Bella Adams
It’s the season when plums are actively included in our diet. But have you ever thought that such a tasty, juicy, appetizing, and flavorful fruit has its pros and cons? Let’s break down the benefits and harms of plums.
General
Plum is a very tasty and juicy fruit that is common among all garden owners. Its fruits are very diverse, as they have many varieties (for example, domestic or common plum). The berry can be either large or small in size. Its flavor and color are also different, as are its applications. Plums are often used to make expensive and aged wine, to which plum juice and seeds give a special delicate flavor.
As a rule, plums have no climatic characteristics.
The birthplace of the plum tree is the Caucasus and Altai Mountains.
All about the nutritional properties of plums
Plum is a versatile fruit. You can make a whole dinner menu from the harvest of this berry collected in ten minutes. For example, a salad or soup. These fruits can easily tolerate heat treatment. Fry them in a frying pan with a piece of butter for a few minutes and serve with meat (veal, pork), poultry (duck, chicken, turkey), and offal (liver, kidneys, blood sausage). Plums prepared in this way are good for pizza, to which goat cheese and walnuts must be added.
Sweet and sour plum perfectly sets off the taste of meat, and plum wine is drunk almost all over the world.
And what can we say about plum desserts and compotes? In compotes, plums are combined with seasonal fruits (pears, quince, apples), honey, and some spices, such as cinnamon or ginger. Fresh plums also go well with cheeses.
When buying plums, choose firm and firm ones. At room temperature, fresh, ripe plums are stored for 2-3 days, at 0ºC and relatively high humidity – up to 10 days. Wrapped in parchment paper, the fruit can remain in the refrigerator for about a week. If you take the plums out of the refrigerator and keep them at room temperature for about an hour, then they will be especially juicy and sweet during cooking.
As a rule, if the plums are covered with a light coating, this indicates their freshness and quality.
To remove the plaque, simply wash the fruit with cold water. If you need to peel the plum for cooking, pour boiling water over it, just like a tomato. When processing plums, keep in mind that waste will make up about 10% of the total weight.
Health benefits of plums
Plums are very popular because they are delicious, but few people know that they have healing properties that support the human body throughout the day and help to get rid of many diseases.
Plum fruit contains vitamins A, B1, B2, C, E, and P, as well as folic acid and niacin. Ripe plums are also rich in macronutrients. It contains, among other substances, magnesium, phosphorus, calcium, potassium, and sodium. The trace elements contained in ripe plum fruits also vary.
These include, for example, zinc, iodine, fluorine, copper, manganese, cobalt, iron, and molybdenum.
The caloric content per 100 grams of ripe plum fruit usually does not exceed 43 kcal.
Plum, having a low glycemic index and low carbohydrate content (7.5 g on average in a small fruit), is well suited as a snack for a low-carbohydrate diet.
The benefit of plums is that with frequent consumption, they can improve visual skills and functions. This is extremely useful for people who spend a lot of time at the computer. Few people know, but plum perfectly normalizes vision and helps to restore it.
Ripe plum fruits normalize the general condition of the body, help to eliminate the effects of stressful situations, improve mood, and saturate the body with useful substances to keep it in good shape.
Plum will help the body to set the mood and improve all the functions of the body as a whole.
Plum is also very useful for women because it can be used for cosmetic purposes. Its juice and ripe pulp make the skin more elastic, and smooth and give it a healthy glow.
Plum helps to boost immunity and acts as a fighter against various microbes and viral diseases. It also acts as a diuretic and also adjusts the work of the stomach and intestines, killing germs in the oral cavity. Doctors recommend using plum in the treatment of anemia.
Plum is also of great benefit for men, as it helps maintain potency and is also an excellent prevention of male diseases.
For children, plum is very useful for their rich composition of vitamins, because it contains a lot of them. The only thing is that parents need to be careful with the amount of this product because the abuse of plum fruits is fraught not only with indigestion but also with diathesis or allergies. But if the amount of fruit consumed is controlled, then your child will grow up healthy and energetic.
For pregnant women, plum is also very useful because it strengthens the gums, normalizes the functioning of the stomach and intestines, fills the body with nutrients, and normalizes water balance. And during breastfeeding, plum helps the intestines to work, which is very important, since during this period it is not advisable for young mothers to take pills, and plum is a natural and healthy fruit.
Contraindications for the use of plums
The fact that plum is very useful is undeniable, but it also has contraindications that should be taken into account before eating them. It is recommended to eat the fruit in small quantities for people with diabetes. It is necessary to control its amount in order not to inadvertently raise blood sugar levels. After all, plum contains a lot of glucose, and people with high blood sugar are contraindicated to eat them in large quantities.
Also, plums tend to act as a laxative, so children should not eat them in very large quantities, otherwise, they may get into trouble.
People suffering from gout and rheumatism are also advised to eat plums in small quantities because this fruit removes a lot of water from the body, and this is contraindicated in such diseases.
Harvesting plums
You can dry plums at home. To do this, rinse the fruits well, remove the pits, and place them on a baking sheet on a windowsill or in direct sunlight. It is not advisable to cover the plums – so excess moisture will evaporate slowly. The finished dried fruit will be soft, but not sticky.
To freeze plums, the fruit must be thoroughly washed, cut into 3-5 pieces, and pitted. It is better to store in vacuum containers. It is desirable that the containers are tightly packed to expel excess air. Store in the refrigerator at temperatures below -15 degrees. Frozen plums retain their beneficial properties all year round.
Plum is rightfully considered a unique fruit – it contains many incredibly useful substances, most of which remain even after fruit processing. This fruit is amazingly tasty and has a wonderful flavor. Be sure to treat yourself to a ripe plum and get a vitamin boost!
Be healthy!
