Exotic, Healthy Fruits Are Coming!

Goji berries have a sweet and sour taste and are similar in shape and texture to raisins.  Goji berries are eaten raw, brewed into a tea, added to soups, or are made into liquid extracts or juices.  Goji berries have begun to appeared in snack foods in America.

Goji berries are sought after for due to their abundance of antioxidants.  Goji's antioxidants include carotenoids such as beta-carotene and zeaxanthin.  Zeaxanthin protects the retina of the eye by absorbing blue light. Increasing the foods eaten that contain zeaxanthin may reduce the risk of developing macular degeneration.

Goji juice is becoming popular as a health beverage. There have been studies that show that goji berry may prevent the growth of cancer cells, reduce blood glucose levels, and lower cholesterol levels. But, that doesn't mean that goji will have the same benefits in a juice or tea.

The mamey sapote is native to Mexico and Central America, but is becoming popular in Florida and the Caribbean islands. The fruit is actually a berry and can grow up to a foot long with an orange fleshed,  sweet pulp.  You eat the mamey sapote raw.  Simply remove the skin buy cutting lengthwise and remove the pit.  Most people will sweeten the mamey sapote with sugar or an artificial sweetener.  It is often used in salads, jellies, desserts, shakes, ice cream or cocktails such as daiquiris.  Once soft, mamey sapote can be kept in the refrigerator for up to a week with no loss of flavor.

Mamey sapote is high in fiber, vitamin A, vitamin C and potassium and one cup of mamey sapote contains approximately 135 calories.

Mangosteen is a dark purple, tropical fruit about 2 to 3 inches in diameter with a sweet white flesh that is constructed of sections with a bitter-tasting seed in the center of each large section.  Smaller sections are seedless.  The fruit can be opened by firmly pressing the outside until the rind splits, or by cutting it as you would an orange.

Mangosteens are normally eaten fresh as a dessert.

Mangosteens cannot legally be imported into continental United States due to concerns that they will carry insects into the country.

The rind of the mangosteen contains xanthones and tannins.  Xanthones have anti-cancer effects.  Mangosteen has also been shown to have anti-inflammatory and antifungal properties.  Tannins also have anti-inflammatory and antiseptic properties.  They are used for IBS, diarrhea and skin problems.

Noni is a multiple fruit that has a pungent odor when ripening.  It is also known as starvation fruit, cheese fruit or vomit fruit. It is oval shaped and is 1-1/2 - 2 inches in size. It starts life green, turns yellow and is then almost white when ripe. It contains many seeds. The strong smell and bitter taste, but is a staple in the Pacific islands.  It can be eaten either raw or cooked. Some eat the fruit raw with salt or cook it with curry. The seeds are edible if roasted.

Noni helps with constipation, diarrhea, infections and mouth sores.  The juice of the noni contains vitamins, minerals and antioxidants and may have anti-cancer and pain relieving properties.  It may also boost your immune system to ward off illness.  Noni juice is high in potassium.

The pomegranate is an ancient fruit and widely eaten.  Each pomegranate contains 840 seeds which are surrounded by a sac of juice held by a thin skin.  The layers of seeds are separated by thin, white, bitter-tasting membranes.  These membranes and the rind are usually discarded, because of the high tannic acid content. 

To eat a pomegranate, the fruit is deeply scored several times vertically and then the fruits is broken apart.  The juice sacs are removed from the rind to be eaten or pressed for the juice.

The sapodilla is an egg-shaped fruit that is native to Mexico.  It has a scruffy, brown skin and soft brown flesh that tastes somewhat like a pear or even brown sugar.  They can be seedless, but normally have 3-12 black seeds. 

To eat the sapodilla, cut it in half scoop the flesh out with a spoon. It is prime dessert fruit, because the skin stays firm and can be used to serve the fruit.  The meat can be used in fruit salads.

Be careful not to swallow any sapodilla seeds.  The seeds have a hook that can lodge in the throat.

The Spanish Lime Genip is from South American.  It is a sweet fruit with translucent meat.  To eat a Spanish Lime Genip, tear open the rind at the stem end and the pulp-coated seed is squeezed into the mouth, the juice being sucked from the pulp until there is nothing left of it but the fiber. With fruits that have non-adherent pulp, the latter may be scraped from the seed and utilized to make pie-filling, jam, marmalade or jelly, but this entails much work for the small amount of edible material realized. More commonly, the peeled fruits are boiled and the resulting juice is prized for cold drinks.