Tag Archives: Pectin

Secrets of Passion Fruit

A delicious summer taste with
benefits for your skin & overall health.

I wanted to share what gorgeous benefits Passion Fruit (Passiflora edulis and Passiflora flavicarpa) have.They are often found on cakes like pavlova, in drink combinations or part of the exotic summer fruits selection. But what is it about this tiny fruit that makes us feel happy, both inside and out?

The plant and fruit is native to South America, grown in some regions of southern Brazil, through Paraguay and northern Argentina. It’s also found in other tropical regions of the world like India, Africa, Hawaii and Australia. Historically passion fruit was used for lowering inflammation, assisting and improving digestion, together with protecting the skin. Studies today are considering that it may also protect against other inflammatory conditions such as heart-related concerns and insulin resistance.

The Passion fruits are cultivated commercially for its sweet-sour, somewhat tarty, highly aromatic and seedy fruit. Round or oval in shape, it’s like a berry appearing yellow or dark purple when ready for picking, depending on where it’s grown.
It’s regarded as a Pepo, which is a fruit with a fleshy and multiple seeded interior and a harder outer rind. Melons and Cucumbers are also regarded as Pepos.

Consumption information about Passion Fruit:

• You can indulge in all the gelatinous pulp that’s full of edible but tarty tasting seeds! Either scoop out the pulp with a spoon and place it in a bowl, or brave and eat it all without sharing!!
• The fruit can be eaten, juiced, added to other combinations of summer selections to enhance both the flavour and the aroma.
• You would need to consume six (6) passion fruits to make up one portion of your 5 a day. Whilst that’s loads of seeds to ingest, the alternative is eat ten (10) blackberries or half (½) an aubergine!!
• Passion fruit is a Superfood as it is an excellent source of Antioxidants like Vitamins C and A, contains polyphenols and carotenoid.
• It contains a decent number of Essential minerals, including magnesium, phosphorous, potassium and calcium.
• Including Passion fruit in our diet can support bone health, physical, digestive and cardiovascular functionality.
• It can support digestion when consuming the rich in fibre seeds instead of just the juice.
• The fruit is high in fibre called pectin, which is lower in sugar compared to other fruits. It can provide necessary nutrients without causing blood sugar levels to spike too much.
(Note: If you have concerns with diabetes and insulin, please consult your Dietician Specialist before over-indulging).

For alternative ideas on how to Passion Fruits, see the recipes on Taste webpage: Passion Fruit Recipes.

Images: Passionfruit, Variety of Colours, Unsplash Sheng Gen Lin.

How can Passion Fruit help our skin’s health?

• Passion fruit oil is great as an anti-aging ingredient due its antioxidant content, being rich in Vitamin C and A, riboflavin and carotenoids.
• Vitamin A can protects your skin from sun damage;
• The high levels of fatty acids contained in the Passion fruit oil helps keep skin looking firm and youthful.
• The passion fruit seeds comprise of particular peptides that promote antifungal activity.
• These also encourage and stimulates the fusion and production of collagen. </br
• Collagen rejuvenates and reduces the appearance of fine lines, wrinkles slowing the aging process.
• The strong antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties found in Passion fruit can reduces the creation of free radicals, bacteria, pollutants or infections in our body, which can ultimately cause our skin to age.
• It promotes maintaining the skin’s health, encouraging wound healing.
• Passion fruit oil is light, is non-greasy, making it quicker for the skin to absorb.
• The non-clogging factor makes it a great moisturising addition to your beauty routine, assists skin cell exfoliation whilst treating acne-prone skin.

Images: Passion Fruit Flower.

Please note: If you are using Passion Flower for its relaxing and calming benefits, ensure you obtain your supply from a reputable herbal or Natural store.

In a past newsletter, whilst studying Holistic Pain Management Diploma I shared the benefits from using the Blue Passion Flower, or bluecrown passionflower (Passiflora caerulea).

This plant can grow up to 10 metres (33 ft) high, with fragrant leaves that look like an open handed palm, and magnificent looking flowers containing an array of colours like blue, white and brown. The edible orange fleshy fruit can grow up to 6 cms, can be somewhat bland in taste.The part of the plant that grows above the ground is used for its gentle and calming properties, consisting of natural healing, food flavouring, teas, infusions, liquid extracts or tinctures.

Blue Passion Flower can be combined with relaxing and calming herbs like chamomile, hops, kava, skullcap, lemon balm and valerian root.

Benefits from using Passion Flower include reducing:
• Insomnia & improving sleep,
• Stress & Anxiety,
• Inflammation from skin irritations and burns.

Sleep is something we all love to have a lot of.Studies performed on patients who had bipolar disorder showed that using natural herbal medicines and drinking passion flower tea over a period of time, that they showed a reduction in anxiety and improvement in their overall sleep.For insomnia, the combination found that worked best was Passion Flower combined with Valerian root, especially if you have trouble switching off an active brain at night and need your cells to become calm.

” Passion Flower can used to assists insomnia, relieve stress & anxiety ” – Holistic Pain Management Diploma Course

Trivia About Passion Fruit:

Apparently, dreaming about Passion fruits suggests that in future, you will be able to do positive and sensible things.It reflects a sign of abundance, growth and financial gain, where being in this growth stage means you’re going in the right direction!

The fruit symbolises abundance, associated with the goddesses of fertility and the harvest.It often represents earthly pleasures, temptations and over-indulgence.

Some passion fruit contains high levels of caffeine, which will make it more difficult to relax and fall asleep. Passion fruit tea, however, contains alkaloids, which can aid your nervous system relaxing, making you tired and achieving a better night’s sleep.

Whilst the seeds and flesh of purple passion fruit can be eaten, the outer skin contains small quantities of cyanogenic glycosides (cyanide) and should not be consumed.
Therefore, commercial passion fruit juice goes through a process to deacidify via electrodialysis for this reason.

BLOG PARTICIPATION:

• • What do you find surprising about Passion fruit and it’s many wonderful benefits for your health and skin?
  • Have you tried Passion fruit oil for treating acne-prone skin?What’s your feedback about using it

“About Lili & Why I make Essentially Lili Products.”

About Lili & Essentially Lili – My Health Studies include from 2016-2019 Diplomas in Aromatherapy, Holistic Skincare Products, Clinical Nutrition, Stress Management, Reflexology, Holistic Pain Management.I’m aMember of International College of Holistic Medicine.I’m currently studying Clinical Nutrition for Over 50s.

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