There is a strong precedent for ‘ super foods’ emerging from the Southern Hemisphere. Fruits that are meant to not only taste great but also help improve your health, fruits with amazing health benefits. They have come in all shapes and sizes, from many sorts of countries.
A few have been able to back up their claims of health benefits, many others not. One of the newest of such super fruits to emerge is the Mangosteen. Like the others, many authorities are stating marvellous things about how beneficial the Mangosteen can be to our health. But what are the real facts?
Mangosteen Facts
The Mangosteen is the fruit of a plant indigenous to the Indonesia region, which is why many people in the Western world have still not heard all about it. This remoteness from Western research also explains why, till now, no one had made claims about the health benefits of the mangosteen – as till now scientists hadn’t had a chance to research it.
Not that it doesn’t have a ancient history, not at all. The health benefits of the Mangosteen have been recognised for over 1400 years. Locals used a dried and pulped version of the fruit plus its rind to make potions and salves as far back as 600AD
The Mangosteen is a small fruit, aproximately the same size as a tangerine. The rind ( pith) of a Mangosteen is purple and greenish, whilst the inner most pulp is white. This pulp is prized by locals as a wonderful tasting fruit.
Indeed the English Queen, Victoria (1819 – 1901) is said to have enjoyed the taste of the fruit so much that she offered to give knighthoods on anyone who brought her back more, which is an example of how much it was looked upon even in Victorian Britain!
Mangosteen Health Claims
As the Mangosteen is just recently coming to be seriously researched by researchers there is still much about it that we are still to comprehend . But initial scrutiny and research has brought a number of pertinent facts about the fruit to our attention.
- The Mangosteen has more than 40 different types of Xanthones in it, making it the strongest single source of Xanthones known to occur naturally.
- Xanthones are useful to our health in a many ways, not least acting as a potent anti-inflammatory agent, stopping or reducing swelling. Extremely useful for the likes of migraine sufferers.
- Anti-oxidants. Anti-oxidants are essential to help us battle against free radicals – dangerous molecules that may cause cancer. Plus they are significant in helping to strengthen our immune system to fight off diverse attacks.
- Illness. Many of the impressive number of anti-oxidants pinpointed in the mangosteen are anti-virals and anti-bacteria, helping us to be able to recover from illnesses speedily, and potentially guard against an illness that you would otherwise get.
So however you select to enjoy your mangosteen, whether in juice, fresh or freeze-dried supplement form you now have an understanding of exactly what it is that you are putting into your body.
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