Mangoes
Mangoes are high in soluble dietary fiber (pectins in the fruit). They are an extraordinary source of vitamin A, derived from deep yellow carotenes, including beta-carotene, and an excellent source of vitamin C.
The edible part of one seven-ounce mango has 3.7 g dietary fiber (primarily the soluble fiber pectin), 1,584 IU vitamin A (69 percent of the RDA for a woman, 53 percent of the RDA for a man), 57 mg vitamin C (79 percent of the RDA for a woman, 63 percent of the RDA for a man), and 29 mg folate (7 percent of the RDA).
Unripe mangoes contain antinutrients, protein compounds that inhibit amylases (the enzymes that make it possible for us to digest starches) and catalase (the iron-containing enzyme that protects our cells by splitting potentially damaging peroxides in our body into safe water and oxygen). As the fruit ripens the enzyme inhibitors are inactivated.
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Ripe, chilled, and freshly cut.
Look for: Flattish, oval fruit. The skin should be yellow green or yellow green flecked with red; the riper the mango, the more yellow and red there will be. A ripe mango will give slightly when you press it with your finger.
Avoid: Mangoes with gray, pitted, or spotted skin; they may be rotten inside.
Store mangoes at room temperature if they aren’t fully ripe when you buy them; they will continue to ripen. When the mangoes are soft (ripe), refrigerate them and use them within two or three days. Once you have sliced a mango, wrap it in plastic and store it in the refrigerator.
Chill mangoes before you serve them. At room temperature they have a distinctly unpleasant taste and a fragrance some people compare to turpentine. The flavor of the mango doesn’t develop fully until the fruit is completely ripe. If you cut into a mango and find that it’s not ripe yet, poach it in sugar syrup. That way it will taste fine.
Eating a mango is an adventure. The long, oval pit clings to the flesh, and to get at the fruit you have to peel away the skin and then slice off the flesh.
When you poach a mango, its cells absorb water and the fruit softens.
Antiscorbutics. Foods high in vitamin C cure or prevent the vitamin C deficiency disease scurvy, characterized by bleeding gums and slow healing of wounds.
Contact dermatitis. The skin of the mango contains urushiol, the chemical that may cause contact dermatitis when you touch poison ivy, poison oak, and poison sumac.
