Minerals and Vitamins in Fruits (I)
The composition of fruits varies widely depending on the type of fruit and its degree of maturation. Water is the major component in all cases.
It is, in general, more than 80% by weight of the edible portion, ranging from 82% in grapes, 90% in strawberries and up to 93% in the watermelon.
Fruit Calories depend almost exclusively on its carbohydrate content, except in the case of avocado and coconut, fruits in which the fat content determines its energy.
Carbohydrates: The sugars or simple carbohydrates (fructose, glucose, sucrose …) give the sweet taste of ripe fruits and represent a 5-18% by weight of the edible portion.
Apples and pears are rich in fructose. The fruits are also other mono and disaccharides such as xylose, arabinose, mannose and maltose. Plums and pears contain relatively high amounts of sorbitol, a substance closely related to sugars, which has a known laxative effect.
Have less complex carbohydrates (starch). The unripe fruits have between 0.5-2% of starch, but as they get older this percentage decreases to almost nothing, except for ripe bananas, in which the starch can exceed 3% of its total weight.
Fats: the content is almost negligible (0.1-0.5%), except avocado, which contributes 14% of fat, especially oleic acid, healthy (72% fat) and coconut, with 35% fat, mainly saturated (88.6% of total fat), less healthy.
Is given in terms of their protein content, usually less than 1% of fruit fresh weight. Proteins are composed of amino acids, ten of which (leucine, isoleucine, valine, threonine, tryptophan, methionine, lysine, phenylalanine, histidine and arginine) are essential for humans.
The essential term refers to the body can not produce itself and therefore must necessarily obtain the daily diet. A protein containing, in quantity and quality, the ten essential amino acids is considered complete or high biological value.
In fruits, proteins are of low biological value. In citrus, strawberries abound simple nitrogenous substances such as glutamine and asparagine and aspartic and glutamic acids. In apples and pears abound asparagine and oranges are rich in proline.
Source: www.alimentacion-sana.com.ar
photo source: www.irishhealth.com
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