Marmalade is one of the most famous sweets. Invented in the Middle East, it became very famous even before the Middle Ages throughout almost all of Asia and civilized Europe. But everywhere, by the way, it was made from different components.

What is marmalade
The word marmalade itself is of Portuguese origin. Here, in the homeland of filibusters, marmalade was called a very thick quince jam. However, very soon in England, the same word began to refer to sweets obtained by boiling and candied any citrus fruits. Today, echoes of those times can still be found in pastry shops and in shops selling oriental sweets in the form of orange or lemon slices, generously sprinkled with sugar and dried.

By and large, however, this is not marmalade. But not candied fruits, as they are usually called, because only candied citrus skins are candied fruits. Indeed, the most expensive and high-quality marmalade today is pieces of very thick, candied and dried jam mixed with some kind of gelling agent. Most often, such gelling components are agar-agar or gelatin.

Manufacturers of “marmalade for the proletariat” act a little easier, mixing only pectin with the same agar-agar and adding dyes and flavors to this composition. Of course, all the properties of such synthetic marmalade change, and it is very different from natural.

And that’s just about food, and a little – about the beneficial properties of marmalade, we’ll talk now.

Composition of marmalade
1. Pectin.

Both natural marmalade and cheap artificial jam contain pectin, a vegetable fiber. Only in the composition of an expensive product does pectin come with the fruits or berries themselves, in which it makes up a serious part of the entire substance. Pectin is a natural healer of the digestive tract. The properties of pectin in the intestines and stomach are diverse:

it stimulates intestinal motility and activates the mixing of its contents. The intestine itself is forced to push a portion of fiber through itself, which allows you to get rid of constipation.
it prevents the absorption of cholesterol in the digestive tract. This has a good effect both on the state of the internal regulation system and on the purity of blood and arteries: pectin inhibits the development of atherosclerosis.
not digested in the intestines and simply passing through it empty, it collects a lot of toxins, harmful microorganisms, heavy metals and radionuclides, cleansing both the human digestive tract and the entire body from them.

Also important is the fact that the pectin in marmalade works by itself, without organic acids, which are especially rich in fresh fruits. And if they – fruits – lead to irritation of the walls and mucous membrane of the digestive tract, then marmalade is very soft in this regard. It does not matter, by the way, whether pectin is “fruity” or is made from various industrial crops – beets, for example, or sunflower baskets: its effect on the body is the same in all cases.

2. Gelling agents.

Unlike pectin, the properties of different gelling agents that make up marmalade vary greatly. So, the more common agar-agar, extracted from seaweed, does not contain fat at all. At the same time, gelatin, a product of the processing of hooves and skin of domestic animals, is quite high in calories, which should be taken into account by those who are on a diet.

Agar-agar, in addition, is also quite poorly digested in the body and is used in medicine as a laxative. Gelatin also contains a large number of useful and essential amino acids. So it is difficult to make an unambiguous choice between these two substances.

3. Sugar.

And of course, sugar. Without it, marmalade would not be sweet. It brings both benefit and harm to the body.

It is precisely because of sugar that it cannot be consumed in diabetes and obesity, since most of it quickly enters the bloodstream and then spreads throughout the body, where it is broken down and converted into fats.

But the same sugar gives us a good mood and energy. The benefit of marmalade is that due to the activation of digestion by pectin, sugar is absorbed as completely as possible and is used by the body as an important source of energy for the movement and functioning of the brain.

The calorie content of marmalade is about 320 kcal per 100 grams of product. Here, losing weight need to look both ways! Sugar also contributes to the thinning and destruction of tooth enamel. Therefore, with caries, even healthy marmalade should not be consumed.

4. Food additives.

It is impossible to ignore the food additives included in the chemical composition of marmalade. Natural marmalade does not contain them – there the fruits themselves are responsible for the color and taste. As part of the artificial marmalade it is the flavors and dyes that create the appearance of the candy. And with it comes health problems. It is known that many additives used in confectionery products can lead to various digestive disorders and the development of cancer.

Therefore, it can be unequivocally argued that natural marmalade is more useful, albeit cheap, but synthetic. And when choosing it in a store, you should not only read the composition, in which something may not be indicated, but also just look at the color: boiled fruits will not have such saturated colors as candies colored with dyes. Accordingly, it is worth choosing natural sweets among “nondescript” samples. Try to pick up natural marmalade without dyes and preservatives. Such a useful product will appeal to both adults and children.