Why You Should Add This Natural Beauty to Your Diet

Breadfruit, widely known among the Igbos in eastern Nigeria, is called “ukwa” in the Igbo language. Breadfruit is famous for its high nutritive value.  Its taste and smoothness in the mouth make most people rush back to it even after breakfast and lunch. As one of the most cherished food in western Nigeria, it contains a lot of nutrients which include;

• Carbohydrate
• Protein
• Calcium
• Magnesium
• Omega 3
• Sodium
• Sugars
• Fiber
• Calories
• Phosphorus
• Vitamin A and C, among others.

There are different kinds of breadfruits, nut the kind we would be discussing in this article is the kind that has tiny seeds that you can only get out when you leave the big pod or ball to decay. If you are looking for the health benefits breadfruit has to offer, then you are in the right place. This article will teach you more about how beneficial this fruit is to your health, as well as the need for you to add it to your diet. The fruit and seeds are eaten as fruits, while the roots, leaves, and latex are used for medicines.

Breadfruit can be eaten either roasted, baked, boiled, or fried. Eating it with corn, coconut, or palm kernel sends most fans of it to cloud 9. Breadfruit can also be cooked as porridge. Whichever way it is processed before consumption, the nutritional values do not depreciate. Some Igbo people of eastern Nigeria claim that when it is left overnight after cooking it, the sweet taste increases, making you long to eat your breadfruit and probably dream of it throughout the night while waiting for the sweet taste to increase over the night.

Without many stories, let us delve right into the health benefits of this tasty and highly nutritive fruit.

Health Benefits of Breadfruit

The health benefits of breadfruits are not limited only to the fruit and seeds. The roots, latex, and leaves have also proven to effectively treat health issues such as asthma, lower blood pressure, treat toothache, earaches, and skin infections.

• It contains antioxidants that help prevent diseases like heart diseases, stroke, and cancer.
• It contains a protein that is twice the amount of the protein in beans. Are you looking for every means to grow taller? Do not look too far; add breadfruit to your diet.
• Its high omega fatty acid content helps maintain collagen, which helps keep your skin’s structure.
• Breadfruit can help you boost your immune system. I contain properties that can give your immune system a boost, which can protect your skin and keep you healthy.
• Do you need fuller hair? Breadfruit is the solution. The omega 6 and 3 fatty acids aids in the nourishment and opening up your hair follicles to give you a fuller and healthier hair.
• It also helps to strengthen the root of your hair and improve hair growth.
• Consuming breadfruit regularly can help you combat dandruff.
• The fiber in breadfruit aids in the flushing of toxic objects from the intestine, thereby helping the bowels move and function properly, which gives room to easy digestion of food.
• It helps to prevent diseases like heartburns, ulcers, and acidity.
• Breadfruits help in the development of your body and mind. This is possible through the omega fatty acids contained in the fruit.
• Breadfruit helps to treat dental issues. Applying roasted leaves to your teeth can help relieve your toothache while using it on your gum and tongue helps heal thrust.
• Eating breadfruit helps provide sunscreen protection from your skin and prevents you from having sunburns.
• It is also effective in the proper functioning and development of the brain.
• Do not forget that breadfruit contains calcium, zinc, and manganese; these nutrients help in the growth, maintenance, and development of the bones and teeth.
• The high content of carbohydrate in breadfruit helps in quickening your weight loss process. Eating breadfruit regularly would increase your chances of losing reasonable amounts of weight if you are overweight. Its fiber content also censors the absorption of glucose in the body, leading to weight gain.
• It provides the body with sufficient energy. It is an energy giving food. It makes you active all day long.
• Just as it helps boost your immune system, it contains phosphorus that helps repair wounded or damaged tissues in your body.
• It reduces your risk of becoming diabetic. It is a confirmed “checker and balancer” of blood sugar. The fiber in it helps control the absorption of excess glucose into the blood, hence preventing diabetes.
• Omega 3 and 6 in breadfruit helps to enhance fetal growth during pregnancy. They are the sole factors for the development of the retina and other vital organs of the fetus.
• These omega contents also help in improving fertility.
• Decocting the leaves help fight rheumatism while decocting the bark helps cure dysentery.
• The latex from the tree is effective in treating hernia in children.
• Only if we knew earlier than now, we could have offered our very own Chadwick Boseman our indigenous “ukwa.” Ukwa helps fight against colon cancer.

All of these health benefits are packaged in just one fruit. Consuming this fruit all year round would keep you away from the Doctor for a long time. It has every ingredient for preserving your general well-being, ranging from your hair to your skin, heart, kidney, liver, and reproductive organs. Do not wait, hurry and get yourself breadfruits, stock your house with them; with this, you would be hosting the whole good health and sound mind elements in your home! Great! Isn’t it?

Breadfruit is also significant as;

• Sedatives
• Anti-insomnia
• Anti-hypertension
• Antioxidants
• Anti-dermatitis
• Insecticidal

Preserving Breadfruit

Do not be worried about safeguarding your breadfruit after you must have gotten lots of it from the market. Such natural beauty cannot exist without having ways and methods of preservation. People who value this fruit have researched and found effective ways of keeping this fruit ever-fresh no matter what. These modes of preservation include;

• Freezing
• Sun-drying it raw and grinding it after it has dried
• Frying
• Roasting, among others

Side Effects

• Medical practitioners have advised that pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers should avoid breadfruits as its medicinal value for pregnant women and their babies have not been confirmed. Therefore, they should stay away from it, pending the time enough support is provided to back the medicinal value claims for pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers.
• If you have bleeding disorders, avoid breadfruits, as it has been proven to increase bleeding risk.
• Research holds that people who are sensitive to bananas might experience allergies from eating breadfruit or using its leaves, root, or latex for medicine.
• Hypoglycemia; breadfruit can help control blood sugar; however, overeating it can reduce the blood sugar below normal, hence causing hypoglycemia, which is much more dangerous and deadlier than its counterpart-diabetes.
• Hypotension, just like it reduces blood sugar, it can also help monitor and control blood pressure; however, consuming it in large amounts, can lead to low blood pressure, which is unhealthy for you.

Doses

The doses of medicines from the breadfruit tree depend on factors such as age, health, and other factors. There are no specific doses for it but do not forget that too much of everything is bad. Honestly, it is rich and has a high nutritive strength. However, it also has its own side effects. Consume it in appropriate amounts as this would help you enjoy its 100% health benefits and 0% of its side effects.

Breadfruit Facts

Do you know?…………

• Smoking it can serve as a mosquito repellant.
• The latex from the tree is used for chewing gum.
• The wood from the tree is resistant to termites.
• The leaves can be used to wrap foods to keep the foods fresh.
• The latex from the tree, when rubbed on surfaces, makes those surfaces water-proof.

As much as the nutrients in breadfruit are strong enough to keep you healthy, eating it in excess amounts can expose you to health risks like low blood sugar, low blood pressure, and many others. Eating it in reasonable amounts would help throw hospitals and Doctors’ needles far away from you. What other proof do you need? Add it to your diet and watch it perform its miracles.