Thoughts on Jackfruit

Local foods #1 - 

This article is to encourage each people (especially Indian people) to go with local foods and stay healthy. Local foods are available to us every day and throughout all the seasons. According to me local foods are the foods familiar with the specific locality. Some local foods are seasonal and some are annual. We eat annual foods throughout the year without any complain. Some good examples are potato, tomato etc. But we forgot the importance of seasonal foods. The importance of seasonal foods is quite same as annual foods. You know our body adapt to the environment during different seasons. You must experience the change in your body system during rainy to winter or winter to summer seasons. So, our body needs those seasonal foods in particular season for better adaptation process. For example - We eat cauliflower during winters only and mangoes in summer season. If we get cauliflower in summer or rainy season then our first thought is “this must not be in a good condition”. There are many examples like this and if you don’t know then you should search on this topic and be learning some knowledge from this blog. 

You should remember two points of eating local foods – 

-Farmers will be benefited.

-Your health will get improved everyday.

I am reading books written by top nutritionists of India and I am trying to convey the importance of healthy life with Indian foods. India has a big market of foods but they always try to market western foods more than their own country’s food. We also consider those advertisements real and forget our own identities. Below I will try to explain one Indian super food in this article. In next articles I will explain some more Indian super foods.

JACKFRUIT –

I have recently read the book “Indian super foods” by India’s no. 1 nutritionist Rujuta Diwekar.

She explains very nicely about 10 Indian super foods. The most important thing is that she put more emphasis on “Local foods”. The names of foods are – Ghee, Kokum, Banana, Kaju, Ambadi, Rice, Coconut, Aliv, Jackfruit, and Sugar

After reading this book, I have read research papers to know more about the Indian super foods. In the first place, I want to share some knowledge about Jackfruit. Nutritionist Rujuta Diwekar explained this fruit as a “fertility booster”. I, a girl having PCOD, acne, and many other skin problems need what? In my childhood, I used to eat ripe jackfruit most of the time because of the sweetness. This is very fun to sit together and cut panas and share with family members and friends. I eat panas but I have never searched any question related to health benefits and I think you too. After reading research papers I am amazed about the benefits of eating jackfruit. Jackfruit is very beneficial for our health. Let’s know more about this amazing fruit.

Before starting to write anything I want to thank all the Indian parents. Thanks to our parents we (I am for sure) won’t expose to any western food during our childhood. If I say about my part of story, I was not exposed to street foods for about 17 years. Now come back to Indian children, most of them get a chance to taste pizza, burger and all after 20 years. Eating western foods is not bad but forgetting your local foods is bad. You should know western country people have a very different life style than us. The foods also act according to their locality. 

fig - Jackfruit (Picture Source-Nitesh Kumar Pradhan)

In Hindi, this is called as “kathal” and in Odia, this is called as “Panas”. The scientific name is Artocarpus heterophyllus Lam. This is an ancient fruit. This fruit is commonly found in India, Bangladesh and many parts of Southeast Asia. This fruit is the national fruit of Bangladesh. Jackfruit trees produce fruits within 3 to 4 years and they can live up to 100 years. The productivity of tree declines with increase in age. The height of jackfruit tree can go up to 80 feet. Average weight of this fruit is 3.5 to 10 kg sometimes it may reach up to 25 kg. This fruit is fleshy and soft inside. It is covered by a hard covering outside having spike like structure. The spikes are short and non-harmful. Many people were considering it “poor man’s fruit “. Now it is no more “poor man’s fruit”. It has a lot of beneficial properties for our health but with limited quantity of jackfruit is good for our health. Always remember “something more is not good for health”. You can get jackfruit in raw form or ripe form. You can cook raw jackfruit. The ripe fruit can be eaten without cooking and it has sweet taste and very helpful for constipation patients.

Beneficial properties for health –

-Maintain your weight (This does not mean you start eating panas in ample amounts.)

-Improve digestion

-Improve oral health

-Effective for skin diseases

-Anti-cancer properties

-Anti-aging

-Anti-ulcer

-Lower high blood pressure

-Effective for cardiovascular diseases

-Strengthening the bone

-Maintain thyroid gland

-Prevent from anemia

Essential vitamins present in jackfruit – 

-Vitamin A

-Vitamin C

-Thiamin (Vitamin B1)

-Riboflavin (Vitamin B2)

-Vitamin E (α-tocopherol)

Presence of chemical composition such as -

-High level of Potassium

-calcium 

-Iron

-Magnesium

-Manganese

-Sodium

-Zinc

Antioxidants – 

-Carotenoids – These antioxidants are lipid soluble. Plant carotenoids act as provitamin A source for our health.

(A note on Antioxidants - They are of two types such as - water soluble antioxidants and lipid soluble antioxidants. Water soluble anti oxidants reacts with oxidants of cells while lipid soluble antioxidants protect cells and act against free radicals.) 

We can use every part of jackfruit such as roots, leaves, flower, fruits, pulp, seed, bark, latex and wood.

Roots – Used for diarrhea, fever, asthma and skin diseases.

Leaves – Heated leaves useful for wound healing. Ash of leaves is helpful to cure ulcer when it mixed with coconut oil.

Latex – Treatment of ophthalmic problems, pharyngitis and dysopia. It can also mix with vinegar to heal snakebites.

Fruit – It may reduce tension and nervousness. It is a low-calorie diet. It has anti-aging properties. Fruit has high in potassium (300mg in 100 gm of panas). Research tells that food in high level of potassium is helpful for lowering blood pressure.

Seed – Seed powder contains magnesium and manganese elements. It has anti-microbial properties. It can help in preventing food-borne pathogens.

Jackfruit can be consumed in various forms such as – Jackfruit chips, Jackfruit Jam, Jackfruit wine, Jackfruit cake, and Jackfruit leather.

I have referred this review paper - "Jackfruit and Its Many Functional Components as Related to Human Health: A Review" and the book "Indian super foods".

This is it for jackfruit. If you want to know more about jackfruit feel free to ask in the comment section.

You can connect with me in my instagram account – local_foods_

Thank you for reading. Smile the way you are and spread the healthy thoughts to other.