Medicinal and Nutritional Characteristics of Fruits in Human Health

Abstract

Fruits are various group of plant foods that wonderful gift to the mankind. They are great source of vitamins, minerals, simple sugars, soluble dietary fiber, many phyto-nutrients, phytoestrogens, antiinflammatory agents and anti-oxidants. Fruits are low in calories and fat. Fiber intake is linked to lower cholesterol and fats from the body thus lower incidence of cardiovascular disease and obesity. It helps in smooth bowel movements as well as offer relief from constipation ailments. The anti-oxidant compounds such as poly-phenolic flavonoids, vitamin-C and anthocyanins help human body protected from oxidant stress, diseases, remove free radicals from the body, and thus offer protection against cancers, aging, infections, etc and develop capacity to fight against these ailments by boosting our immunity level. Fruit nutrition benefits are enormous including protecting minor ailments like wrinkling of skin, hair-fall, and memory loss and major ailments like age-related macular degeneration of the retina in the eyes, Alzheimer’s disease, colon cancers, weak bones (osteoporosis), etc. In this paper, different variety of fruits available, levels of nutrition available in various fruits, health benefits of fruit nutrients and benefits of individual fruits have been discussed.