Kiwis are awesome. Unfortunately, kiwis are an underrated fruit, and if someone were to ask you to think of any random fruit, it would probably not be the first one to come to mind.
But kiwis have a lot of health benefits with their high amounts of vitamin C and K and some vitamin E, according to Cleveland Clinic.
Not only are kiwis healthy but they are also very enjoyable. As a fruit, kiwis contain fructose, a carbohydrate molecule that is actually around 150-200% sweeter than sucrose, another carbohydrate molecule that is synonymous with table sugar, according to a Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology journal.
This is why you see ingredients such as high-fructose corn syrup in things like soda, because it is used to further sweeten the beverage to make it taste better, instead of just using plain sugar, according to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
This is not necessarily to say that all fruit tastes amazingly sweet and we should only eat fruit, because if you’ve ever had a kiwi, you’d know that they are also tart.
Foods that are typically called “health foods” are not known for tasting the best, but fruit is the biggest exception to this rule.
This is important because Americans do not eat enough fruit, and our diet often replaces it with other food.
Only 12.3% of Americans met the daily recommended fruit intake set by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, according to a 2019 CDC survey published in 2022.
Taste is subjective and it’s impossible to compare how tasty a kiwi is to ice cream, for example.
But it is hard to deny that kiwis do taste pretty good if you like a sour, citrusy fruit. Kiwis are like a combination of a lemon and a plum because it’s very juicy but sour at the same time.
The juices are nice, refreshing and make you feel energy entering your body, while the citrusy sourness gives a nice little kick.
There’s a reason why we have so many ice cream and smoothie flavors that are fruit flavored, it’s because fruit does taste good.
Some of the beneficial health markers associated with kiwis include improved gut health and reduced oxidative stress, according to a Feb.1, 2023, Cleveland Clinic article.
Oxidative stress is an imbalance in your body that can lead to cell damage and in the long term have a role in the diagnosis of conditions like cardiovascular disease, cancer or kidney disease, according to another article from Cleveland Clinic.
Kiwis reduce oxidative stress because they are a source of antioxidants. Other good sources of antioxidants generally include other fruits and vegetables as well, such as strawberries, watermelon and bell peppers according to Better Health Channel.
This is not to say that you should not eat other fruits, of course as every fruit has its own unique amount of nutrients it can provide you to benefit your health.
However, kiwis have a great level of nutrient density, or the ratio of calories to the amount of nutrients in a food, according to the National Cancer Institute.
Vitamin C is also an essential nutrient in kiwis that can reduce the risk of many health morbidities such as cancer and eye diseases as well as reducing the length of a cold, according to the Mayo Clinic.
In 100 grams of a kiwi, you would expect to have 92.5 milligrams of Vitamin C, which is 2.5 milligrams above the minimum daily recommended intake by the FDA, according to the same website.
Kiwis also have a great amount of fiber, which also helps with a number of health benefits.
In total, 100 grams of a kiwi, containing 61 calories, will have about 3 grams of fiber, according to the United States Department of Agriculture.
Kiwis, among other fruits, are low in calories but high in volume. This means that you can eat a lot of fruit before you start to gain weight.
Increased fiber intake has also been associated with a lower risk of all-cause mortality, or the risk of any cause of death, according to a meta-analysis from the American Journal of Epidemiology.
Many people choose not to eat the skin of a kiwi, but when they do this, they are actually throwing away some benefits they could potentially get from eating it.
Kiwi skin and flesh are both good sources of fiber and antioxidants alongside folate, a nutrient that is particularly important in early pregnancy, according to Cleveland Clinic.
If you don’t like kiwi skins, then don’t feel the need to eat them just, because eating something you don’t want to eat just because it’s good for you probably isn’t conducive to a healthy lifestyle.
There is also some evidence that kiwis may be beneficial in supporting sleep quality by consuming it before bed.
A study that looked at the sleep quality of athletes after consuming 2 large green kiwis an hour before bed, found that it may have had a noticeable effect on improving the participants' sleep quality, according to the Nutrients journal.
The study also states that kiwis have melatonin in them, which has regulatory effects on the circadian rhythm, or your sleep cycle.
There are a lot of benefits to eating kiwis, but it would be beneficial to their health if Americans just ate more fruit in general.
The next time you go grocery shopping and you stop by the produce section, get some kiwis. Kiwis have a lot of great benefits, and if you’re part of the high amount of Americans who don’t eat enough fruit, this is your chance to become part of the low amount that do.
