The Benefits of Lychee
With an inedible seed, the lychee is a fruit, rather than a nut.
The lychee is sometimes called a nut due to its firm shell, but it is actually a fruit. The seed of the lychee is inedible. The plant is highly esteemed in China, with dozens of varieties named after prominent Chinese families. The lychee can be round, egg-shaped or heart-shaped, with a variety of textures, fragrances, flavors and colors. It's a nutritious fruit, raw or dried, but the high sugar content of dried lychee may make it undesirable to diabetics or people on restricted-calorie diets.
Nutrition Basics
A 1-cup serving of fresh, raw lychees, has 126 calories with about a gram of fat and protein and 2.5 grams of fiber. Its sugar content is rather high, with 28 grams of natural sugar, about the same amount as in 1.5 cups of sweet cherries. Because the water is removed during the dehydration process, concentrating all of the remaining components, dried lychee is significantly higher in sugar and calories. One 1/2-cup serving has 263 calories and 63 grams of sugar, but it also provides 3.6 grams of protein and 4.4 grams of fiber.
Vitamins
Raw lychee fruit is rich in vitamin C. Each cup provides more than 100 percent of the vitamin C the Institute of Medicine recommends you get each day. One serving also gives you small amounts of folate, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin and vitamin B-6, providing antioxidant benefits, immune system support, healthy metabolism, nerve function, heart and brain health. Dried lychee offers more than twice as much of these nutrients, per gram.
Minerals
Lychee fruit is a good source of potassium, a mineral that works with sodium to maintain a healthy balance of water in your body, keeping your blood pressure at a safe level. Although a cup of raw lychee has 324 milligrams of potassium, giving you less than 10 percent of your recommended daily intake, half as much dried lychee provides 1,054 milligrams of that nutrient, nearly a third of your daily value. It also provides 1.62 milligrams of iron, 40 milligrams of magnesium and 172 milligrams of phosphorous, giving you 20 to 30 percent of your RDI for each of those minerals.
Proanthocyanidins
Lychees contain powerful antioxidant properties, according to researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Guangzhou, China who published a study in the "Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry" in 2010. They reported that some proanthocyanidins in lychee fruit appear to have more antioxidant potency than L-ascorbic acid, or vitamin C. They also found that litchitannin A2, a compound in lychees, exhibited antiviral activity against viral infections such as coxsackie virus and herpes simplex virus.
With an inedible seed, the lychee is a fruit, rather than a nut.
The lychee is sometimes called a nut due to its firm shell, but it is actually a fruit. The seed of the lychee is inedible. The plant is highly esteemed in China, with dozens of varieties named after prominent Chinese families. The lychee can be round, egg-shaped or heart-shaped, with a variety of textures, fragrances, flavors and colors. It's a nutritious fruit, raw or dried, but the high sugar content of dried lychee may make it undesirable to diabetics or people on restricted-calorie diets.
Nutrition Basics
A 1-cup serving of fresh, raw lychees, has 126 calories with about a gram of fat and protein and 2.5 grams of fiber. Its sugar content is rather high, with 28 grams of natural sugar, about the same amount as in 1.5 cups of sweet cherries. Because the water is removed during the dehydration process, concentrating all of the remaining components, dried lychee is significantly higher in sugar and calories. One 1/2-cup serving has 263 calories and 63 grams of sugar, but it also provides 3.6 grams of protein and 4.4 grams of fiber.
Vitamins
Raw lychee fruit is rich in vitamin C. Each cup provides more than 100 percent of the vitamin C the Institute of Medicine recommends you get each day. One serving also gives you small amounts of folate, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin and vitamin B-6, providing antioxidant benefits, immune system support, healthy metabolism, nerve function, heart and brain health. Dried lychee offers more than twice as much of these nutrients, per gram.
Minerals
Lychee fruit is a good source of potassium, a mineral that works with sodium to maintain a healthy balance of water in your body, keeping your blood pressure at a safe level. Although a cup of raw lychee has 324 milligrams of potassium, giving you less than 10 percent of your recommended daily intake, half as much dried lychee provides 1,054 milligrams of that nutrient, nearly a third of your daily value. It also provides 1.62 milligrams of iron, 40 milligrams of magnesium and 172 milligrams of phosphorous, giving you 20 to 30 percent of your RDI for each of those minerals.
Proanthocyanidins
Lychees contain powerful antioxidant properties, according to researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Guangzhou, China who published a study in the "Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry" in 2010. They reported that some proanthocyanidins in lychee fruit appear to have more antioxidant potency than L-ascorbic acid, or vitamin C. They also found that litchitannin A2, a compound in lychees, exhibited antiviral activity against viral infections such as coxsackie virus and herpes simplex virus.
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