Passion Fruit During Pregnancy: Safety and Benefits

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Written by Gina Wagg BA, Dip.

Published on

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Passion fruit is a little-known source of vitamins and minerals, and it tastes great.

Passion fruit is perfectly safe to eat during pregnancy, and it also has many nutritional benefits. However, care should be taken if you want to consume passion fruit extracts or herbal supplements, or if you are allergic to latex.

We’ll cover everything you need to know about passion fruit during pregnancy, including when you should exercise caution.

Is Passion Fruit Safe During Pregnancy?

Passion fruit is safe to eat during pregnancy and is recommended as a rich source of vitamin A. As with any raw fruit, be sure to wash it before eating (Source: Unicef).

Tip: Want to know more about washing fruit and veg to make them pregnancy safe? We put a guide together on pregnancy produce prep here.

The only known risk with eating passion fruit is if you are allergic to latex, as people allergic to latex can often be allergic to passion fruit as well (Source: PMID).

There are many ways to eat passion fruit. You can cut open the fruit and scoop out the middle and eat it with a spoon, or you can blend it with milk for a quick smoothie.

You can also strain out the seeds and then use the juice to add a delicious flavor to pies, tarts, cocktails, ice cream, and yogurt.

There may be some more benefits to eating the seeds, though – and we cover them later in this article.

Can I Eat Passion Fruit in Early Pregnancy?

Passion fruit can be eaten throughout pregnancy, even in the first trimester.

Anecdotally, sometimes sour or tart flavors can help with pregnancy nausea, so if you’re suffering from morning sickness, you might want to see if passion fruit alleviates these symptoms.

Some of the nutrients and vitamins, discussed below, could be beneficial in early pregnancy, so there’s no need to avoid passion fruit – you can include it in your prenatal diet straight away.

Is Passion Fruit Good For Pregnant Women? What Are The Benefits?

Passion fruit is good for pregnant women as it has many vitamins and minerals.

One cup of passion fruit (pulp, as the skin cannot be eaten) has vitamins A, C, K, and B6. Passion fruit also contains calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, zinc, copper, and selenium (Source: USDA).

Because the percentages of these nutrients are rather high when compared to other fruits, passion fruit is considered to be an important addition to your diet (Source: OrganicFacts).

Passion fruit also contains many additional antioxidants which can help stimulate the body’s manufacture of collagen, boost the immune system, and lower the risk of cardiovascular disease (Source: NewsMedical).

There are some studies that seem to say that eating passion fruit can help contribute to overall metabolic health and can have anti-aging benefits, but more studies are needed (Source: MDPI).

passion fruits

Vitamin A is important in pregnancy as it contributes to the development of the organs and skeleton of the fetus, as well as to the health of the eyes (Source: MDPI).

Vitamin C is also essential in pregnancy, as vitamin C deficiencies can have a serious negative impact on the brain of the fetus. Once brain damage has occurred, it cannot be reversed (Source: UOC).

Vitamin K is also important in pregnancy as it helps with blood clotting and helping wounds heal correctly, although deficiency is rare, except with some conditions such as epilepsy (Source: SciRep).

Some people consume passion fruit peel flour, which is a flour made from yellow passion fruit peel.

This flour has been shown to have positive effects on blood sugar levels. When given as a supplement, insulin resistance decreased in people with type 2 diabetes, so if blood sugar is a concern for you, this flour may be worth considering (Source: BMC).

Finally, it’s a good idea to eat passion fruit seeds, rather than straining them out of your juice or fruit. This is because passion fruit seeds are rich in fiber (source: Journal of Food Chemistry).

100g of passion fruit can contain over 10g of fiber, which is pretty impressive for a small fruit (source: USDA).

Fiber is very important during pregnancy, not only for preventing pregnancy-related constipation but to prevent diabetes and preeclampsia too (source: Journal of Food Science and Nutrition).

Overall, adding passion fruit to your diet has various benefits – especially if you eat the whole fruit, including the seeds.

Can I Drink Passion Fruit Juice When Pregnant?

You can drink passion fruit juice when pregnant if you wish, but be aware that commercial versions can have a lot of sugar for very little fruit.

One cup of passion fruit juice has 148 calories and 36g of carbohydrates, 35g of which are sugar (Source: USDA).

Raw passion fruit juice has fewer calories – 126 calories per cup – but almost just as much sugar: 34g carbohydrates, 33g of which are sugar (Source: USDA).

Compare this to one whole passion fruit, which has 17 calories and 4.2g of carbohydrates of which 2g are sugar, and you can see that you are better off making your own passion fruit juice if you can (Source: USDA).

It’s actually quite easy to make your own passion fruit juice.

Simply scoop out the soft flesh from the inside of the fruit, and blend with water. Strain the result through some fine mesh so that the bits of seeds don’t go through to the juice – though you can add these to other dishes.

You can even add a bit of sparkling water for a healthy and nutritious alternative to soda.

passion fruit juice

Is Passion Fruit (Passionflower) Tea Safe When Pregnant?

Passion fruit tea is also called passion flower tea.

Although passionflower tea (Passiflora incarnata L) is used for treating insomnia and anxiety, there is no conclusive evidence that it is effective for these conditions, and passionflower tea is not recommended during pregnancy.

This is because it is a known uterine stimulant, and its effects have not been sufficiently studied to be able to say whether it’s safe in pregnancy (source: WebMD).

It is also not to be taken by anyone with heart irregularities (Source: IJPSR).

In conclusion, you can rest assured that you can safely eat passion fruit throughout your pregnancy, though be careful with the sugar content of passion fruit juice. Passionflower or passion fruit tea is not recommended for pregnant women.


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