Fruit and vegetable have become important part of our diet and they important to keep healthy body and mind. Nowadays people more concern about what they eat and they want to have healthy life and body by consuming fruit and vegetable regularly. The are lots of fruit and vegetable varieties that provide nutrition to human body and give benefits. Study found that consuming fruit and vegetable daily can prevent you away from serious disease including heart disease, cancer and diabetes.
Fruit Characteristic
One type of fruit which uncommonly known by people worldwide is tamarillo or some people call it tomatotillo. Tamarillo or Cyphomandra betacea also called as tree tomato since the appearance of this fruit looks like tomato. The tamarillo fruit has two kind of colors both red and yellow.
The red tamarillo is more popular rather than the yellow one. Tamarillo has egg shape with yellow-orange flesh and black seed which surrounded by purple gellatin. The red color in tamarillo is due to the presence of a pigment called anthocyanins while the yellow color comes from carotenoids pigment.
Tamarillo grow in a tree that has short life period. It has fragrant flower with many colors. The name tamarillo was derived in 1967 in New Zealand. Later people recognize tamarillo as tropical fruit which grow in most tropical climate countries. The tamarillo plant actually originated from South America, Chile, ecuador and Peru. It also widely grown in most area of India.
The fruit usually appear during May to October and they grow in cool weather. Tamarillo fruit also found grown in Hawaii and the plant can grow until 15 years old there. For information, the fruit will take 25 weeks to reach maturity after grown out from a flower. In 20 cluster of flowers, there will be only 4 until 5 fruits that will grown up and reach maturity. Today new zeland is the main country which produce most tamarillo fruits that spread to worldwide.
Nutritional Value
Tamarillo fruit is an excellent source of vitamins and minerals such as Vitamins A, C and provitamin A and they also high in of Calcium, Iron, Potassium, Phosphorus and Magnesium respectively. Here the table of nutrition value of tamarillo of 100 gr edible serving
| Nutrients |
Amounts |
Nutrients |
Amount |
|
Water |
86.08 g |
Iron |
0.57 mg |
|
Energy |
31 Kcal |
Copper |
0.03 mg |
|
Protein |
1.99 g |
Zinc |
0.15 mg |
|
Total fat |
0.36 g |
Selenium |
0.1 μg |
|
Carbohydrate |
3.8 g |
vitamin A |
189 μg |
|
Dietary fibre |
3.3 g |
Vitamin B6 |
0.198 mg |
|
Sodium |
1.44 mg |
Pantothenate |
0.04 mg |
|
Magnesium |
20.6 mg |
Folate |
4 μg |
|
Phosphorus |
38.9 mg |
Biotin |
0.1 μg |
|
Sulphur |
17.2 mg |
Vitamin C |
29.8 mg |
|
Chloride |
29.8 mg |
Vitamin E |
1.94 mg |
|
Potassium |
321 mg |
Thiamin |
0.043 mg |
|
Calcium |
13 mg |
Riboflavin |
0.024 mg |
|
Manganese |
114 μg |
Niacin |
0.271 mg |
Health Benefits of Tamarillo Fruits
Health Benefits of Tamarillo Fruits could we get from its nutrients. Rich in nutrients, tamarillo provides many benefits to human body. The main components of tamarillo fruit which give benefist to the body is their antioxidant. Tamarillo is excellent source of antioxidant and one of fruit with high antioxidant level. Below are the list of tamarillo benefits that you can find out.
1. Promotes digestion
Tamarillo contains high dietary fiber that can improve digestion function. Eating tamarillo regularly can help bowel movement and increase the nutrient absorption inside the body.
2. Relieve constipation
Fiber in tamarillo is not only can improve digestion but it can help to relieve unconfortable feeling due to hard defecation process. The fiber constent in tamarillo can increase bulk on stomach and sogften it. This will make the stool easier to pass the colon or large intestines.
3. Prevent cancer
Tamarillo contains high antioxidant level which can protect the body from developing almost all types of cancer. The total antioxidant in tamarillo based on ORAC value is 1659 per 100 gr fresh tamarillo. The main antioxidant in tamarillo are the pigment athocyanins, poplyphenolic, flavonoid and chlorogenic acid. Those antioxidant protect all body cells from any damage that caused by free radical infection that leads to DNA mutation. DNA damage is the beginning of the cancer cells development.
4. Prevent diabetes
Tamarillo contains fiber that can stabilize the blood sugar level within the body and it also a food with low glycemic index that didn’t cause the riss of blood sugar. Tamarillo also contains chlorogenic acid that play important role in delay the onset of diabetes and increase insulin sensitiivity. Consuming tamarillo can significantly help to prevent the development of diabetes especially type 2 diabetes.
5. Improve vision
Tamarillo is excelent source of caratenoids and Vitamin A. Those may protect the eyes from any damages that caused by external or internal factors. Vitamin A in tamarillo also can maintain and improve healthy vision, it also prevent the eyes from developing cataract and prevent aging on eye that called as macula degeneration.
6. Increase metabolism
Tamarillo contains various vitamin B complex that are important in maintaining healthy metabolism. Vitamin B complexs are the key of of several metabolic enzyme which can improve energy production to provide the body cells with sufficient energy.
7. Lower blood pressure
In 100 gr of tamarillo fruit you can get 321 mg of potassium. This amount of potassium can help to maintain normal heart beat and blood pressure. This make tamarillo a great snack for hypertension patients.
8. Prevent anemia
Tamarillo is completed with iron and it can prevent the body from development anemia since it is the main mineral that is part of the red blood cells. . Anemia is body condition that can cause weakness and several problem to human health. Anemia occur due to lack of red blood cell that responsible in transferring oxygen and nutrients to the all part of the body.
9. Maintain healthy skin
Due to high of vitamin C, tamarillo can help to keep skin tight, firm, bright and young. Who doesnt want to get this benefits? By consuming tamarillo regularly it is not impossible to get beauty skin. Tamarillo also packed with vitamin E taht is important in keep skin elasticity. Both vitamin C and vitamin E can promotes the production of collagens within skin tissue and collagen is known as aging fighter.
10. Help in weight loss
Tamarillo is a low calorie food that will make a great snack during your diet period. It also high in dietary fiber which want to cut down the fat cell within the body. You can just eaten the fruit raw or make it as juice to get this benefits.
11. Treat tonsililis
Tonsilitis is a disorder which attack the lymph node or tonsil within the mouth. Tonsilitis happen due to inflammation which caused by several factors such as infection of bacteria or disorder of lymphatic nodes itself. Colombian people believe that tamarillo can be used to treat tonsilitis.
12. Reduce cholesterol
Health Benefits of Tamarillo Fruits also best choices for reduce cholesterol level. Tamarillo contains fiber that can increase the good cholesterol and decrease the level of bad fat or cholesterol within the body. Consuming tamarillo after eating high cholesterol food or along the meal can help you to reduce the effect of cholesterol.
13. Prevent atherosclerosis
As tamarillo can reduce the cholesterol inside the body so it also give benefits in protect the arteries lining from developing plaque or aggregation which can cause arteries thickening or atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosis is one factor that increase the risk of heart disease.
14. Prevent heart disease
Reducing cholesterol, prevent atheroscleoris, lower blood pressure, these package makes tamarillo as one of good food to maintain healthy heart function. Tamarillo also contains potassium and manganese which important to keep normal heart beat and rhytm.
15. Boost immunity
All the antioxidants and nutrients content of tamarillo can slightly boost immune system. Tamarillo also contains vitamin C that alsmost same to oranges and vitamin C known as body immune booster. The vitamin C can protect the immune cells and strengthen it to fight disease or microorganism infection.
16. Rejuvenate cells in the organs
Tamarillo contains protein and amino acids that can promote body cell rejuvenation or production of new cells. This will actually help in p=repairing any damage that occur in the body including fasten the wound healing on skin area.
17. Prevent alzheimer and Parkinson disease
Both alzheimer and parkinson disease are disorder that caused by damage in brain and causing memory lost and paralyze body. Tamarillo contains high antioxidant that can protect the brain cells from damage and keeping healthy nerve function within the brain.
Tips to Consume Tamarillo Fruit
Still there is no case reported that people getting side effect after consuming tamarillo. Just like tomato, tamarillo is considered totally save but remember to not consume it excessively since everything that comes to body in excessive amount is never be good. If you wonder how tamarillo taste or how to purchase, store and include it to your meal, check the tips below
- Purchase fresh tamarillo in market with brigh color and make sure it does not have any damage on skin
- Avoid to purchase spoiled fruit with sign of rotten, soft and watery texture
- If you purchase unripe tamarillo you can store it in room temperature until it get ripe and store the ripe fruit within the fridge. The fruit can last for 4-5 days if you store it in fridge.
- Before use tamarillo, peel the skin and wash it with water to remove the residues
- You can simply use tamarillo as well as when you use tomato. You can it eat raw, put it in salad, make smoothies or juice, fruit jam, jellies, sauces, pizza topping and any dish that usually include tomatoes.
- Tamarillo can also being cooked by grilled, baked, or boiled it then you can served it with other food that contain protein such as steak, burger, fish and etc.
Dont be curious or hesitated to try tamarillo, if you ever saw it available on the market near your place go buy it and grab the benefits.