Eating jujubes is great for nourishment, but there are also some taboos about eating them circulating online. Some of these taboos have some merit, while others are completely untenable. Nutritionist Wang Xingguo has specially interpreted 4 major misconceptions about eating jujubes for the public.
1. Jujubes are very effective for blood enrichment—A serious misconception!
First of all, it should be explained that anemia patients can benefit from eating jujubes, just like eating other fruits such as apples or grapes. However, it is wrong to expect jujubes to have a special blood-enriching effect, or even to treat iron-deficiency anemia, in the same way as pork liver or meat.
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 in jujubes is extremely low and cannot be well utilized by the human body.
The Vitamin C (VC) content of fresh jujubes is a leader among fruits, at 243 mg/100g. VC promotes iron absorption and helps prevent and treat iron-deficiency anemia. However, as discussed above, fresh jujubes often cannot be eaten in large quantities. Eating eight or ten jujubes is purely a superficial effort for blood enrichment.
2. Jujubes are high in sugar, so they are not suitable for people with constipation—A serious misconception!
First, the logic of this statement is wrong. High sugar content worsens constipation? How is that possible! There is no sugar in stool, and sugar does not affect stool. The two are unrelated. Besides, there are countless foods high in sugar, not just jujubes.
The reality is that jujubes contain a significant amount of dietary fiber, which has a laxative effect. Therefore, eating jujubes (and other fruits and vegetables rich in dietary fiber) can help relieve constipation. Of course, practice is the sole criterion for testing truth. People with constipation can try eating jujubes to see if it worsens or alleviates their condition. Aren't the media and "experts" tired of repeating the same things?
3. Jujubes cannot be eaten with carrots—A serious misconception!
The reason for this claim is that fresh jujubes are rich in Vitamin C (VC), while carrots contain an oxidase that can destroy VC, so the two together reduce the nutritional value of jujubes. 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 carrots themselves, let alone the VC in other foods.
Therefore, if you really care so much about VC being destroyed, the "best" strategy would be to simply not eat carrots. But this also has a problem, because besides carrots, vegetables like cucumbers also contain oxidases that destroy VC. Should you stop eating those too? But that still doesn't work. Other foods, while they may not have VC-destroying oxidases, have other drawbacks—for example, eggs have cholesterol, and meat and milk have saturated fat... Should you stop eating all of them too? Just starve to death.
As for the nonsense about food incompatibility, such as "jujubes cannot be eaten with seafood" or "jujubes cannot be eaten with green onions," it is not even worth refuting.
4. Jujubes should not be eaten in large quantities? A misconception!
As is well known, fresh jujubes are not easy to digest. This is because jujubes not only have a low water content of only 67% (compared to 80%-90% for other common fruits), but they are also high in dietary fiber, 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 cellulose) cannot be digested in the stomach and small intestine, and a large intake 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 crush it completely when chewing. You can try this: chew a fresh jujube, do not swallow it, and spit it out to observe. You will find that it is mixed with jujube skin fragments of varying sizes, which are separated from the flesh, irregular in shape, hard in texture, and sharp-edged. You can imagine that after swallowing it, if your gastric mucosa happens to have inflammation or an ulcer, it would be like rubbing salt in the wound, causing pain or discomfort.
Of course, if your stomach is healthy and has no inflammation, ulcers, or wounds, your tolerance for jujubes will be stronger. Even so, eating too many fresh jujubes can still cause stomach discomfort. This is the reason why it is advised not to eat too many jujubes. However, even without obvious gastritis or ulcers, people differ in the thickness of their gastric mucosa and their tolerance to certain irritants. Therefore, the appropriate amount of jujubes to eat (is it 5 or 35?) varies from person to person, and there is no fixed limit. So, can't we at least give a general guideline?
In fact, giving a general guideline is also meaningless. Because when eating jujubes, people can determine the right amount for themselves based on their own condition; you'll know how many are appropriate just by eating them. My wife, for example, usually doesn't eat more than 5 fresh jujubes because she has a weak stomach, and it becomes uncomfortable if she exceeds that number. She later found that eating jujubes with softer skins (less fresh or bruised fresh jujubes) seems to allow her to eat a few more. As for myself, it's a different situation. I eat them to my heart's content every time, and even forty or fifty jujubes don't cause significant gastrointestinal discomfort (occasionally I feel a bit of bloating, but I don't pay it any mind).