What sugars are most abundant in fruits?
Many people will say that the fruit must contain the most fructose, otherwise why is fructose called fructose?
In fact, this statement is wrong.
Most fruits contain three types of sugars: glucose, fructose, and sucrose. Among them, the content of fructose and glucose in fruits is comparable in most cases. Fruits do not contain only fructose, and fructose is not the most abundant sugar substance in fruits.
In addition to these three types of sugars in the fruit, there are also some fruits that contain some kind of magical substance that is not sugar, we can call it a sweetener, it is very sweet, but it is not sugar. Many sugar-free drinks will add sweeteners, such as xylitol, erythritol and other sweeteners that can often be seen on the ingredient list of sugar-free drinks. The characteristic of sweetener is that it is not an ordinary sugar, it will not be absorbed by the human body, but it will make you feel very sweet to eat.
In Guangxi, there is a fruit that contains a natural sweetener, its sweetness is 300 times sweeter than sucrose, this fruit has been officially approved by China, the United States, Japan and other countries to extract sweeteners, instead of sugar to add to food.
This fruit has a very Buddhist name called "Luo Han Guo".
China's unique oriental god fruit
Luo Han Guo originated in Guangxi, China, it is the fruit of the perennial vine fruit tree of the Cucurbitaceae family, and the earliest recorded date of artificial cultivation of Luo Han Guo is about the Chongzhen period of the Ming Dynasty.
The name Luo Han Guo sounds as if it is related to the Eighteen Arhats, but there is no evidence about why the Luo Han Guo is called Luo Han Guo, most of which are legends or stories.
There is a story that when there were nineteen arhats who went down to save the human world, after the rescue was completed, there was an arhat who made a grand wish, and only when there was no suffering in the human world would he return to the West. Therefore, he incarnated as a fruit and stayed in the human world, and posterity called this fruit "Luo Han Guo".
This kind of story must have been made up later, and everyone can just listen to it.
However, don't be deceived by the name "Luo Han Guo", thinking that it is called Luo Han Guo, it is considered to be imported from a foreign country. Luo Han Guo is not imported from foreign countries, it is an authentic Chinese fruit, and it is currently almost a unique fruit in China.
At the beginning of the 20th century, monk fruit was brought to the United States, but it has not been cultivated in large areas in the United States to this day. At present, most of the world's monk fruit comes from Yongfu County in Guangxi and its surrounding monk fruit producing areas, which are also known as the "hometown of monk fruit". In addition to Yongfu County, Guangxi's Longsheng and Lingui counties are also the main producing areas of luo han guo, and the production of luo han guo accounts for more than 90% of the world, almost except for China, there are few other countries that grow luo han guo.
In the world, the monk fruit is also called the "fruit of the East", so where is its magic?
The magic of monk fruit
The biggest difference between monk fruit and other fruits is that monk fruit is rich in monk fruit sweet glycosides, commonly known as "monk fruit sugar", which is not an ordinary sugar, but also a sweetener. However, this sweetener is different from synthetic sweeteners such as aspartame, which is a natural sweetener that is widely found in the fruit of monk fruit.
In the past, when there was no artificial extraction technology, many people used sun-dried monk fruit to soak water to drink, invented a lot of traditional monk fruit drinks, and are still very popular. Compared with the current beverage, the drink brewed with monk fruit has a sweet taste, but does not contain more sugar substances, so it is more inclined to be sugar-free.
Dried monk fruit
Rohan fructosides are also one of the few natural sweeteners available, which has an advantage over other sweeteners.
In the past, everyone was not so worried about "eating sugar", they liked to eat sweet, and even drank sugar water many times. At that time, Luo Han Guo was basically not welcomed by the market, except that the locals in Guangxi used to soak water and stew stew, and the commercial value was not very high.
Thirty years of Hexi, thirty years of Hedong, do not deceive the young poor.
In today's current consumer market, everyone usually eats too much sugar, sugar-free food or beverages have gradually been "favored" by everyone, sugar substitute food has returned to the stage, and monk fruit is just a fruit containing sugar. Its commercial value has also been redefined.
Is monk fruit a sugar-free fruit?
Although monk fruit can be used to process and extract monk fructosides, monk fruit does not only contain monk fructosides. The pulp of monk fruit also contains glucose and fructose.
So, if you say that monk fruit is pure sugar-free fruit, that's obviously wrong.
To be precise, monk fruit is a low-sugar and sweet fruit, and its sweetness is mainly derived from glycosides.
At present, the proportion of direct raw eating of monk fruit is not large, and the fresh fruit of monk fruit is not easy to store. In Guangxi, after fruit growers sell monk fruit, most of the buyers dry the monk fruit in a baking room and then store it and sell it. There is also a vacuum low temperature dehydration technology to store and sell fresh fruits after dehydration.
Therefore, monk fruit fresh fruit is not a common fruit in the market, most of them are brown roasted dried fruits.
Have you ever eaten monk fruit? Or should you ask, have you ever drunk monk fruit? A little more appropriate!