Exercising alone cannot make you fit and healthy. Proper and scheduled intake of calories and nutrients are a must to stay fit and healthy always.
Fresh and raw fruits and vegetables can also add up to your healthy lifestyle in a hectic everyday routine. Citrus fruits are delightful to eat and full of health benefits. One of the citrus fruit which is a must for you to add in your diet is kumquat fruit.
Botanically belonging to the Rutaceae family, in the genus Fortunella, these fruits were named after a botanist called Robert Fortune, who actually brought them from China to Europe in the mid 19th century.
These fruits taste much like other citric fruits, but unlike many of them, they can be eaten completely without peeling them off. These olive-sized bright orange fruits appear on evergreen trees in winter. In the inside, the fruits strikingly resemble orange-like segments. There are 1-2 seeds placed at the center. Seeds taste bitter in taste and are inedible.
Kumquat or Cumquat belongs to the citrus family. The small fruit looks like a small orange. The skin has the same orange color like the orange fruit. It measures over an inch in length. It has a sweet and sour taste that everyone likes. It can be eaten with the skin on. Skin is sweet while the inside part is sour. It is good for salads, pastries, cakes and marmalades.
Even though Kumquat has a wonderful taste, it is popular for its long list of benefits that it has for our health. This small fruit is full of vitamins, minerals, fiber and even antioxidants. It can help to lose your weight, increase the immunity and also boosts the digestive properties of the body. Thus Kumquat can help in balancing the metabolism of the body.
This fruit serves various health benefits that make it all the more special and important to be included in your regular diet.
Kumquat fruit carries a normal amount of calories, similar to the grapes. Nevertheless, these fruits are quite rich in phytonutrients such as dietary fiber, vitamins and minerals.
As kumquat fruits can be eaten with the peels, the peels contain various oils antioxidants and fiber.
The peel consists of some quintessential oils such as limonene, pinene and caryophyllene and many more. These oils and flavonoids together are responsible for the aroma citrus fruits possess.
Kumquat fruits provide protection from cancer, diabetes and degenerative infections as it has an abundant amount of anti-oxidants like vitamin A, C and E that help in scavenging harmful oxygen-derived radicals.
Kumquat like oranges is a good sour e of vitamin C which plays various biological roles in the human body. Vitamin C is a natural anti-oxidant which helps in wound healing and collagen synthesis.
Vitamin C performs antiviral and anti-cancer activities, eliminating risks of various neurodegenerative diseases and arthritis. Also, vitamin C helps in the absorption of iron in the body.Furthermore, kumquats hold greater levels of B-complex group of vitamins, like, thiamin, niacin, pyridoxine and many others. These vitamins play vital role in metabolism of carbohydrates and proteins.
Also, to add up to its nutritional value, consumption of kumquats facilitates the body with a good amount of minerals such as calcium, copper, potassium, manganese, iron, selenium and zinc. While calcium plays a vital role in teeth and bone formation, copper is required for the formation of red blood cells. However, Iron is required for cellular oxidation as well as the formation of red blood cells.
Kumquats can be found in November till June. While buying kumquats from your nearby grocery store, always go for those having bright orange color, smooth and firm and attached with the stem. Avoid green unripe kumquats or those having cuts or patches on them.
Kumquats are easy to store. You can store them for 3-4 days at room temperature, while, refrigerating them can increase their life up to 3 weeks. Frozen kumquat puree can be stored for 6 months or more.
Kumquats must be allowed to ripen on the trees. Plucking them before ripening will make these kumquats useless. Kumquats can be eaten fresh, cut into salads or turned into candies or pastries. Everything is delicious if it has kumquats in it.
So go and grab some kumquats now. Eat healthy and stay healthy always.
