As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Rambutans are bright, furry, red fruits with a creamy white-colored center. These fruits are native to Malaysia but have already begun their expansion throughout the world. They are making their way into grocery stores, health food stores, and some farmers’ markets all over the world. In addition to their unique appearance and sweet flavor, Rambutans also offer some outstanding health benefits.
Rambutans are pretty common in tropical and subtropical areas. They do not grow well in colder environments. Of course, you can find them in cans, but they are not as healthy as the fresh ones.
Health Benefits
The vitamins, antioxidants, and minerals that can be found in rambutans can provide vital nutrition benefits for your health. For example, folate is a vitamin that is important and essential for healthy cell division and proper DNA duplication. Some physicians recommend consuming at least 400 micrograms of folate a day for women who wish to become pregnant as it is critical in avoiding various birth defects.
In addition to that rambutans are full of potassium, which is a mineral that helps your heart to beat, kidneys to function properly, and muscles to contract with force and elasticity.
The list of health benefits of eating Rambutan
- Rambutan can cure some small ailments like dry lips or sprue mouth.
- May improve the health of the eyes.
- Reduction of bad cholesterol.
- Cancer prevention.
- Can serve as an immunity booster.
- The ability to rejuvenate your skin and make hair healthier.
- A potent remedy for diarrhea.
- Prevents constipation.
- Cleans kidneys.
- Good for pregnant women.
Now let’s delve deeper into the most important health benefits that rambutan has to offer.
Reduced risk of cancer
Rambutans contain a lot of vitamin C, which is a potent natural antioxidant. Consuming antioxidants can help to fight off the free radicals, which are in their essence a waste product of your body that can damage your cells. Antioxidants are known to be able to reduce cellular damage and potentially reduce the risk of some types of cancer.
Boosts immune system
Rambutans have been proved to be able to give noticeable support to immune system health in several ways. First of all, vitamin C, which is plentiful in rambutans is connected to immune function and its health. Consuming enough vitamin C regularly can help support your immune health in the long term. Secondly, some studies have suggested that extracts from rambutan fruit may help fight infections. The same extracts can prevent viruses from replicating and help your immune system to fight off most germs more easily.
Digestive system’s health
Rambutans can help your digestion to be more healthy and resilient. Those fruits provide dietary fiber in both of their forms – soluble and insoluble. The dietary fiber that is found in rambutans may help reduce constipation by preventing impaction and addition of bulk to stools. Insoluble fiber can also feed the good kind of bacteria that lives in your digestive system. In turn, it helps your intestines to handle more complex foods with more ease.
Prevention of Anemia
Anemia is a familiar word to any woman who has had menstrual periods. It is not an overly common condition, and sometimes it is hard to detect it. It is also not a very dangerous condition, but it is always better to remain safe and avoid such complications.
If you don’t want to have dull, tiring, and weakened days, rambutans can be an efficient remedy by preventing loss of erythrocytes.
Rambutans contain big amounts of iron that are necessary for the formation of iron in your body. Consuming rambutans will provide you with all the iron you need to rejuvenate your body’s erythrocytes, and by that protecting you from anemia.
Nutrition and vitamins
Rambutans are rich in such nutrients as vitamin B5, which can be an important part of your body’s ability to convert food into energy. Vitamin B5 is available only through eating food that contains it and cannot be produced by the body. It is recommended to get at least 5mg of this vitamin every day.
Rambutans are also a great source of vitamins A, C, B, Potassium, Calcium, Folate, and Choline.
One average rambutan fruit contains:
- Calories: 7
- Protein: Less than 1 gram
- Fat: Less than 1 gram
- Carbohydrates: 2 grams
- Sugar: Less than 1 gram
- Fiber: Less than 1 gram
Watch Out For Rambutans Skin and Seeds
Although rambutans’ flesh is safe and even healthy to eat, its skin and seed can be dangerous, because they contain several toxic substances that should not be consumed by humans. While some sources may assure you that the skin and seeds of rambutan can be safely consumed, actual studies suggest that those sources are wrong and should never be eaten. The skin and seed of rambutan are safe to handle though because the toxins can only be absorbed through digestion.
How to eat Rambutan
Rambutan fruits may seem to be intimidating at first glance because their furry outer skin seems hard to open. But once you understand the process these fruits are actually quite easy to peel. The skin is not very difficult to cut with a knife and the fuzzy spines on the outside are soft and harmless. It is easy to cut and peel the skin without damaging the fruit.
The fruit is about the same size as a cherry, and just like cherries, it contains a pit. You can eat the rambutan raw, but it is important to be cautious while chewing in order to avoid the pit. The juicy flesh has a sweet flavor and can be the perfect addition to fruit salads, smoothies, or any kind of dessert all year long.
Here are some ways to include rambutan fruit in your diet. You can add rambutan to a smoothie, make a fruit salad with it, use rambutans to make jam, add them to the ice cream, try rambutan sorbet, or add frozen rambutans to cocktails.
The ability to fight disease-causing pathogens as well as various conditions that may lead to poor health is the reason this fruit is recommended for everyone to be added to the diet. It will help your body to grow healthily and keep off the diseases.
I heard about this fruit 30 years ago from my mother, who had just visited Thailand and had it there. This is the first time after so many years for the first time I heard about this fruit again and in so much details. Thanks for this share, brought back a childhood memory.