For holiday gifts, fruit baskets are a great option. Out of them, to deliver fruit basket full of citrus fruits is the most popular and best option. It contains oranges, tangerines, Clementine, and grapefruits which make a fresh, juicy and refreshing collection. Out of these refreshing fruits, we are going to discuss on clementines.

Besides being a great fruit for snacking, dessert or in fruit salads, clementines have a lot of health benefits, too. Before we get into those, let us get into the description of clementines. Clementines are hybrids between a Mediterranean citrus fruit and a sweet orange.  Unlike oranges, clementines should feel soft. People often get confused in choosing an orange and a clementine. The latter should be chosen seeing a uniform orange color, shiny skin without any wrinkles. At room temperature, they generally last for 2-3 days.

Clementines are rich in variety of vital nutrients. These include the most important minerals present in fruits namely, calcium, magnesium, phosphorous and potassium. It offers very few calories, adds fiber content to diet and provides essential vitamin C and folate to the body. They are a good source of limonoids and flavones, too.

Believed to have originated in the early twentieth century, these fruits are super easy to peel. Just like tangerines, clementines can also be dispersed into multiple segments. Owing to their hot and dry environment, Spain and Morocco happen to be the major producers of clementines. Apart from the delicious and sweet taste, they seem to offer a large number of health benefits. Following are few of the most important ones:

• Helps in keeping a healthy skin – For maintaining a healthy skin, synthesis of collagen is required. This is obtained because of the presence of vitamin C. Similarly, wherever there is vitamin C, the antioxidant property follows.  This property helps in revitalizing the aging skin and also good for protection against UV radiations.

• A natural immune booster and good for brain – Presence of antioxidant property of vitamin C helps protect against damaging action of free radicals produced during energy metabolism. It also strengthens immunity and disease fighting ability. Eating few clementines regularly reduces stress and depression.

• Valuable during pregnancy – Presence of folates in clementines help the unborn babies during pregnancy by protecting them against neural tube defects.

• Presence of strong bones and muscles – Owing to the presence of calcium and phosphorous, it plays an important role in muscle contraction.

• Provides a good digestive health – Being a good source of fiber, clementines help in keeping constipation at bay. It also helps in better absorption of nutrients.

• Maintaining electrolyte balance – This is one of the most unique and important benefits of clementines. Mostly because of the presence of potassium, natural water balance is maintained amidst the cells and body fluids. This is extremely critical for healthy functioning of the entire system.

 Apart from these, clementines reduce stroke and cardiovascular disease and also protect the body from developing multiple cancers.  Clementine oil is also used in aromatherapy owing to its pain relieving nature. Thus, this hybrid fruit comes with a box full of benefits.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 9th, 2015 at 10:53 am and is filed under Fruits Basket. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.