There is a strong precedent for ' Superfoods ' emerging from the Southern Hemisphere. Fruit that are meant to not only taste great but also help increase your health, fruits with amazing health benefits. They have come in many shapes and sizes, from many types of countries.
A few have been able to prove their claims of health benefits, others not . One of the newest of such super fruits to show itself is the Mangosteen. Just Like the others, many people are saying tremendous things about how useful the Mangosteen can be for our health. But what are the real facts?
Mangosteen Facts
The Mangosteen is the fruit of a plant indigenous to the Indonesia , which is why many people in the Western world have still not heard all about it . This remoteness from Western study also explains why, till today , very few people had made statements about the health benefits of the mangosteen – as until now researchers had been unable to research it.
That is not to say that it doesn't have a long track record , not at all . The health benefits of the Mangosteen have been recognized for over 1400 years. Locals used a dried and pulped version of the fruit and its rind to make potions and salves as long ago as 600AD
Mangosteen is a small fruit, aproximately a similar size as a tangerine. The rind ( pith ) of a Mangosteen is purple and greenish , whilst the inner most pulp is whitish . This pulp is much sought after by locals as a wonderful tasting fruit.
In fact the English Queen, Victoria (1819 – 1901) is said to have enjoyed the taste of Mangosteen so much that she offered to bestow knighthoods on anyone who brought her more some of the fruit , which shows how much it was looked upon even in Victorian Britain!
Mangosteen Health Claims
As the Mangosteen is just recently coming to be extensively studied by researchers there is still much about it that we are yet to comprehend . But initial scrutiny and research has highlighted several pertinent facts about the fruit to our attention .
- The Mangosteen has over 40 different kinds of Xanthones in it, making it the strongest single source of Xanthones known to naturally occur .
- Xanthones are useful to our health in a many ways, not least acting as a powerful anti-inflammatory agent, stopping or reducing swelling. Extremely useful for migraine sufferers.
- Anti-oxidants . Antioxidants are essential in helping us fight off free radicals – dangerous molecules that can cause cancer. They are also crucial in helping to strengthen our immune system to ward off various attacks.
- Illness. Part of the large number of anti-oxidants pinpointed in the mangosteen are anti-virals and anti-bacteria, allowing us to be able to get over illnesses rapidly, and potentially guard against an illness that you would differently get.
So however you choose 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.