Lychee – a healthy summer delight

Fruit of any kind is the healthiest food to eat and enjoy. Apart from the delicious flavours of each variety, the health benefits are enormous. Of course like any other food we ingest, moderation is the key word or there is a danger of stomach problems. 

During summer there is a wide variety of fruit available in the market and taking the lead these days apart from mangoes, is the lychee, which is now being sold on handcarts - a sure sign that there are plenty available and the price has come down! The lychee has many names around the world - litchi, liechee, liche, lizhi or li zhi. It is a tropical and subtropical fruit tree native to some provinces in China, and now cultivated in many parts of the world, with a wide variety available in many parts of Pakistan, where it was not available so extensively a few years ago. The outside of the fruit is covered by a roughly textured rind that is inedible but is easily removed to expose a layer of sweet, translucent white flesh. Some look better than others but the taste is the same.

Be aware that when you buy lychees they have not been sprinkled with red dye water to make them look more attractive! Yes, like many fruits whose flavours and colouring are suspect, the lychee is also ‘treated’- the only saving grace being they cannot be injected because of their size, but the skin can absorb harmful chemicals from the dyes!  Whether the skin is brown or a little green, with just a touch of pink or red, the fruit inside will be sweet and succulent, so don’t fall for this trick unless the variety is the one with a more reddish skin. You can test the fruit by rubbing a tissue or piece of cloth over the surface!  

The lychee has health benefits too. They are full of vitamins and minerals. Fresh whole lychee contains a total 72 mg of vitamin C per 100 grams of fruit, an amount representing 86% of the Daily Value you need. On average, consuming nine peeled lychee fruits would meet an adult’s daily vitamin C requirement but otherwise would supply little nutrient content. Lychees are low in saturated fat and sodium and taste yummy either cold or at room temperature, depending on your preference. Enjoy!