How Does This Ayurvedic Food Improve Wellness?

CLINICAL AYURVEDIC REVIEW

Sweet and creamy, jackfruit is an ancient fruit native to tropical Asia. You'll find this large, spiky fruit growing in India, Bangladesh, in South and Southeast Asia. The national fruit of both Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, it has festivals held in its honor around harvest time and is often gifted between households. All while looking like a prickly, outsized melon!

One of our students describes how best to get to grips with this giant fruit, "I currently have 4 jackfruit plants growing at varied stages of development in my garden. I like how almost every part of the plant can be utilized for healing as well as culinary fun. My favorite way of eating jackfruit is when it is ripe, and it becomes sweet.

First of all, the exterior of a jackfruit is spiky, rough, green, and pokey. To dismantle the fruit, you cut through the harder sections, tear off the rind and work through the sticky latex to get to the fruit, which surrounds a hard, inner core of a seed. It's a messy, involved process but I enjoy it. The raw fruit is a bit reminiscent of an artichoke... not only in taste, but also in texture.

The seeds are also edible and can be boiled or roasted; they are also mild in taste with a texture that varies from creamy to thick and mealy.

Both the green jackfruit and the seeds serve as perfect foils for spices, sauces, and flavorings as they will easily take on the flavor of anything added to them. This chameleon-like character to the jackfruit and its meat-like texture makes it possible to mimic meat dishes; that is why, in Bengali, the jackfruit is called Tree Goat or Gaach Patha. There is a heaviness and stickiness to the fruit which is moistening and cooling."

If you are not from a culture that celebrates the jackfruit, it can look intimidating. It has a tough, textured green exterior and, inside, seems to have several compartments where the fruit is housed. But don't judge this book by its cover! Often described as a cross between a banana and a pineapple (though that doesn't do it full justice!) jackfruit is sweet, fruity and extremely versatile, with deep nutritional benefits.

From the Moraceae family of trees, and a cousin of the fig, the 'pulled' fruit has become trendy as a plant-based alternative to pulled pork. More traditionally, the ripe fruit shows up in stews, salads or desserts; simmered, saut?d or sweetened. Its strong, sweet taste brings substance and weight to a dish.

But it's not only the ripe fruit that is prized. In fact the seeds, inner pulp, flower, bark and even the unripe fruit have all been used both as food and for their healing properties.

Ayurvedic analysis

Jackfruit is both sweet and astringent in taste. As is often the case, the more ripe fruit is sweeter. Whereas if you choose less ripe fruit you will likely get more of the astringent effect on the body. It has dense, slimy and cold qualities and, overall, it is a cooling, nourishing ingredient.

While the description of the experience of jackfruit differs a little from tongue to tongue, some comparisons our students found were heart of palm, artichoke and any combination of mango, apple, pineapple and banana. Not exactly like anything else, jackfruit is definitely worth trying to experience for yourself!

A student described their impression of ripe jackfruit as "mainly sweet, rich and gooey. It is also fibrous and has an aromatic smell. I also feel it's a cooling fruit by nature because it grows very well in a tropical climate. People eat that in a hot climate to keep the body cool."