and smoothes wrinkles. The mask is especially effective in winter, when the face is chapped and the epidermis is dry. Choline, found in berries, relieves stress and irritability during PMS. During menstruation, cramps and pains also pass under the action of the active substances of the berries. Folic acid helps maintain the beauty of skin, nails and hair, which is especially important for the fair sex.

Can pregnant women eat fruit?

The diet of a woman expecting a baby is selected carefully and with great care. Many exotic lovers are wondering whether it is possible to feast on lychee during pregnancy. The benefits and harms of berries for the health of pregnant women have long been studied. It is often not recommended to eat them. In the event of an unforeseen allergy, it is necessary to stop eating the fruit and immediately consult a doctor. However, only 10-15 berries per day saturate the body with vitamins and minerals. Also, during pregnancy, the fruit relieves a woman of constipation, which often occurs against the background of hormonal changes. The slight sour aftertaste of lychee can stop an attack of nausea during toxicosis, but such a medicine is ambiguous: it will help some, while for others it will only aggravate the situation.

You may be interested to know that it is very beneficial to eat goji berries during pregnancy.
You will find all the details about exotic fruits

Can lychees be eaten while breastfeeding?

Fruit is not recommended to be abused during breastfeeding. Although lychee activates the production of prolactin in a woman's body, thereby provoking an increase in milk flow. It is not recommended to eat fruit just before feeding itself, it is better to wait at least 1 hour. If the baby is currently tormented by colic, that is, the intestinal microflora is formed, then the mother should refrain from eating lychee at all.

Useful properties of the peel

The peel of berries also finds its use in folk medicine... It is dried and crushed. Then, on the basis of the resulting powdery mass, decoctions are made. They are drunk for nervous disorders, depression, increased irritability and sleep disorders, as the medicine has a calming effect. In Chinese medicine, such a decoction is also popular as a weight loss drug. It does not burn fat, but it can speed up the metabolism.

Fruit pits: are they edible or not?

Many people ask questions: what will happen if you eat a lychee seed, and is it poisonous? Unfortunately, it contains harmful substances that can cause poisoning. In Chinese medicine, bones are treated, but they are first fried or dried. Eating raw is strictly prohibited. Their decoction removes disturbances in the functioning of the nervous system. The beneficial properties of the fruit seed are not limited to this. Lychee core is used as a remedy for colds. Unfortunately, Chinese medicine is full of secrets that it is in no hurry to reveal, therefore the exact proportions of the components for the preparation of decoctions and tinctures are known only to oriental folk physicians.

How much can you eat per day?

There is no clear allowable consumption rate for this product. Adults, of course, need to observe certain boundaries and not eat only lychee three times a day. 150-250 g per day will be enough. The daily norm for children is 100 g. You can only give berries to babies over two years old. It is not recommended to eat more than 100-150 g daily for those who are on protein diets. In these cases, bloating, flatulence and diarrhea can result from the use of such a "lethal" dose of carbohydrates, which is contained in lychee.

What cooking says about berries

Lychee are versatile berries. They are used to prepare desserts and side dishes for meat, fish, vegetables and cereals. Exquisite insist on the fragrant pulp alcoholic drinks(more often wine) and create non-alcoholic cocktails... Due to the relatively low calorie content, berries become the basis of the diet during a diet, when a person losing weight is already dizzy with questions about what can be eaten and what is taboo. Habitual pineapples, and although they give satiety, they become boring too quickly. In these cases, those who are losing weight resort to affordable exotics. Canned fruit is added to salads, and fresh fruit is used to make delicious ice cream. Especially delicious is the lychee sauce, which is present on the menu. best restaurants... In confectionery, berries are used to make filling for pies, jelly, marmalade, sweets and cakes.

You will learn how to peel lychee from the video:
https://youtu.be/_JKmHO_XAKo

Afterword

The lychee berry brings invaluable benefits to the body, and only in rare cases - harm. Medicinal properties The product was known to oriental physicians several thousand years ago. By the way, in the east, the berries are peeled, put in a plate and eaten with spoons, but we have formed a different practice: to eat lychees one by one with your hands.

V ripe fruits the peel should be elastic, and when pressed, it should bend, burst, but still return to its original state.

At home, lychees must be thoroughly washed, although the peel is not eaten. At one time in China, these berries were so highly valued that they even replaced the currency. The product was dubbed the Chinese plum by the European traveler Gonzalez de Mendoza, who introduced the Old World to the outlandish fruit.

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We return to the tropics again and talk about the beneficial properties of the lychee fruit and the harm possibly caused to the body by this exotic.

How the lychee fruit grows - what taste, smell

Lychee(what it looks like can be seen in the photo) is a small fruit from a tropical tree with many beneficial properties and nutrients. It is considered an exotic fruit, something outwardly reminiscent, inside it looks more like a grape with its jelly-like pulp. Our compatriots began to call it "Chinese" plum, and Chinese parents "dragon eye".

It is a close relative that grows in bunches and has a very short shelf life. This is why it is available for a limited time even during the season.

Lychee taste sweet with a slight sourness (depending on the ripeness of the fruit). The smell is vaguely reminiscent of the scent of a rose.

Homeland of the lychee tree- China, now different varieties grow in Thailand, China, Vietnam, South Africa, Australia, southern South America.

In ancient China, the exotic lychee fruit was a privileged fruit in the imperial palaces, finding its greatest admirers among the emperors and empresses, who received these beautiful fruits, transported to the capital at a huge price.

Perhaps this excitement is due to the fact that lychee is a very strong natural aphrodisiac - it activates attraction, rejuvenates the body, gives a powerful burst of energy.

The chemical composition of lychee and calorie content

Lychee is very valuable nutritional quality the fruit.

  • It has a high water content and provides energy.
  • Contains high levels of vitamin C.
  • The amount of sugar in the fruit is 15.23 g and has a reasonable 1.3 g of dietary fiber.
  • The fruit is a valuable source of polyphenols that make it a reliable and recommended antioxidant.
  • Its mineral composition makes it an excellent fuel for electrolyte balance in the body.

Calorie lychee-70-80 calories per 100 g of product.

Lychee - beneficial properties of the fruit and its use in medicine

Because of its many health benefits, the exotic fruit is used in alternative medicine recipes in China and contains a mixture of medicinal benefits that promote wellness.

  • Strengthens the immune system

Vitamin C is water-soluble, which means it does not last long in the body. Body fluids such as sweat, stools, and urine are excreted from the body every day. This is the reason why a person needs daily replenishment.

Lychee is an excellent source of vitamin C and contains 71.5 mg per 100 g serving, it is a good antioxidant that stimulates the body's immune function. The fruit also protects against common illnesses such as the flu.

Vitamin C strengthens the immune system to protect against everyday infections. This is especially recommended for young children who are very vulnerable to illness and cold. Vitamin C is also known to relieve scurvy, which is mainly caused by vitamin C deficiency.

  • Protection against oxidative stress

Lychee contains good amounts of the antioxidant vitamin C, vitamin B complex and phytonutrients. Antioxidants and phytonutrients are essential nutrients that make the fruit so beneficial.

Antioxidants are needed to protect the body from oxidative stress, which causes premature aging and inhibits cell regeneration. This process is capable of disrupting the DNA of normal cells and triggering an uncontrolled mechanism for the formation of tumors. But antioxidants act as a shield to protect the body from damage, while also reducing and controlling inflammation and degenerative diseases such as arthritis.

  • Blood renewal

The fruit is a rich source of nutrients needed for blood production and circulation. Iron helps the hemoglobin in the blood to transport oxygen to all organs. Iron stains the blood red, which is a clear indicator of the high content of this trace element and its importance in the blood.

The whole process is actively promoted by the one available in the lychee.

Magnesium plays an important role in the formation of blood clots in the body. Without a clotting function, a single cut can cause a wound to bleed without stopping until the last drop of blood from the body.

Copper is used by the body for healthy iron metabolism and the formation of red blood cells (RBC).

Vitamin C is necessary for the full absorption of iron into the body. No matter how iron-rich diet a person consumes, it will not be able to control healthy blood levels if there is a vitamin C deficiency.

All these minerals - manganese, magnesium, copper, iron, vitamin C and folate are present in lychee, which makes it a complete product for renewing blood, restoring its required level and general health.

  • Increased metabolism

Lychee contains a good amount and a complex of vitamin B, which stimulates the metabolism.

People with insulin resistance due to poor metabolism should consume foods like lychee, which are rich in antioxidants and flavonoids.

Although due to its high sugar content, the fruit is not recommended for diabetics to consume in large quantities, those with a poor metabolism can benefit from this quality of the fruit. It also helps in the elimination of fat from the body. The high water content of about 80-85% also makes lychee an excellent cleanser.

  • Skin's best friend

The skin bears the brunt of aging, pollution, exposure to harmful UV rays, stress and other lifestyle disorders.

Although aging is a natural phenomenon, it is accelerated by the rest of the factors mentioned earlier. The result is dull skin with fine lines that make you look much older than your age.

The main cause of aging is free radicals that are produced in the body due to high oxidative stress. But antioxidants have proven to break down these free radicals to slow down the aging process. The right combination of foods in your diet can significantly slow down skin aging.

Vitamin C and high water content in lychee are an ideal blend of anti-aging factors. Vitamin C clears impurities and water flushes them away. Both of these keep skin radiant and well hydrated while reducing wrinkles and imperfections.

  • Heart disease and blood pressure

Through research, it has been found that antioxidant-rich foods such as lychee,. The high fiber content also inhibits the formation of fat and lipid stores in the body and promotes cardiovascular health.

Found in the fruit, potassium contributes to a normal heart rate by maintaining and regulating muscle function in our body.

In addition, lychee lowers the level of bad cholesterol (LDL) and increases the level of good cholesterol (HDL) in the blood. Thus, it improves blood flow to the heart and reduces the risk of heart attack and hypertension.

High fiber foods have been proven to suppress appetite and boost metabolism. This reduces the total blood count, which creates obstacles to proper blood circulation.

  • Aids digestion and bowel movements

The digestion process is vital in the body. Dietary fiber pectin is considered to be very beneficial for bowel movement and maintaining a healthy digestive system. This function is further enhanced by the high water content, as the combination of fiber and water helps prevent.

Having a regular and complete bowel movement not only cleanses the body, but also protects against diseases such as colon cancer.

  • Weight loss and fluid balance

Ideal weight is essential for the body. But more important are the ways and means by which this can be achieved. Planning a healthy diet and exercise is a strict requirement, without which the body can suffer and lack many essential nutrients. Improperly selected exercises can lead to significant water loss due to constant.

If it is not supplemented with the right food, then all that is ultimately obtained is this.

Lychee also contains a good amount of potassium, which is required to maintain sodium levels. In addition, high potassium levels are necessary to maintain fluid levels, which is electrolyte balance. Thus, it helps to maintain normal blood pressure and reduce the risk of stroke and heart attack.

  • Rutin

The lychee fruit is the richest source of polyphenols among fruits. Rutin is known to strengthen blood vessels. It is used for hemorrhoids, and is also used to combat bruising.

A deficiency in bioflavonoids can allow blood vessels to be easily damaged. But with a sufficient amount of rutin in the body with blood vessels, nothing will happen in the event of a slight injury. Rutin not only benefits the blood vessels. Research has also shown that it helps protect against cancer, diabetes, and heart disease.

  • Mitochondrial health

In animal studies, lychee phenolic compounds have been found to protect against stress caused by liver damage by modulating mitochondrial dysfunction.

  • Fruit as an antiviral agent

How do lychees eat

In principle, everything is simple - cut the washed fruit lengthwise, pull out the dark bone, eat the light pulp with a teaspoon or pull the edge of the peel (in most specimens it is quite easy to remove).

Another way is to make an incision, like cutting off a "cap", then the flesh itself will be squeezed out perfectly into the plate with a slight pressure.

Storage

Fresh fruits are stored for a short time - three days at room temperature, in the refrigerator for up to 10 days. For longer storage, they are frozen, dried, preserved. In China, they are salted.

Lychee harm or fruit side effects

  • The tropical lychee fruit is a wonderful fruit that tastes just as good as it is good for the body. However, if a person tends to consume more of it, then the high sugar content should be borne in mind. This is important for diabetics.
  • Also, the benefits of the lychee fruit for the body will no longer be if you eat it in huge quantities, on the contrary, an allergic reaction may occur, manifested in a rash on the skin, ulceration in the mouth.
  • You should not mix this type of fruit with others in the same meal - possibly increased gas formation and abdominal discomfort.

If you have been to the markets of Thailand, India or South Africa at least once, then you are probably familiar with such a fruit as lychee. Traders often offer tourists to try this outlandish berry. Therefore, before the trip, find out: what kind of fruit is it, how does it look in the photo and how to eat it correctly?

What is lychee

Chinese plum, dragon's eye, liji, laysi or litchi chinensis in Latin - all these are the names of one fruit that came to us from China. Lychee is a tropical evergreen fruit tree in the family of dicotyledonous flowering plants. Its fruits are small, usually bright red, pinkish or brown, oval in shape, no more than four centimeters long.

In the photo above, small berries are covered with numerous tubercles, on which sharp thorns are located. When the fruit ripens, the dry peel is easily separated from the pulp. Lychee juice tastes slightly tart, the pulp knits in the mouth and vaguely resembles grapes, strawberries and apples at the same time. In the center of the berry there is an oblong dark brown seed. The pulp itself contains a lot of vitamin C, potassium, magnesium, but the most important advantage of its composition is vitamin PP, which actively removes it from the body bad cholesterol.

How to eat lychee

In Asian countries, overripe fruits are used to make wine and vinegar. Europeans approach the process of processing this tropical fruit from the other side, often adding pulp to drinks, desserts and using it for the production of ice cream or sorbet. If you wish, you can find many useful and simple recipes with a photo where this fruit is used.

The berry is also eaten fresh, but in order to appreciate the full taste of this aromatic product, you need to be able to choose it correctly. On the branches of trees, the fruits can sag until the beginning of autumn, but the plucked fruits cannot be stored for a long time. Therefore, in stores, ripe lychees are mainly sold together with stalks and green leaves. When buying, you should pay attention to the color of the peel. A green tint indicates that the berry was harvested too early, and the shell is dark brown about overripe - such a fruit has already lost its aroma and sweet taste.

How to peel lychee

The peel of this healthy fruit it is not suitable for food, therefore, it must be removed before eating the fruit. You can peel lychees in different ways:

  • Option one - make a small incision near the stalk itself and carefully separate the peel with your hands. Then cut open the soft pulp and remove the bone. This is the best way to keep the fruit intact.
  • Option two - take the fruit with both hands, slightly pressing down, turn the skin in different directions. The disadvantage of this cleaning method is that with strong pressure, you can ruin the appearance of the berry.
  • Option three - carefully cut off the top layer at the stalk itself and take out the tender pulp with a teaspoon.

Is it possible to eat lychee bones

Only the pulp is considered edible in the fruit, but everything else is not suitable for food. Although you can't eat lychee bones, Chinese craftsmen at home often process them into a powdery mass. Powder is made healthy tea, which is drunk for medicinal purposes for digestive disorders or for the prevention of worms. However, there is still no scientific evidence for the properties of seeds or their benefits for the body.

Lychee in syrup

Fresh, these tropical fruits are sold seasonally in stores: from May to October. The rest of the year, you can try canned lychees, and at a very affordable price - 1 serving of 550 ml will cost you about 200 rubles. The canned product looks like regular peeled garlic, but its taste and smell is not lost even after a long time in the marinade.

Video

The content of the article:

Chinese lychee fruit is the fruit of an evergreen tree that grows in the tropics: Thailand, Cambodia, China, Vietnam, Africa, America. It has a wide spreading crown, and the trunk grows to a height of 15-30 meters. The botanical name is Litchi chinensis of the family Sapindaceae class dicotyledonous division angiosperms. There are also names: liji, litchi, lynchi, lisi, laysi and chinese plum. The branches of the tree are covered with beautiful shiny dark green leaves (compound, pair-pinnate) lanceolate, pointed at the tip. Curiously, lychee flowers do not have petals, it is a yellowish calyx on umbellate inflorescences about 70 cm long. The fruit also ripens in clusters and is harvested from May to June.

Pictured is a lychee tree


The fruit of the Chinese plum is red, covered with peaked tubercles, oval, 2.5 to 4 centimeters long. Inside, under the skin of the lychee, there is a jelly-like light pulp with a pleasant grape sweet taste. A hard oval brown bone is "hidden" in the pulp.

How to choose and eat lychees

Fresh fruits have bright color... The darker the skin color of this tropical fruit, the longer it has lasted and the worse the taste. For food, those lychees are used that are not squeezed by fingers, dense, elastic, without holes and dents.

There are several varieties of this tasty product, but all the peel is not suitable for food. To get to the edible part, you need to get rid of the bumpy shell: it can be easily cleaned with your fingers, for convenience you can bite it and then clean it off with your hands. What is eaten inside the lychee is a translucent whitish pulp, firm, not creamy, it tastes like a berry sweet with a wine-like grape aftertaste, inside there is a large stone that is easily separated from the pulp. They say that those who have tasted this tropical fruit at least once will fall in love with it forever. It is not for nothing that in our century lychee is ahead of any fruit in its popularity in Southeast Asia and is famous not only for its taste.

Lychees are tasty and nutritious fresh, they are completely dried (and this already becomes a nut), peeled (removed the bone) and preserved in sugar syrup, prepare jelly, ice cream and other desserts from them. The Chinese add this fruit to their traditional wine.

In Thailand, the price of one kilogram of lychee is about 40-70 baht ($ 1.3-2.2). They are always sold on a branch, since the fruit is poorly stored and after tearing off the berry it quickly deteriorates.

The chemical composition and calorie content of lychee


Lychee is not a high-calorie fruit and besides being very tasty, it is also very useful in dietary nutrition... For beauty, the fruit is a very valuable product: the high content of B vitamins maintains healthy hair and nails. So:

The calorie content of lychee per 100 g is 66 kcal (276 kJ), as well as this:

  • Carbohydrates - 16.53 g
  • Proteins - 0.83 g
  • Fat - 0.44 g
  • Water - 81.76 g
  • Dietary fiber 1.5 g
  • Disaccharides 15.23 g
Vitamins:
  • B1 (thiamine) - 0.011 mg
  • (niacin) - 0.6 mg
  • B6 (pyridoxine) - 0.1 mg
  • E (tocopherol) - 0.07 mg
  • C (ascorbic acid) - 71.5 mg
  • K - 0.4 μg
Micro and macro elements:
  • Potassium - 171 mg
  • Magnesium - 10 mg
  • Phosphorus - 31 mg
  • Calcium - 5 mg
  • Iron - 0.31 mg
  • Sodium - 1 mg
  • Zinc - 0.07 mg
  • Selenium - 0.6 mcg
  • Manganese - 0.055 mg

Useful properties of lychee


In the photo, the shell, bones and pulp of lychee


Pleasant refreshing taste invigorates not only because of juiciness. The pulp of the fruit is of course rich in pure water, vitamins and, in general, has a tonic invigorating effect on a person. Depending on the lychee variety, the percentage of sugar content ranges from 6 to 15 percent. The fruit also contains a lot of healthy dietary fiber, complex carbohydrates, proteins and a little fat. Large amounts of vitamin C, potassium and magnesium support the cardiovascular system of the body. Due to the high content of niacin, in traditional Chinese medicine, lychee is used as a remedy for atherosclerosis and with its help, it reduces the level of cholesterol in the blood.

Lychees are also beneficial for keeping the intestinal tract working, they are rich in fiber. Even with diabetes, the fetus is useful for gastritis, anemia and other diseases. For example, these berries are "prescribed" for coughing, with an increase in the glands in the throat, their seeds help with neuralgia, orchitis and relieve pain. And in India, for a long time, lychee seeds have been collected, ground into powder, and then taken as medicine with intestinal problems.

Contraindications of lychee fruit

Everyone who does not have an individual intolerance to the product can enjoy the taste of lychee.
And also, try to eat only fresh fruits, with a dark colored lychee peel can cause digestive upset.

In addition to the lychee fruit, there is a mammal of the same name from the genus of water goats - the African Lychee antelope.

Chinese plum fruit began to be called in the middle of the 17th century, after the European Juan Gonzalez de Mendoza described it as a plum that can be eaten in large quantities without harm to the stomach.

The Chinese ate this fruit even before our era (about the 2nd century BC). One ancient Chinese emperor even executed his gardeners for failing to grow lychee trees in North China.