It's great to eat jujubes for nourishment, but there are also some taboos about eating them circulating online. Some of these taboos have some merit, while others are very hard to justify. Here, we'll debunk four major misconceptions about eating jujubes.
Misconception 1: Jujubes are very effective for blood enrichment
First, it should be noted that eating jujubes is beneficial for anemia patients, just like eating other fruits such as apples or grapes. However, if you expect jujubes to have a special effect on enriching the blood, or even to treat iron-deficiency anemia like pork liver or meat, that is incorrect.
The iron content of fresh jujubes is relatively high among fruits, at 1.2 mg/100g. However, like other plant-based foods, the iron absorption rate from jujubes is extremely low and cannot be well utilized by the human body.
The vitamin C (VC) content of fresh jujubes is among the highest of all fruits, at 243 mg/100g. VC can promote iron absorption and help prevent and treat iron-deficiency anemia. However, as discussed above, fresh jujubes often cannot be eaten in large quantities. Eating just eight or ten of them is purely scratching the surface when it comes to blood enrichment.
Misconception 2: Jujubes should not be eaten with carrots
The reason given for this claim is that fresh jujubes are rich in vitamin C (VC), while carrots contain an oxidase that can destroy VC, so when the two are eaten together, the nutritional value of the jujubes is reduced. The first two sentences are correct: jujubes have VC, and carrots have oxidase, but the final conclusion is wrong. The destructive power of the oxidase in carrots is very limited; it can't even destroy all the VC in the carrots themselves, so how could it destroy the VC in other foods?
Therefore, if you are truly that concerned about VC being destroyed, the "best" strategy would be to simply not eat carrots. But this is also problematic, because vegetables like cucumbers also contain oxidases that destroy VC, so should you avoid those as well? But that still doesn't work, because other foods, while lacking VC-destroying oxidases, have their own drawbacks—for example, eggs have cholesterol, and meat and milk have saturated fat... so should you avoid all of them too? Just starve to death.
Misconception 3: Jujubes should not be eaten in excess
Jujubes are a nourishing food.
As is well known, fresh jujubes are not easy to digest. This is because not only is their water content low, at only 67% (most other common fruits are 80%-90%), but their dietary fiber content is also high, at 1.9%, which is significantly higher than other common fruits (for example, grapes average 0.4% and apples average 1.2%). Dietary fiber (especially insoluble fiber) cannot be digested in the stomach and small intestine, and consuming a large amount at once can cause gastrointestinal discomfort. The dietary fiber in jujubes is mainly concentrated in the skin. The flesh of the jujube is crisp, but the skin is very thin and hard. It is difficult to chew it thoroughly. You can try this: chew a fresh jujube, but don't swallow it. Spit it out and observe, and you will find that it contains fragments of jujube skin of various sizes, separated from the flesh, with irregular shapes and hard, sharp edges. You can imagine that after swallowing it, if your stomach lining happens to have inflammation or an ulcer, it's like rubbing salt in the wound, which can cause pain or discomfort.
Of course, if your stomach is healthy and has no inflammation, ulcers, or wounds, your tolerance for jujubes will be higher. Even so, eating too many fresh jujubes can still cause stomach discomfort. This is the reason why it's recommended not to eat too many jujubes. However, even without obvious gastritis or ulcers, people differ in the thickness of their stomach lining and their tolerance to certain irritants. Jujubes