Storing This Food
Set unripe kiwi fruit aside to ripen at room temperature, preferably in a brown paper bag. Do
not store the fruit in a plastic bag; moisture collecting inside the plastic bag will rot the fruit
before it has a chance to ripen. Refrigerate ripe kiwi fruit.
Preparing This Food
Peel and slice the fruit. Because kiwi fruits are very acidic, you can slice them in advance
without fear of having the flesh turn dark.
What Happens When You Cook This Food
How Other Kinds of Processing Affect This Food
Medical Uses and/or Benefits
Antiscorbutic. Foods high in vitamin C cure or prevent the vitamin C deficiency disease
scurvy, whose symptoms include slow healing of wounds, bleeding gums, and bruising.
Protection against heart disease. Foods high in antioxidants such as vitamin C appear to
reduce the risk of heart disease. In addition, foods high in pectins appear to lower the
amount of cholesterol circulating in your blood, perhaps by forming a gel in your stomach
that sops up fats and keeps them from being absorbed by your body.
Enhanced absorption of iron from plant foods. Nonheme iron, the form of iron in plant foods,
is poorly absorbed because natural chemicals in the plants bind it into insoluble compounds.
Vitamin C makes this iron easier to absorb, perhaps by converting it to ferrous iron.
Adverse Effects Associated with This Food
Latex-fruit syndrome. Latex is a milky fluid obtained from the rubber tree and used to make
medical and surgical products such as condoms and protective latex gloves, as well as rubber
bands, balloons, and toys; elastic used in clothing; pacifiers and baby-bottle nipples; chew-
ing gum; and various adhesives. Some of the proteins in latex are allergenic, known to cause
reactions ranging from mild to potentially life-threatening. Some of the proteins found natu-
rally in latex also occur naturally in foods from plants such as avocados, bananas, chestnuts,
Kiwi Fruit