Last Updated on February 17, 2017 by Diane Hoffmaster
Last week, I was lucky enough to attend a blogger event featuring dozens and dozens of fresh food brands. From grass-fed beef to organic kiwi, I learned a ton about farming, fresh food, and the importance of a healthy diet. I came home from the event with a large bag of organic kiwi, which my son and I were thrilled about. Kiwi are always a popular snack item in our house! I started wondering what, exactly, these little fuzzy green fruit could do for me. The health benefits of the kiwi fruit will truly astound you and you should be putting these things on your grocery list every single week! I am going to include a few affiliate links that you may find helpful. If you are wondering what is a kiwi fruit…I will tell you that, too!
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What is a kiwi fruit?
A kiwi fruit is a small fruit, about 3 inches long and only weighing 4 ounces or so. It has a slightly fuzzy skin and green flesh that has a uniquely sweet flavor to it. It is speckled with tiny black seeds and contains more vitamin C than an equivalent serving of fresh oranges. Most kiwi fruit in this country come from California or New Zealand and they are available year round.
The Health Benefits of the Kiwi Fruit
Kiwi fruit are amazingly healthy! This tiny little green fruit can be a great addition to your diet, whether you are trying to lose weight or just improve your overally health. Here are just a few of the health benefits of the kiwi fruit.
- Improve Digestion: Raw kiwi contains a protein-dissolving enzyme called actinidain that improves digestion.
- Lowers blood pressure: Kiwi are high in potassium, which helps balance the effect of sodium in our body and stabilize blood pressure.
- Cancer protection: There are a ton of antioxidants in kiwi that may help prevent cellular DNA damage and thus lower your rate of cancer.
- Boost Immunity: A kiwi has more vitamin C per ounce than oranges and has been shown to boost immunity.
- Helps you lose weight: Low on the glycemic index and high in fiber, kiwi are a great addition to a weight loss diet.
- Improved eye health: People with Macular degeneration and other eye-related diseases may benefit from eating kiwi. Kiwi have high levels of both lutein and zeaxanthin—both of which are natural chemicals found in the human eye.
- Improved alkaline balance: A lot of people are talking about balancing the body’s alkalinity lately. Kiwi is on the list of alkaline foods which will help you balance out all those acidic foods you eat every day.
- Improved skin health: Fresh kiwi are high in vitamin E, which is very important for the health and elasticity of our skin.
- Lower in pesticides: Kiwi is on the clean fifteen list of foods with the lowest pesticide levels. Lower pesticides are always a plus!
Kiwi Products you may want to try
Okay, so now that you know the health benefits of the kiwi fruit, lets try to get more of them into our diet, right? Well, you could look in your grocery store but you can’t always find fresh kiwi in the store. So, shop on Amazon for fresh kiwi or even get a bag of dried kiwi. You can buy kiwi puree which I had honestly never heard of until now.
Are you a fan of kiwi fruit?
Love all things kiwi? Try this kiwi facial scrub!
