5 Benefits of Dutch Eggplant, Acidic Fruit Rich in Vitamin C
Known to have a sour taste, Dutch eggplant is a fruit from the eggplant family that is red or yellow-orange in color. Fruit with another name for this tamarillo contains a lot of water and smells fresh. Approximately, what are the contents and benefits of Dutch eggplant?
Read: Low Carbohydrate Diet Guide for Beginners
Dutch Eggplant Content and Benefits
Dutch Eggplant Content
Dutch eggplant is a fruit with an oval shape that almost resembles an egg. Although called the Dutch eggplant, the fruit with the Latin name Solanum betaceum is grown in the Americas, Australia, and Asia.
In Indonesia, this fruit was introduced and cultivated by the Dutch, so it was called the Dutch eggplant. There is also various Dutch eggplant content that can meet your daily nutritional needs, including:
- Energy: 52 cal
- Protein: 2.1 g
- Fat: 1.1 g
- Carbohydrates: 8.6 g
- Fiber: 1.4 g
- Calcium: 16 mg
- Phosphorus: 40 mg
- Iron: 1.1 mg
- Total Carotenoids: 8,048 mcg
- Thiamine (vitamin B1): 0.42 mg
- Riboflavin (vitamin B2): 0.06 mg
- Vitamin C: 12 mg
Benefits of Dutch Eggplant
Although the Dutch eggplant has a bitter outer skin, the fruit content in it actually offers a myriad of health benefits. Here are a number of benefits of Dutch eggplant that you don't want to miss.
1. Increase endurance
One of the benefits of Dutch eggplant which is quite popular is to increase endurance. This is because the vitamin B complex in tamarillo plays a role in regulating the body's metabolism.
That way, food that has entered the body will be converted into nutrients that are important for organs and tissue cells. That is, the B vitamins in Dutch eggplant help convert calories into energy through carbohydrates and protein.
Not only that, the content of B vitamins helps the process of hemoglobin metabolism. In fact, the body that gets a low-calorie intake can be helped by B vitamins by reaching for reserve carbohydrates.
That's why you can choose Dutch eggplant as a complement to a balanced nutritional diet for a healthier life.
2. Helps prevent obesity
In addition to endurance, the benefit of Dutch eggplant properties is to help overcome obesity. This statement was proven by research published in the Journal of Obesity.
Experts in the study examined the effects of tamarillo extract on obese mice fed a high-fat diet. As a result, treatment of obese mice with tamarillo extract showed its potential in maintaining body weight.
Not only that, but this Dutch eggplant extract also helps lower lipids, exhibits increased antioxidant activity, and is anti-inflammatory.
Therefore, the consumption of Dutch eggplant in daily intake may be used as a way to prevent obesity. However, experts still need further research to see whether the effect is the same in humans or not.
3. Reduce the risk of heart disease
The Third benefit of dutch eggplant is reduced risk of heart disease.
Did you know that Dutch eggplant contains a good composition of soluble fiber, anthocyanins, to carotenoids? Anthocyanins and carotenoids are compounds that are found to be very beneficial for heart health.
The content of carotenoids can help lower the risk of coronary heart disease in the following ways:
- lower blood pressure,
- reduce cytokines and inflammation, as well as
- increase insulin sensitivity in muscle, liver, and adipose tissue.
Therefore, nutrients in fruit such as carotenoids play an important role in various chronic diseases, such as coronary heart disease and stroke.
4. Maintain blood pressure
Thanks to the carotenoid content in tamarillo, you can maintain good blood pressure. However, the benefits of this Dutch eggplant do not only come from carotenoids.
Basically, maintaining blood pressure can be done in many ways and one of them is controlling potassium intake. Fortunately, the potassium content in Dutch eggplant is low, which is around 400 milligrams per 100 grams of fresh weight.
The Ministry of Health recommends that you consume 4,700 milligrams of potassium per day. This daily nutritional requirement can be obtained through fruits and vegetables, such as tamarillo.
You are also encouraged to set a nutritious diet that includes colorful fruits and vegetables. It aims to help lower blood pressure, especially in hypertensive patients.
5. Help make life longer
Dutch eggplant is a fruit that is rich in vitamin C. No wonder this orange or purplish fruit offers a myriad of benefits for the body.
One of the benefits offered by Dutch eggplant thanks to the vitamin C in it is that it helps make life longer. How could that be?
According to research from Canada, giving vitamin C to worms with Werner syndrome increases the lifespan of these animals. Werner syndrome is a rare disease that can lead to premature death, so it was selected for this study.
This benefit may be possible given that vitamin C is beneficial for age-related diseases of the tissues. The benefits of vitamin C include:
- reduce the inflammatory response
- protect the DNA network, and
- reduce cellular stress biomarkers.
All three are linked to rapid cell aging and vitamin C can help reverse the effects of aging. However, further research is needed because this study uses worms as the test object.
That’s information about the benefits of dutch eggplant, hope this is useful!