Dragon Fruit - My Red Pitaya...

- The Dragon Fruit -

I saw this funny looking fruit in a fruit store today.

Little did I know it was the dragon fruit!

Or to be exact: The red pitaya...

It was so bright and beautiful. My son wanted to buy it right away.

But the price was almost 12 Euro per kilo, so we only bought one.. and I'm glad we did!

I took a picture of it in the snow outside our house.

The contrast of this exotic fruit to the white snow made it a nice picture.

I had no clue how this pitaya fruit (also called apple cactus or dragon fruit) would look on the inside. I was picturing it with a big seed with just a little flesh around it, because the fruit was quite heavy.

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Later I came to understand that the fruit is heavy because of it's high water content.

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When we came home, I cut the fruit open and had a big surprise!

It was white inside! With lots of tiny black seeds. It kind of looked like ice cream!

As I had pictured it to have a large seed in the middle, I was also thinking there wouldn't be so much fruit for us to eat. But I was wrong, there was lots of it. It was also really easy to eat.

I had one half of the fruit and my son had the other.

We scooped out the soft white flesh with spoons.

The taste was quite mild, but on the sweet side and quite watery.

I'm sure we will buy this fruit again, the only off-putting thing was the price.

It cost me 4 euro and 11 cent to buy just one red Pitaya fruit / dragon fruit. If you compare that to the 61 cents I paid for two oranges, you notice the difference. The oranges were on sale, but still…

The fruit facts:

After doing some research I found out that this pink fruit is sometimes also called apple cactus, because it is actually a fruit from a cactus. The one I bought is just one of a few different varieties of this fruit.

The most common varieties in this family are:

• pink skin with pink flesh, called The Dragon Fruit

• yellow skin with pink flesh, called The Pitaya Fruit

• pink skin with white flesh, called The Red Pitaya Fruit

It was the pink one with white flesh that I bought today. This fruit grows in Asia and in Central America.

Nutrition Facts: vitamins, minerals and phytos...:

I have now learned that the dragon fruit is rich in phytoalbumins which act as powerful antioxidants in the body.

There is also a lot of calcium, iron, niacin and phosphorous in this fruit, as well as some carotene (vitamin A), thiamine (vitamin B1), riboflavin (vitamin b2), protein, vitamin C and fiber.

Phosphorous: up to 36 mg

Calcium: 8 mg

Iron: up to 0.7 mg

Niacin (vitamin B3): up to 0.45 mg

Calories: from 35 to 50 depending on the size of the fruit.

Medical Benefits of this wonderful fruit:

The dragon / pitaya fruit / red pitaya / apple cactus has a positive effect on our health, as it is rich in so many different nutrients.

The phosphorous and calcium is helping to create strong bones and teeth. Phosphorous is also needed for the replication of DNA. And like you might know, phosphorous is in general good for digestion and reproductive health.

The phytoalbumins in this fruit helps protect the cells from oxidization and from becoming cancerous.

Click here to go from Dragon Fruit to Nutrition Facts

Or go back to the Fruit List

References:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pitaya

dragon-fruit.biz

www.ehow.com/how-does_4579973_what-benefits-phosphorus.html

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