Durian: Nutrition

Often considered to be the king of all fruits, the durian definitely packs its weight with plenty of nutrition. On average, a durian fruit can grow up to 12 inches long and 6 inches in diameter, weighing in at up to 10 pounds. It would be a waste not to be packed full of delicious nutrients, right?

Although the durian is not everybody’s first choice when it comes to fruit, it is not because of its lack of nutrition. It’s because it smells! When its exterior shell is cracked, the smell given off can be extremely pungent, and although some enjoy the smell, other’s can’t bear it. However, the health benefits of the durian definitely outweigh the ‘cost’ of the bad smell, so it would be a good idea to try and get over the smell!

One of the main reasons people eat fruit is because they are generally low in calories. However, the durian fruit is a pretty calorie-dense, packing 375 of them inside its hard exterior. Like I said, this can be a good thing, or a bad thing. It completely depends on you.

The one thing which can’t be debated is the fact that the durian fruit has more than its share of vitamins and minerals. Each segment of this pungent, yet amazing, fruit can provide you with all the essential nutrients like iron, magnesium, phosphorus, vitamin A, calcium, vitamin B6, vitamin C, thiamine (vitamin B1), riboflavin, niacin, folate, potassium, zinc, sodium, manganese, and copper. Now that’s a lot of nutrients! In fact, one glass of durian juice can provide you with almost all of your daily recommended allowance of each and every one of those listed nutrients, especially vitamin C.

The nutrition that the durian provides has been known by the Western world for around 600 years now, so it is not a newly discovered fruit. But as mentioned before, it is definitely not the most popular, due to its strange smell and relatively high price. This little popularity can mean that it’s hard to find, especially in smaller town. Now, if you want to know just exactly how bad it smells, many shop owners, hotels and restaurants have refused to stock/serve it, purely because of its smell. Who knew a fruit could cause so much disruption?