Gac Fruit Benefits-Why You Need to Know The Truth About Gac

The earth's fruits are a demonstration of nature's beauty and creativity. Their varied shapes, colours, perfumes and flavours attract and inspire. More importantly, they function as natural reservoirs of life-sustaining nutrients for insects, animals and humans. They are particularly rich in antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and other potent and beneficial phytonutrients.

Many fruits offer specific and targeted health benefits and can be used as important components of integrated health maintenance programs.

Gac Fruit

Momordica cochinchinensis, commonly known as the gac fruit, is a Southeast Asian fruit found throughout the region from Southern China to Northeastern Australia, mostly Vietnam.

Characteristics

Because it has a relatively short harvest season (which peaks in December and January), making it less abundant than other foods, gac is typically served at ceremonial or festive occasions in Vietnam, such as Tet (the Vietnamese new year) and weddings. It is most commonly prepared as a dish called xoi gac, in which the aril and seeds of the fruit are cooked in glutinous rice, imparting both their colour and flavour.

Nutritional content

Recently, attention has been attracted to gac in the West because chemical analysis of the fruit suggests it has high concentrations of several important phytonutrients.

The fruit contains by far the highest content of beta-carotene (vitamin A) of any known fruit or vegetable. Research has confirmed that the beta-carotene in the fruit is highly bioavailable. In a double-blind study with 185 children, some were given a dish containing 3.5 mg beta-carotene from spiny bitter gourd, while others were given an identical-looking dish containing 5 mg beta-carotene powder. After 30 days, the former group eating natural beta-carotene had significantly greater plasma (blood) levels of beta-carotene than the latter with synthetic beta-carotene.This oil also included high levels of vitamin E. The fatty acids in the aril are important for the absorption of fat-soluble nutrients, including carotenoids, in a diet typically low in fat.

Chemical constitutents

Gac has been shown to be especially high in lycopene content. Relative to mass, it contains up to 70 times the amount of lycopene found in tomatoes. It has also been found to contain up to 10 times the amount of beta-carotene of carrots or sweet potatoes. Additionally, the carotenoids present in gac are bound to long-chain fatty acids, resulting in what is claimed to be a more bioavailable form.There has also been recent research that suggests that gac contains a protein that may inhibit the proliferation of cancer cells.

Due to its high content of beta-carotene and lycopene and allegedly high phytonutrient content, the fruit has begun to be marketed outside of Asia in the form of juice dietary supplements.

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