Work pressures stressing you out? Long overdue for a holiday? Fruit isn’t the obvious solution to stress, but a certain Japanese citrus might just be the solution to all our problems.
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The little yellow fruit is similar to a tangerine or orange, but this baby packs a lot more punch than just regular vitamin C. According to the Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, the fragrance of the yuzu can have “soothing effects” on the body.
The study was conducted using 20 healthy women with a mean age of 20.5. They were asked to inhale the scent of the yuzu, and after 10 minutes, researchers found changes in the participants’ moods — their levels of tension, anxiety and depression were all lowered. The results were even more impressive after 30 minutes.
Their conclusion was that the scent of the yuzu fruit may be able to alleviate negative emotional stress.
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The study also reported that, according to food and nutritional science studies, the yuzu has anti-inflammatory, anti-diabetic, antioxidant and even anti-carcinogenic properties and could help prevent cognitive dysfunction.
Most of us probably haven’t heard of the yuzu fruit before, but it’s long been favoured by chefs. According to Daily Mail, the juice and fruit have been used in Western cuisine to make vinegar and to enhance the flavour of various foods and drinks, including chewing gum and cocktails.
Sitting at your desk, sniffing a citrus may earn you some strange glances, but if it’s making you feel better, then why the heck not? Clearly we’d all love to rush out and buy the fruit now and feel all our worries drift away. Apart from sniffing it, it actually tastes pretty good too, with the flavour being something of a combination of a lemon, mandarin and grapefruit.
Unfortunately it’s near impossible to buy the fruit whole in the U.K. However, it is available in juice form from various retailers, including Waitrose (£5), and as a seasoning sauce from Sainsbury’s (£3).
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