In this season when chestnuts are on the market, there are sugar-fried chestnuts on the street, chestnut soup in restaurants, roasted Chinese cabbage with chestnuts, chestnut cakes in supermarkets and so on. All people have an appetite at first sight, but what about the nutritional value of chestnuts? Dr. Fan Zhihong from the College of Food Science of China Agricultural University explained that chestnut belongs to nuts, but it is not as rich in oil as nuts such as walnuts, hazelnuts and almonds, and has a high starch content. The carbohydrate content of dried chestnut reaches 77%, which is equivalent to 75% of grain. There are 40% fresh chestnuts, 2.4 times that of potatoes. The protein content of fresh chestnut is 4% ~ 5%, which is not as high as that of peanuts and walnuts, but slightly higher than that of cooked rice.

But in some ways, chestnut is more nutritious than grain. Chestnuts are rich in vitamin B 1 and B2, the content of vitamin B2 is at least four times that of rice, and every gram of 100 also contains 24 mg of vitamin C, which is incomparable to cereals. I'm afraid it's hard to imagine that fresh chestnuts contain more vitamin C than tomatoes, which is ten times that of apples! Chestnuts also contain comprehensive minerals, such as potassium, magnesium, iron, zinc and manganese. Although the content is not as high as hazelnut and melon seeds, it is still much higher than that of ordinary fruits such as apples and pears, especially the potassium content is outstanding, which is four times higher than that of apples said to be rich in potassium.