With a sweet flavor and an array of wellness welfare , lychee ( pronounced lai - chee ) is a seriously underratedfruit . Lychee , also bed as Chinese cerise , is a golf game - ball - sized edible fruit native to Southeast Asia . It looks like an outsized snort , tastes like a pernicious commixture of grape vine and pear , and promises a surprising amount of health benefits — it ’s been doing so for millennia .
Lychee ’s rootsdate back to at least 1059 B.C.E , with praise and pictures of the yield in early Chinese literature . In fact , numerouslychee varietiesare refer after prominent Taiwanese families . The fruit is native to low - pinnacle stretch of southern China ; cultivation expanded into Southeast Asia and by and by Burma ( now Myanmar ) and India . These days , farmers originate lychee in places like southerly California , Florida and Hawaii , piddle the semitropic fruit more widely usable .
But just because itisavailable does n’t mean people on a regular basis buy it . Ruixi Hu , beginner ofLost Plate Food Tours , which runs tours in Asia and the U.S. , says food - hitch client have rarely tried it . " People have discover of lychee but have n’t seen it before or do n’t know what it wait like , " she say in an email . " People have pointed at it and asked me what it was , and when I secern them it ’s lichee they await surprised . So I think citizenry are familiar with the flavor or the Holy Scripture , but have n’t really see the yield . "
What Exactly Is Lychee?
Lychees are tropical yield that grow on soapberry evergreen trees near the equator . Hu says they ’re particularly popular in Southeast Asia , in situation like Thailand or Cambodia , as well as southern China . Theygrow in buncheslikemulberries , although with each fruit measuring around 1 to 1.5 - inches ( 2.5 to 3.8 centimeters ) in diam , lychee are much gravid than thumb - sized mulberry .
The fruit ’s fragile , bumpy reddened skin protect a voluptuous , flavour - packed flesh interior . This flesh has the consistency of agrape , and the eating experience of a cherry : Bite in , enjoy the flavor and spit out the pit before swallowing . Unlike cherries and grapes , lychees involve to be flake . you’re able to tell the leechee ’s ripe when its indulgent hide separates easily from the flesh . TheProduce for Better Health Foundationrecommends choosing lychees with red shells , and notes brown patches correlate with sweet fruit .
While the fruit is delectable , take cautiousness : It can be grave in the wrong conditions . In 2019 , dozens of children in the northern Indian Department of State of Bihar snuff it due to a brainpower disease correlated with litchi toxins . According toreporting from CNN , lychee toxins can lead to acute phrenitis syndrome , which causes inflammation of the head .
The Bihar state of matter health section said low blood sugar was to fault for these deaths , but Sanjay Kumar , a senior state health official , narrate CNNthe stirred tyke " are from inadequate families , and they do not have refined sugar militia , and they are also malnourished . The liver computer storage glycogen . When the kale level goes down , the liver releases extra sugar to equilibrize it out , but if there is no redundant sugar and there are only toxins , then they get let go , " he said .
How to Eat Lychee
The easiest , and perhaps best , way to consume lychees isau naturale . " We just eat them by themselves , " Hu aver . " They ’re really juicy , sweet-flavored and have a unequaled flavour that is unlike any other yield . To me , they just tastes fresh . " To substantiate this gall , do n’t peel lychees until mightily before they ’re served .
But in the raw is n’t the only mode to enjoy these look - filled fruit . You canmakelychee jam , juice and sauce ; with an redolent tone , the fruit adds a great sugared - sauce complement to meat and fish dishes . Lychee also lends itself to drinks like milkshakes , martinis and smoothies . you may buy them at most major food market storage oronline , where they ’re available either fresh , give the axe or dried , or in all three forms .
Vitamins and Minerals Galore
One cupful offresh lycheeshas just over 120 calories , with more than 100 percent of the recommended day-after-day vitamin C — a perk that keeps skin looking healthy while reinstate the body ’s immunity . Lychees are also filled withpotassium , which help low-toned high-pitched blood pressure . One of the best ways to get more vitamin and minerals with your litchi snack is to exchange wise lichi for dry , which fork over roughly double the amount of mineral like potassium .
There is one thing to watch out for with lychees , though : sugar . One loving cup of brisk or bare-ass litchi has 28 gram of natural sugar , and dried lychees have even more : 63 grams of lolly per half - loving cup . That ’s why nutritionist recommend those with diabetes or on restricted - small calorie diets forefend dried lichee , and eat the in the raw yield in moderation .
