Litchi: nutrition per 100 g

1. 01

   Good vitamin C

   Litchi has 33.8 mg vitamin C per 100 g, 16th of 44 fruits. Eating 100 g supplies about 42 per cent of what a man needs in a day and 52 per cent of what a woman needs.

2. 02

   Low fibre, quick sugar

   Of its 11.4 g carbohydrate per 100 g, 9.3 g is sugars, and fibre is just 1.3 g. That makes litchi easy to overeat, since it does little to fill you up.

3. 03

   Riboflavin and iron for a fruit

   Litchi ranks 7th of 44 fruits for riboflavin, at 0.06 mg per 100 g, and 11th of 43 for iron, at 0.79 mg. Both are small amounts, but above many fruits.

4. 04

   Very little calcium

   With 6 mg calcium per 100 g, litchi ranks 39th of 43 fruits. It contributes almost nothing to bones; milk, curd and ragi are the foods for that.

Values per 100 g of the edible portion. Source: Longvah T, Ananthan R, Bhaskarachary K, Venkaiah K. Indian Food Composition Tables 2017. National Institute of Nutrition, Indian Council of Medical Research, Hyderabad. Daily-need shares use the ICMR-NIN 2020 recommended dietary allowances for a 65 kg man and a 55 kg woman doing sedentary work (ICMR-NIN brief note). Nutrients IFCT did not analyse for this food are left out rather than shown as zero.

• Peeled and eaten chilled, straight from the bunch, the brown seed spat out.
• Litchi sherbet: peeled fruit blended, strained and mixed with lime juice and a little mint.
• Stirred into a summer fruit custard or set into a litchi kulfi.
• Halved into a fruit chaat with watermelon and a pinch of black salt.

In Muzaffarpur and nearby districts, outbreaks of a severe brain illness in young children were linked to eating litchi, especially unripe fruit, on an empty stomach after skipping the evening meal. Natural compounds in the fruit lower blood sugar sharply in a child who has not eaten. Public health advice is simple: children should eat a proper evening meal, should not fill up on litchi, and unripe fruit should be avoided. For everyone else, the main caution is sugar and the seed, which is not edible.

Food composition is general information, not a diet plan. Anyone managing a medical condition should plan their diet with a doctor or a registered dietitian.

• Rambutan

  Nutrition per 100 g, from IFCT 2017.

• Mango

  Nutrition per 100 g, from IFCT 2017.

• Watermelon

  Nutrition per 100 g, from IFCT 2017.

• Jamun

  Nutrition per 100 g, from IFCT 2017.

• Mangosteen

  Nutrition per 100 g, from IFCT 2017.

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