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Pineapple belongs to the family of herbaceous perennials native to Brazil (American tropics). In this area, the plant was cultivated already in the 1650th century, when Columbus traveled the world and was able to taste this fruit for the first time. After that, pineapple became known in various parts of Africa and India, on the islands of the Pacific Ocean. Europeans have been growing the plant in greenhouses since XNUMX. Pineapple has become a popular delicacy among aristocrats and the imperial elite of Russia. Already in the XNUMXth century, pineapple culture spread to many noble estates and became an everyday food.
The distribution of pineapple is explained by its high taste and useful qualities. This fruit is eaten raw, sweets, candied fruits, canned food are made from it, and very tasty jam is cooked. Pineapple sweets are healthier than their counterparts cooked from other fruits and berries, since sugar can be practically not added to pineapple jam, and useful substances from the fruit do not decompose even at high temperatures.
Composition, benefits and harms of pineapple jam
Pineapple is very tasty fresh, but sometimes it is sold a little underripe, sour, or already spoiled. In this case, many housewives just make pineapple jam or make thick jam with a sweet and sour tropical taste. From ripe and juicy fruits, the product is also tasty, but not many are ready to refuse the fresh pulp of this exotic product.
The calorie content of pineapple jam is 254 kilocalories per 100 grams of product weight, while it contains the necessary proteins in the amount of 0,4 grams, 0,3 grams of fat and 68,2 grams of carbohydrates.
Pineapple jam is not only very tasty, it is very beneficial for human health. This is explained by the fact that the fruit contains a unique substance – bromelain, which breaks down and removes protein from the body, normalizes the level of insulin in the blood, accelerates metabolic processes and strengthens human immunity. Bromelain is a complex enzyme agent that is similar in its action to the digestive enzyme pepsin. All enzymes help digest food and those substances that enter the body with it, contributing to the breakdown of polypeptides and proteins to amino acids. Enzymes, including bromelain, act as catalysts for chemical reactions in the human body.
The properties of pineapple and products derived from it work great in various diets and nutrition systems for weight loss, they effectively fight cellulite by penetrating orange peel collagen fibers. In pure pineapple pulp, which is used for both candied fruit and jam, there is invert sugar (4,5%), sucrose (7%), nitrogenous substances (0,5%), acids and 86% water. The fruit is also rich in vitamins of groups B, A, C, minerals such as manganese and potassium, and fiber. Manganese contained in pineapple is actively involved in hematopoietic processes, activates the activity of enzymes involved in the metabolism of carbohydrates and proteins.
All pineapple-derived products, including juice and jam, contain many useful substances, are used to treat low fermentation of the gastrointestinal tract, diseases of the joints, kidneys, liver, cardiovascular system, infectious diseases and anemia. Pineapple also helps as an antiscorbutic agent, as an additional remedy in the treatment of the nervous system and fractures. Natural compounds contained in pineapple jam prevent the occurrence of stroke and myocardial infarction.
But the rich composition of pineapple can sometimes affect health negatively. For some diseases, there are direct contraindications for the use of pineapple products:
- prone to allergic reactions, direct allergy to pineapple;
- stomach ulcer;
- increased acidity in gastritis.
The use of pineapple jam as a medicine
With many diseases of the blood, skin and gastrointestinal tract, pineapple jam can help get rid of unpleasant symptoms. For example, with cholecystitis or gastritis with low acidity, you can take pineapple jam with a minimum proportion of sugar in the composition or cooked with honey three times a day half an hour before meals. With the same diseases, pineapple juice, diluted in equal proportions with boiled water, also helps.
For those who suffer from anemia, traditional medicine recommends drinking half a glass of pineapple juice three times a day with the addition of a spoonful of honey. For the same purposes, you can use pineapple jam, diluted with boiled water.
For better digestion of protein, it is recommended to take enzymes or simply eat heavy meat, fish, bean foods with pineapple products – drink juice, eat a tablespoon of jam or a slice of fresh fruit after a heavy meal. This will also help to avoid the occurrence of cancer and all kinds of inflammatory processes. It is worth noting that the acids contained in the fruit negatively affect the enamel of the teeth, therefore, after pineapple therapy, it is necessary to brush your teeth.
To combat acne, mimic wrinkles and age spots, experts recommend using a mask based on pineapple. To prepare it, you need the pulp of a ripe fruit, chopped very finely, as for jam, peeled and finely chopped apple and cucumber. Such a mask has a very effective effect on the epidermis, penetrating deeply into the skin cells and normalizing their natural state.
Recipes for jam and jam
Delicious and healthy pineapple jam can be prepared at home very simply. If the calorie content of the finished dish does not matter much, then jam can be cooked from 1 kilogram of fruit pulp, 700 grams of sugar and 1 liter of water. Ripe pineapple is peeled, the core is removed from it, and the flesh is cut into small slices of arbitrary shape. Sliced pieces for half an hour must be covered with sugar and let them let the juice flow. After the set time, the pineapple mass is poured with water and put on a slow fire for 15 minutes. As the jam is cooked, stir and add 1-2 teaspoons of lemon juice to it. This may not be done, but with lemon, pineapple jam will turn out sweet and sour, with a hint of bitterness.
If pineapple jam is prepared as a medicine or is intended to be used during a diet, then the amount of sugar in the recipe should be minimized. This is easily helped by a natural gelfix jam thickener, which can be bought at a grocery store. It gives the pineapple jam a jelly-like consistency, while the sugar in the recipe becomes about a third less. If pineapple jam will not be jarred for the winter (then there is no need to supply it with a large amount of preservative or sugar), a gelfix-based product can be prepared with honey, it turns out both tasty and healthy.
With any recipe used, it is possible to obtain the finished product in the form of pieces in a transparent jelly-like syrup or in the form of a homogeneous thick mass. Pineapple jam is easy to make from already brewed jam by grinding it with an immersion blender.
Pineapple jam is used in cooking for layers in cookies, cakes. They can be watered with various cereals, casseroles, served with pancakes and pancakes. Or you can just drink tea with a spoonful of such a useful sweetness.
Whatever method of making pineapple jam is chosen, it is important to remember that this is a very tasty and very active product that affects many human organs and systems. Therefore, in the case of pineapple jam or jam, you must strictly observe the permissible dosage of the product and do not overeat with this exotic sweetness.