We are currently living in a time of targeted nutrition, where certain foods are used to target certain health issues and some foods achieve the “superfood” status. Typically, when we think of superfoods, our minds conjure formerly fringe foods than have recently become health food staples, like chia, quinoa, blueberries, açaí, seaweed, goji berries, and the now-found-in-everything kale. But in a world where there is still starvation and food prices are ever increasing, perhaps addressing targeted nutrition over basic nutrition is putting the proverbial cart before the horse.
Enter the jackfruit: an odd looking object covered in cone-like points that can grow to be 90cm long, 50cm wide, and potentially weighing well in excess of 20kg. A tree fruit from the same family as the fig and mulberry, the name “jackfruit” comes from combining the Portuguese jaca, which is derived from Malamayan chakka, and the word fruit.
Unless you live in South/Southeast Asia or reside within a reasonable distance of a large city with a substantial expat population, any mention of the jackfruit is likely to be met with a blank stare. Yet, this often unknown foodstuff could be one of the nutrition keys to providing basic nutrition for many of the world’s poor.
What makes this fruit so valuable is its yield, range of uses, and the fact that it is being underutilised. Producing 100-200 fruits a year of the above mentioned proportions with almost the entirety of the fruit being edible, the sheer size yield alone can make it valuable foodstuff. While, like many other fruit trees, there is value in the wood as well as the ripe fruit, what sets the jackfruit apart is that, ripe or unripe, the fruit flesh and seeds can both be prepared and eaten, with each providing a different flavour and texture. Finally, while familiar and extensively grown in Bangladesh, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, etc., but in India, where millions (including children) suffer from malnutrition and outright starvation, jackfruit, though growing locally in ample supply, is largely avoided.
The first known use of the word jackfruit in English occurs in 1613 in Samuel Purchas’ work, Purchas, his Pilgrimage, where he writes that “jackfruit are bigger..and grow out of the body of the tree: they are of so many pleasant tastes, but hard to digest.” Additionally, its nutritional value and flexibility has been noted: first by John Crawfurd, in History of the Indian Archipelago (1820), writing that “Of the Jackfruit..two species occur in the Indian islands… The Jack is highly nutritious,” and later (1878) by Philip Robinson who noted that, “The monstrous jackfruit that in its eccentric bulk contains a whole magazine of tastes and smells,” in his book, In My Indian Garden.
Surely, with it benefits being long noted and now being rediscovered, perhaps the jackfruit can now take its place as a beneficial superfood for the masses.
