Health benefits of Jackfruit
Jackfruit is one of its own kind of tropical fruits, recognized for its unique shape, size, and fruity flavor of its bulbs that can be appreciated from a distance. The fruit is deliciously sweet in taste. In common with other tropical fruits such as durian, banana, etc., it is also rich in energy, dietary fiber, minerals, and vitamins and free from saturated fats or cholesterol, making it one of the healthy summer treats to relish!
FACT : Jackfruit consists of soft, easily digestible flesh (bulbs) made up of simple sugars like fructose and sucrose.
Health benefits of Jackfruit
- 100 g of edible jackfruit bulbs provide 95 calories. The fruit is made of soft, easily digestible flesh (bulbs) made up of simple sugars like fructose and sucrose that when eaten replenishes energy and revitalizes the body instantly.
- Jackfruit is rich in dietary fiber, which makes it a good bulk laxative. The fiber content helps protect the colon mucous membrane by binding to and eliminating cancer-causing chemicals from the colon.
- Fresh fruit has small but significant amounts of vitamin-A, and flavonoid pigments such as carotene-ß, xanthin, lutein and cryptoxanthin-ß. Together, these compounds play vital roles in antioxidant and vision functions. Vitamin A is also required for maintaining integrity of mucusa and skin. Consumption of natural fruits rich in vitamin-A, and carotenes has been found to protect from lung and oral cavity cancers.
- Jackfruit is a good source of antioxidant vitamin-C, provides about 13.7 mg or 23% of RDA. Consumption of foods rich in vitamin C helps the body develop resistance against infectious agents and scavenge harmful free radicals.
- It is one of the rare fruits that is rich in B-complex group of vitamins. It contains very good amounts of vitamin B-6 (pyridoxine), niacin, riboflavin, and folic acid.
- Further, fresh fruit is a good source of potassium, magnesium, manganese, and iron. Potassium is an important component of cell and body fluids that helps controlling heart rate and blood pressure.
Jackfruit is one of the least known superfoods ! Most people from the South love it as a fruit and its seed as a protein rich nut. In the North, tender jackfruit or kathal is a gourmet vegetable and in Bengal, it’s gacch-patha (tree mutton). In Kerala, it’s primarily a healthy carbohydrate and every other use comes after. Chakka, the raw jackfruit, is consumed as a whole meal, an alternate to rice and roti, along with a protein curry like fish or chickpea.
Raw jackfruit is the thick flesh around the seed just 2 to 4 days before it turns sweet. Like raw mango, it is creamy white in colour, neutral in taste and doesn’t have any aroma of the ripe fruit. Thanks to lifestyle diseases and scientific research, this once forgotten God’s Own Carbohydrate has now retaken its 3,000-year-old position as a much healthier alternative to rice and roti.
For why it should be called a superfood, kindly see my next post.