Pineapple - ananas comosus | Health Facts of Pineapple

Health and wellness has been the most promoted issue or our lives to care about. Since people's health is all important to them, a lot of diet programs and healthy food watchers, more that ever before, push the inclusion of fruit as the best snack to eat. One such fruit with a long list of benefits is the Pineapple.

Pineapple is the general name for a flowering plant family, which holds more than 2000 species. Our familiar pineapple, Ananas comosus, is a perennial, tropical or near-tropical, herbaceous plant, achieving a height of 1-1 1/2meters. It is native to southern Brazil and Paraguay where wild relatives occur. The pineapple is a member of the family Bromeliaceae.

The fruit is large juicy, named also pineapple, with a sweet flesh ranging from almost white to yellow and a prickly outer skin. Pineapples are ready when they smell sweet and the spiky leaves, crown-forming top, let go easily.

The fruit is fat-free, very low in sodium, cholesterol-free, high in vitamin C, vitamin A and vitamin B1. Pineapples are also rich in the inorganic trace mineral manganese, a mineral that is required for your body to construct bone and connective tissues.

Fresh pineapples contain the protein-splitting enzyme, Bromelain, the same enzyme found also in fresh kiwi, papaya and babaco. This substance makes protein containing, foods tender and easier to digest. However, cooking (e.g. canned pineapple) turns the enzyme nonoperational.

Juice from unripened pineapple fruit stimulates uterine contractions and shouldn't be given to a pregnant woman. Juice of the right fruit remedies gastric irritability in pyrexia and is very instrumental in jaundice. It can be added to fruit salad, pies, cakes, ice cream, yogurt, punches, and sweets.

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