Advances in science and agriculture have led to some pretty fantastic discoveries, though we don’t see that many hybrid fruits. There is one out there, however, that’s become incredibly popular called the ugli fruit. Originated in Jamaica, the ugli fruit is a combination of the orange, tangerine and grapefruit. The name comes from a not so pleasant appearance, but the taste is fantastic and provides a lot of important health benefits.
Although many of the specific nutritional facts aren’t well publicized, we do know that ugli fruit contains a high amount of vitamin C, with more than 70 percent of your daily value in each serving. That same serving is just 45 calories (half of a fruit) and also provides eight percent of your recommended fiber and a small amount of calcium. So what does that mean for your overall health? Let’s take a closer look at some of the specific health benefits that you get from eating ugli fruit.
Ugli Fruit Diet
One of the aspects that the ugli fruit took from the grapefruit was in the incredibly low calorie content. Most of us have heard (or have even been on) the grapefruit diet, which consists of replacing one or two meals per day with a serving of grapefruit. Although it’s not suggested that you eat nothing but ugli fruit, making it a snack or part of a meal is a great way to keep your calorie count low, which is the only surefire way to lose weight.
Not only is ugli fruit low in the calore total, but it also provides a fair amount of fiber in each serving. When you eat more fiber, you’ll feel full throughout the day so that you don’t suffer from the diet-killing cravings. It also makes your digestive system function more efficiently, which boosts your metabolism to burn more calories even while at rest.
Disease Free
The first thing that really stands out with ugli fruit is the high vitamin C content. Just half of an ugli fruit gives you more than 70 percent of your daily dose of vitamin C, so feel free to eat the entire fruit in one sitting. It’s alright if you go over the 100 percent mark with vitamin C, as your body can easily expel any excess vitamin C that it’s not going to use. This is great for your immune system as you create more white blood cells.
Vitamin C also works as an antioxidant. In addition to creating white blood cells to fight viruses and bacteria, you’ll also be fighting back against free radicals. These free radicals have the potential to do a lot of damage to your body, causing a wide range of illnesses that include cancer. Ugli fruit even aims at specific types of cancer, as the high amount of fiber is linked to a reduced chance of colon cancer.
Looking Good
Vitamin C has a tremendous amount of benefits for your body, and thankfully ugli fruit has plenty of it in each serving. Getting enough vitamin C can ensure that you look good for a long time, by helping your body produce more natural collagen to increase your skin’s elasticity. Free radicals are also known to attack your skin cells, causing wrinkles and other early signs of aging, but vitamin C and other antioxidants such as catechins prevent that from happening.
You also get a small boost of vitamin A each time you eat ugli fruit, which gives your skin a healthier and glowing complexion. All of the antioxidants work together to make sure your skin is smooth and moisturized without oil or dead skin. That even helps your hair, as a healthier scalp is the breeding ground for faster and thicker hair growth.
Good For the Heart
If you want to have a healthier heart, you need to make sure that your cholesterol is in check and that you’re controlling inflammation to reduce your blood pressure. Ugli fruit helps in both of these departments. Starting with the cholesterol; getting more fiber in your diet allows your heart to function properly. It’s been shown in numerous studies that those who get the recommended amount of fiber each day have both lower LDL (bad) cholesterol levels and higher HDL (good) cholesterol levels.
Antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties are at work with ugli fruit, removing plaque from the bloodstream to reduce your chances of heart disease or stroke. Anti-inflammatory properties are able to reduce your blood pressure, as well, by relaxing the blood vessels. There’s even a little bit of iron in each serving of ugli fruit to further improve your circulation and, in turn, your heart.
Stronger Bones
While ugli fruit isn’t the highest calcium concentrated food out there, it does provide a boost of about five percent daily recommendation in each fruit. Calcium, of course, is the mineral that people often look at to help build bone strength, reducing their chances of osteoporosis. Ugli fruit also contains trace minerals such as magnesium and phosphorus that allow your body to better absorb calcium. This will also provide a boost to your teeth, making them stronger for years to come. Combine that with the fact that ugli fruit is high in anti-inflammatory properties, and you have a great way of also preventing symptoms of arthritis, including pain in the joints.
No Throwing Stones
It’s estimated that around 20 percent of men will experience a kidney stone at some point in their lives, while 10 percent of women will experience the same. If you want to avoid getting a kidney stone, you need more citric acid in your diet to prevent buildup that leads to a kidney stone. Ugli fruit is just the trick, as it breaks down potential kidney stones, saving a lot of pain and stress. There are even links that ugli fruit can prevent the formation of gallstones, which are also common and also incredibly painful.
Summing it Up
If you don’t know what to look for in the supermarket, the ugli fruit might be hard to find, especially since some stores don’t even know it exists. Outside of availability, though, are there any real drawbacks to eating ugli fruit? They do have a short time in terms of ripeness, which means there’s only about a two week window in which you can eat ugli fruit while still getting a decent taste. Otherwise, it becomes almost unbearable to eat.
As far as we know, the biggest drawback tends to come from a lack of wide range nutrition, although the nutrition provided in ugli fruit is abundant in certain categories. As long as you’re mixing ugli fruit with a well balanced diet, there’s no reason that you can meet all of your nutritional goals on a daily basis. That makes ugli fruit very easy to put into your diet, especially because of the low calorie count. With the good taste and great benefits, feel free to go searching for ugli fruit today!