The Rare and Sweetest Dragonfruit: Yellow Dragonfruit/Pitahaya
You would have known that Red dragonfruit exists, but have you seen a YELLOW DRAGONFRUIT before?
Yellow Pitahaya
Background
Dragonfruits aka Pitahayas are fruits borne from Cactus. Originally native to Mexico, the fruit rise to popularity and were later transplanted to Central America and to other parts of the world. Basically, there are three types of varieties under Hylocereus genus (aka night-blooming cactus):
1. Hylocereus undatus
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Appearance: Red-skinned; white-fleshed
Taste: Least sweet of all the sweet pitahayas.
Origin: Asian countries like Malaysia
2. Hylocereus costaricensis
[Image credit: www.dobrenasiona.com]
Appearance: Red-skinned; red-fleshed
Taste: Sweeter than the above mentioned Hylocereus undatus
Origin: Asian countries like Malaysia
3. Hylocereus megalanthus
[Image credit: eat-spin-run-repeat.com]
Appearance: Yellow-skinned; white-fleshed
Taste: Sweetest and finest of all pitahayas. 100% sweetness when riped.
Origin: Ecuador & Colombia
Health benefits
1. Detoxification
High dietary fiber found in the fruit helps greatly in your digestive system, allowing a quick flush of toxins accumulated in your body, lest lighten the detoxifying-workload of your primary organ, liver, and maintaining optimal health. It is highly suitable for individuals and pregnant women who experience constipation issues.
2. Helping the Formation of Red blood cells
Dragonfruit contains lots of iron essential for the production of red blood cells, which is beneficial to individuals who experience anemia. For pregnant ladies especially, high volume of oxygen and nutrients carried by red blood cells is needed to supply to the fetus in the womb, therefore it is highly recommended to include dragonfruit into their daily diet.
3. Prevents Cardiovascular diseases
An excellent source of mono-unsaturated fats, it lowers the risks of developing heart disease and high blood pressure by decreasing bad cholesterol levels and replenishing good levels.
4. Cancer prevention and Strengthen Immune System
One of the superfood for rich source of natural antioxidants, which minimizes cell damage that is effective at lowering risk of certain types of cancer and other diseases, preventing free radical damage that can lead to premature aging and age-related diseases. Contains three times the amount of vitamin C found in carrots, it helps to boost your body’s natural ability to get rid of heavy metals and other toxins, promote the healing of your body’s cells, and improve your ability to cope with stress.
5. Anti-inflammatory & Anti-autoimmune diseases
Omega-3 fats contain within the seeds has been shown to fight against fungal or bacterial infections and autoimmune diseases in the organ systems in numerous researches. Anti-bacterial & fungal properties increase white blood cell count in the body which defends against toxins, and which as an added point, stimulates cell regeneration that speeds up healing, so wounds and bruises will heal at an increased rate.
6. Beauty-enhancing
Because of its nutritional makeup, including antioxidants, monounsaturated fats, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and fiber that is vital for overall good health and beautiful skin.
The Yellow Dragonfruit/ Pitahaya
So in this post, we are going to introduce the Yellow Dragonfruit (Hylocereus megalanthus) as we have realized that many people has not seen one before, with many questions inquiring about its variety, shape, contents, sweetness, taste and texture. Therefore, we are here with one of its kind, to answer your curiosity behind this exotic fruit.
On the first photo, we have selected one HUGE–PLUMP-FLAWLESS fruit (about the 2/3 size of a hand) with it’s stem still attached. Talk about the luck of our readers!
Yellow Pitahaya’s Cactus Stem! It’s rare to get one that is still fully attached to it.
Here’s a quick GIF on how to get down TASTING this delicious sweet fruit:
Step 1: Cut off the stem (cactus)
Step 2: Hold the dragonfruit vertically and sliced into half
Step 3: Spilt it open to show the glistering transaparent white flesh with black seeds within
In case you didn’t get to see it clearly, here’s how it looks like inside
Fiber-alike looking within glistening white flesh with black seeds (does it reminds you of kiwi?)
The flesh is contained within a thin frame of the exterior skin, transparent-looking with white thread-looking fiber (but you cant feel any fibers at all), with numerous black seeds which looks like a replica of a kiwifruit. (P.S. If you hate crunchy seeds, then maybe you will want to avoid eating as you will have a hard time picking them out as they are well embedded inside the flesh.)
Now for the main part.. Spooning into it..
Note: You can feel and hear some slight crunchy noise when you dig into it, like how you slice a watermelon.
The moment you put it in your mouth, it overflows with extremely sweet juice (and seeds) and melts smoothly with each bite, making it multi-level textured yet an amazon-river (in your mouth) experience. You may be put off by the seeds yet they give that extra texture to the overall taste.
Overall, it has extremely good taste with great nutritional benefits, that’s why it so special compared to the rest. It’s such a joy to savor this god-given gold treasure to mankind. Totally best of both worlds!
LASTLY, one “grandmother” tip to get its detox function kicking:
Eat on an empty stomach in the morning when your body functions work the best and drink plenty of water. Churning can be felt about 1-3 hours depending on each individual’s metabolism and soon you will be rushing to the toilet in no time!
WARNING: DO NOT EVER eat it when you are out or before going to an important event. (Especially when there isn’t any pitstop for a toilet break). And do not eat EXCESSIVELY just because you think it would work better, 1/2 to 1 whole piece would be good enough for the magic to work. For toddlers, a small amount would do the job.
Where to buy
Finally, you can get these yellow diarrhea-producing dragonfruit here to purchase them individually and here for a better wholesale deal.