While you might recognize it because of its distinct appearance, many people have never eaten soursop before. Also known as graviola, soursop has been described as having a tremendous taste that’s a blend of both strawberries and pineapples. Since soursop is only found in tropical regions of the world (mostly in the western hemisphere), it’s not available to everybody around the world.
This can make it a bit difficult to find, and possibly expensive, but is certainly worth it if you can get your hands on some soursop. Though the overall benefits of soursop has been dispute by some, there are some proven benefits that you can get from adding them to your diet. To show you what soursop can do, let’s take a closer look at the nutritional value of soursop and the tremendous health benefits that come with eating more.
Nutrition of Soursop
Each cup of soursop pulp has a fair amount of calories at around 150 per serving, but it’s packed with helpful nutrition. Soursop contains about five percent of your recommended protein intake, while delivering 30 percent of your needed fiber. In terms of vitamins, vitamin C really stands out for soursop as there’s more than three quarters of the daily recommended value. Those that are around 10 percent daily value include thiamin, niacin, vitamin B6, folate and pantothenic acid.
The most abundant mineral found in soursop is potassium, with about 20 percent of daily recommended value. Near the 10 percent mark, you’ll find iron, phosphorus and copper. Other nutrients in smaller amounts in soursop include vitamin K, calcium, zinc and selenium. There’s also no cholesterol to be found in soursop, and very little fat with only 0.7 grams per serving.
Cancer Fighter
The biggest benefit that researchers have found in soursop is that it can help you prevent certain types of cancer. This is because soursop has some incredibly powerful enzymes that attack free radicals that can cause cell damage and form cancer. How it works is that soursop prevents the formation of adenosine triphosphate, stopping the spread of cancer and providing energy to your cells to get rid of the free radicals.
One cancer that has been particularly reduced because of the use of soursop is pancreatic cancer. Because of the high amount of glucose in the pancreas that cancer feeds off of, adding soursop can help regulate the levels so that the cancer doesn’t continue to spread. Other cancers that have been found to be affected by soursop include lung cancer, breast cancer and many more.
Antioxidant Packed
Preventing cancer isn’t the only great thing that the high amount of antioxidants found within soursop can do. Many of these antioxidants are known as phytonutrients that include flavonoids that can fight off a lot of different diseases. Outside of cancer, you can increase your ability to prevent diseases such as the common cold or flu by upping your antioxidant count, especially in soursop that comes with a lot of vitamin C to give your immune system a further boost.
One part of your body that also sees a benefit because of this is the eye. The range of antioxidants and vitamins make for a great tool in the battle against eye disease and vision loss. It’s been shown that people who get the proper amount of nutrition from foods like soursop drastically reduce their chances of suffering from macular degeneration and cataracts as they get older.
Digestive Health
Adding a healthy amount of vitamin C is also going to be good for your digestive system, but fiber plays an even more important part. One serving of soursop gets you more than 30 percent of your daily recommended amount of fiber, creating probiotics that can get rid of harmful bacteria. Those that suffer from chronic constipation, diarrhea or other digestive problems really need to get more fiber to prevent these from popping up more frequently.
Studies have said that an estimated 95 percent of people in the United States aren’t getting the proper amount of fiber in their diet. Making some small switches like eating more foods like soursop can really make a difference and have you feeling better throughout the day. Getting enough fiber has also been linked to an increased metabolism, which can also help you lose weight.
Infection Prevention
The strong antioxidants found within soursop come into play yet again as they can be instrumental in helping to prevent infections. Many generations of people have used soursop to treat wounds as the antioxidants can eliminate foreign bodies from invading the skin after suffering an injury. Soursop has also been shown to reduce the amount of pain after an injury, making it a great remedy to use for healing.
To further show benefit toward your skin, soursop can be used on your exterior to increase the overall health of your appearance. Vitamin C is a great tool for looking younger as it allows your body to create more collagen so that your skin will have increased elasticity. Getting rid of wrinkles and blemishes is another added bonus, and your hair will even be able to grow in more quickly with a healthier scalp.
Stress Relief
For many, many years, people have been using soursop as a way of treating stress. The most common way of doing this is using soursop leaves within a tea, as the properties of soursop have been shown to help reduce the amount of stress hormones that your body produces. Since anxiety can be one of the problems that leads to not being able to fall asleep, soursop tea has been used to help treat insomnia. With lower stress and anxiety levels, falling asleep and staying asleep will come a lot more naturally, and can also help keep you calm throughout a hectic day.
Summing it Up
Just like any other food that’s healthy for you, there are certain things that you want to watch out for when eating soursop. Researchers warn that you need to be careful about where you’re getting soursop, and make sure that you’re not getting too much. Certain batches of soursop have been shown to contain neurotoxins, which has caused some problems when being used in supplements.
Certain types of soursop have been linked to neurological problems that can cause Parkinson’s disease and even make symptoms worse. There are also certain types of medications that can interact with soursop, so you’ll want to speak with a doctor before starting any diet that could contain soursop. Using this fruit in a safe way certainly has a lot of benefits for your health, but treading carefully isn’t always easy. Just speak with the experts, and you’ll be good to go!