Prickly Pear

Blueberries, pomegranates, acai and goji are so last year. Now there’s a new crop of superfuits ready for their close up.

I recently wrote about prickly pear (or cactus fruit), that I enjoyed in Lebanon last summer, and lychee fruit, which is a delightful grape-like fruit with a pebbly shell from China and Southeast Asia.

Both of these fruits are in the running to be the next big superfuit. Trouble is, once a fruit like this gets popular, it starts showing up in pills and potions (such as the Lichi Super Fruit Diet) or as extracts in fancy juices or energy drinks — and who knows how much actual fruit is inside.

Rarely are people actually going out and eating these whole fruits. For some of these, you need to go to the Amazon to even find them fresh. I’m all in favor of people getting excited about eating more fruit — and if the superfruit phenomenon does the trick — then that’s great. But has the exotic fruit trend gotten out of hand?

Are we overlooking apples and other homegrown fruits to get just a small spoonful of pulp that was squeezed from a mysterious fruit from the rainforest? Are we drinking gallons of pricey high antioxidant juices from the Amazon and ignoring whole fruit?

It wasn’t that long ago that I wrote about the next big superfuits, but now there are even more new ones on the scene and a lot more products that boast about these exotic fruits on the label. Here are some of the most popular:

Cupuacu

A sweet cousin to the cacao tree (where we get chocolate). Typically grown in Brazil, cupaucu has been dubbed a “pharmacy in a fruit.” [photo credit: cupuacu-fruit on flickr]. One of the latest products to add a squirt of cupuacu is Musselman’s applesauce.

cupuacu stack

Maqui Berries

A deep purple berry native to South America, often sold as supplements or blended in mail-order superjuices. Claims to have massive amounts of antioxidants. [photo credit: sunfood on flickr]

Guarana

A fruit from a shrub native to Brazil and Venezuela. Most commonly used as a stimulant (similar to caffeine), rather than a flavor. That’s why you’ll see guarana used in lots of energy drinks and nutrition bars. [photo credit: amberbrasil on flickr]

Guava

A Brazilian fruit from an evergreen shrub. The fruit is creamy in texture with a rind that softens when ripe. [photo credit: larique on flickr]

Yumberry

The nickname of the Yang-mi fruit that is mainly cultivated in the subtropical region of southeast China, with evidence dating it back to 6,000 years ago. [photo credit: jeremy! on flickr]

Baobab

A tart African fruit that’s sometimes referred to as ”monkey bread.” Baobab is one of the latest flavors of Pepsi in Japan, although there’s no actual fruit inside the bottle. [photo credit: tonrulkens on flickr]

Borojo

A Colombian fruit that’s commonly used in jam, wine and desserts. It also has a long history in traditional medicine in the tropics. Now it’s become the latest source for dietary supplements. [photo credit: climambiente on flickr]

Pomelo

A Chinese citrus fruit that tastes like a sweet, mild grapefruit. [photo credit: aWee on flickr]

pomelo citrus drink

Additional superfruits vying for attention (some easier to find than others in whole form): blackcurrants, blood oranges, kiwiberry, mangosteen, mamey fruit, cashew apple, lulo fruit and fejoia. A dozen Australian fruits may be in the running, according to an article published in Innovative Food Science & Emerging Technologies: brush cherry, Burdekin plum, Cedar Bay cherry, Davidson’s plum, finger lime, Kakadu plum, Illawarra plum, Molucca raspberry, muntries, riberries and Tasmanian pepper.

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Tagged as: baobab, borojo, cupuacu, exotic fruits, guarana, guava, lychee, maqui berry, next generation of superfruits, pomelo, prickly pear, superfruits, yumberry

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One of the fruits that I grew to love this summer in Lebanon was the prickly pear — known as cactus fruit or subbair. These seed-studded fruits grow wild on my father-in-law’s property around his house. And I would love to eat these succulent fruits for breakfast. I was amazed at the markets near his house where the cactus fruit would be stacked high on display…and the peeling of this thorny, desert fruit was turned into an art form.

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Prickly pear cactus has a long history in Mexico and Rick Bayless writes lovingly about the fruit (tunas) in his cookbook Mexican Kitchen, which features Crimson Prickly Pear Sauce.

Now it seems this ancient fruit Opuntia ficus indica (eaten for 9,000 years) may be the next big thing. One of the trendiest drinks in the Southwest is the Prickly Pear Margarita and the flavor is showing up in a range of new-age beverages, urban-detox2 syzmo_prickly_pear2 including energy drinks, juices, flavored teas (including Snapple) and functional beverages. Prickly pear is gaining popularity in the alternative medicine world and dietary supplements of the fruit in powder or pill are now stocked in health food stores and marketed online.

One prickly pear-flavored drink called Urban Detox claims the beverage can help with a hangover. Curiously, there does seem to be a study from Tulane that attempts to support this claim, however, the research was conducted with an extract from prickly pear, not with this drink. The company claims benefits from the anti-inflammatory properties of the fruit. An animal study from the University of Arizona found that the pectin isolated from the fruit helped bring down LDL cholesterol levels.

One company is beginning to market a line of prickly pear extracts for use in foods and beverages to “support healthy glucose levels.” Some preliminary research suggests that fiber-rich prickly pear fruit may help reduce blood sugar levels, but it’s too early to draw major conclusions.

Plus, you won’t be helping your blood sugar all that much if you indulge in the most popular forms of prickly pear — candy, jellies, syrups and sweet beverages. You’re better off with the whole fruit — which is widely available in the Southwest, but increasingly found in supermarkets and farmer’s markets throughout the country.

It’s overkill to put prickly pear too high on a health pedestal, but this is a nutritious fruit — high in vitamin C, fiber and phytonutrients known as flavonoids. So if you can find prickly pears near you, check them out. They have a devoted following, including Carolyn Niethammer who has assembled a collection of recipes in the Prickly Pear Cookbook. But if you’re new to prickly pear, you may find the pebble-like seeds in the fruit a little hard to get used to — but stick with the fruit instead of the pills or “functional” drinks. Although, the margarita sounds like it’s worth a try.