Superfood Mangosteen

Mangosteen is a superfood! Thai’s have crowned this native fruit as the Queen of fruits. Thai’s believe mangosteen to lower the inner body temperature and is often eaten following the consumption of the KING of fruits, durian. Durian is considered to raise the inner body temperature. Thus the queen of fruits is often eaten to offset the consumption of the king of fruits. Both fruits are in season May through June.

Superfood … What Is A Superfood?

A superfood is a food item that has been scientifically proven to contain special properties when properly harvested and processed. When it is ingested in sufficient quantities it provides humans with elements that enhance human life.

Why is mangosteen a superfood?

Mangosteen provides a variety of essential vitamins and minerals and antioxidants. 

Vitamins: C, B9 (folate), B1 (Thiamine), B2 (riboflavin). Minerals: Manganese, Copper, Magnesium. With a high fiber content.  All of which are important for maintaining many bodily functions which include DNA production, muscle contraction, wound healing, immunity, and nerve signalling.

It is also loaded with antioxidants “xanthones” which have resulted in anti-inflammatory, anticancer, anti-ageing, and antidiabetic effects.

Heat vs Cold Processing

The use of heat during processing can and does change the food item’s benefits so look for food that is processed using a cold method of extraction or cold-press process and avoid items processed using heat. I bring this to your attention as several years ago (2013?) a multi-level marketing scheme was created in Thailand promoting the daily consumption of processed mangosteen rind The rind is otherwise truly unpalatable. At that time this product used a heat process and had no independent studies as to what remained of the nutrients after processing and bottling.

Selecting your mangosteen

When selecting your mangosteen the skin should be soft enough to feel it move with a squeeze. If it is rock hard you may not be able to open it even with a knife.  You can slice it with a knife or as finger food you can squeeze it till the skin breaks. Rotating and squeezing until and you can separate the two pieces. You can then bite into the white fleshy fruit (avoid contact with the bitter pink flesh) and pull remove it from the skin.

Also, (see picture above) you can look at the bottom of the mangosteen and see the star-like shape on the bottom.  The number of arms in the star equal the number of segments inside.  The more segments the smaller will be the pit in each segment. The smaller mangosteens often have no seeds.

Mangosteen is a truly delightful eating experience!

Nutritional Facts

 1-cup (196-gram) serving of canned, drained mangosteen offers 

• Calories: 143
• Carbs: 35 grams
• Fiber: 3.5 grams
• Fat: 1 gram
• Protein: 1 gram
• Vitamin C: 9% of the Reference Daily Intake (RDI)
• Vitamin B9 (folate): 15% of the RDI
• Vitamin B1 (thiamine): 7% of the RDI
• Vitamin B2 (riboflavin): 6% of the RDI
• Manganese: 10% of the RDI
• Copper: 7% of the RDI
• Magnesium: 6% of the RDI

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Sources

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/mangosteen#section1

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/264465325_Approaches_for_delivery_of_heat_sensitive_nutrients_through_food_systems_for_selection_of_appropriate_processing_techniques_A_review