Lemon plum is a fruit that looks like a lemon but tastes like a plum. So, called lemon plum, here we will look at the health benefits of lemon plum in detail. As reported by the organicfacts website, that lemon plum has many benefits for body health, including increasing immunity, lowering cholesterol levels, minimizing the effects of free radicals, improving eye health and also beneficial for weight loss.
Before we look at the benefits, let’s first know what is lemon plum?
What Are Lemon Plums?
Lemon plum is a unique and unusual fruit found on the fruit shelf in a supermarket or fruit market. This is because the lemon plum fruit has just become one of the commodities that spread to the international market. Lemon plum is a fruit native to Chile, this fruit is attached to the name “lemon plum” because it has properties like the two fruits (lemon and plum). This fruit has a shape and color like a lemon, but when you try to taste it, you will find it tastes similar to the taste of plums.
The lemon plum plant is considered a hybrid cross between the two plants. This fruit is sometimes also known as “Inca Plum”, which has the scientific name “Prunus salicina”.
This fruit usually does not ripen on the tree but after being picked. They harvest the lemon plums before they are ripe and let them ripen after harvest. The time needed for lemon plum ripening is quite long, this ranges from 250-300 hours. When ripe, the color will change from bright, lemon-yellow to a rosy, red blush, but you have to be patient because this only happens after waiting a week. This is a rare fruit, so you will only get it if you hunt it right in the harvest season.
Also read: Jacote Fruit Facts (Spanish Plum)
Lemon plums are usually found in North and South America and the market has not yet been established, such as the apple market, the citrus fruit market, etc. However, lemon plums are just like other oranges in that they have quite a lot of nutrients and have great health benefits.
Lemon Plums Nutritional Value
Lemon plums are the same as citrus types of lemons, they are low in calories, high in vitamin A, vitamin C, and fiber and all these nutrients have an important role in improving our health.
So what are the health benefits of consuming lemon plums? See the following explanation!
Health Benefits of Lemon Plums
What are the benefits, here we look at some of the health benefits of lemon plums.
1. Improve digestion
As we mentioned above, that lemon plum is rich in fruit fiber, so consuming this fruit can provide extraordinary health benefits for digestion. This fruit is good for helping digestion and moving waste and making it easier to spend, this will also prevent constipation that often occurs in modern times as a result of consuming a lot of junk food.
Lemon plum fruit is also useful in preventing stomach cramps, bloating, and even gas. In addition, there are other health benefits of eating lemon plums, it is lowering bad cholesterol so that it can help atherosclerosis, strokes and heart attacks.
2. Lose weight
Lemon plums are low in calories, high in nutrients, rich in fiber, so lemon plums are beneficial in losing weight. The fiber content makes us full quickly and has an effect on our meal portions, and can also reduce the frequency of snacking that we usually do. This will be of great benefit in preventing weight gain as well as aiding in weight loss.
More: Health Benefits of Black Plum (Java plum)
Also see: Health Benefits of Chinese Plum
3. Lemon plum for Boosting immunity
Immune is very important thing we have so that our body is not susceptible to disease. Vitamin C is one of the nutrients that work to strengthen the immune system. It acts as an antioxidant, increases white blood cells whose function is to fight disease, prevents free radical activity, and plays an important role in forming new cells. This provides great benefits for strengthening immunity and helping wounds heal faster.
4. Anti-oxidant
Lemon plum fruit also contains antioxidants that are needed enough to prevent disease and the effects of free radicals.
These forms of antioxidants include vitamin A and vitamin C. Vitamin A is a carotenoid and when the amount is excessive it will turn into beta carotene. The benefits are maintaining eye health, improving vision, reducing macular degeneration, good for skin quality, preventing premature aging because it can inhibit the bad effects of free radicals.
Those are some of the health benefits of lemon plum, these are only the main benefits and there are many other uses of this unique fruit with two names, namely lemon and plum.