Want to shield yourself from the common cold? Put a few spoonfuls of rosehip jam onto a slice of bread. Or sip a rosehip tea in the morning. Rosehip – considered a Heilpflanze in Germany (a highly nutritional fruit with medicinal or health-promoting properties) – packs an enormous punch of Vitamin C and other essential nutrients and is a must-eat food during the cold season.
Rosehip has plenty nutritious properties to fend off the rhinovirus:
Vitamin C:
- Rosehip contains some of the highest amount of Vitamin C available in any plant, between 400 and 2000 mg per 100g. This is about 20 times higher than what a orange, lemon or lime can provide!
- Why do you need Vitamin C: it literally makes you stronger and more alert, reduced “bad” cholesterol, helps the liver to get rid of poisonous substances and increases the “ happiness “hormone serotonin
- As rosehip buds are slowly cooked into rosehip jam, the Vitamin C will not completely be destroyed. 100g of rosehip jam still contain 95mg of Vitamin C, which is more than the daily recommended value and more than the 50mg of Vitamin C contained in a lemon. Rosehip teas or juices are equally full of Vitamin C
Lycopene and other essential nutrients
- Rosehip also contains the essential nutrient lycopene, which has an effect on reducing cancer in humans.
- Lycopene is primarily found in tomatoes. If you don’t like tomatoes, try rosehip jam as a good alternative source.
Antioxidants
- Rosehip has an ORAC value or over 9,700, a bit more than raw fresh blueberries or a bunch of healthy fresh nuts
- ORAC stands for Oxygen Radical Absorbing Capacity and refers to the number of antioxidants in food that absorbs so-called free radicals in the bloodstream
- free radicals are molecules in your body that attack and destroy living cells. Antioxidants bind free radicals s and thus reduce health risks
- 3-4 spoonfuls of rosehip jam deliver over 50% of the daily recommended consumption of antioxidants.
Where rosehip grows
Rosehip buds grow on hedges of wild roses, often alongside farmed fields, anywhere between Bavaria, the Balkans, and Beijing – wherever the climate is moderate to mild. In Germany, the Franconian province of Bavaria (between Nürnberg and Würzburg) is the center for rosehip production and consumption.
Rosehip and Karneval
Rosehip jam and rosehip tea are especially popular during Germany’s “Karneval” or Fasching season in February, when millions of people rather keep the cold virus at bay, while partying in the streets .
The jam is used as filling in that scrumptious Bavarian Krapfen (called Kreppel in Hessen, Berliner in the Rhineland and Pfannkuchen in Berlin), which in the US is simply a jelly-filled, no-hole donut.
Sources:
- Getvital Healthcare GmbH Dr. Friese-Wehr
- http://oracvalues.com/
- Friedrich Schiller University, Jena
