What is feijoa and how is it useful: the amazing properties of the berry

Fei­joa is a small but very unusu­al fruit. Con­trary to pop­u­lar belief, this is not a fruit, but a berry. The word “fei­joa” is fem­i­nine and does not decline. And the fruits of this amaz­ing berry are very fra­grant, tasty and juicy.

What are their health ben­e­fits and what can be pre­pared from fei­joa? Tells Med­AboutMe.

Where did the feijoa originate?

The fei­joa plant is native to Brazil, Argenti­na and Uruguay. It is also found in Italy, Spain and the USA. And on the ter­ri­to­ry of Rus­sia, the fruits most often come from New Zealand — the world leader in grow­ing fei­joa.

The exot­ic berry has sev­er­al poet­ic names: Brazil­ian gua­va, pineap­ple gua­va, fig gua­va or guavastin. The taste of the fruit is some­what rem­i­nis­cent of the pulp of a pear with grains with the addi­tion of notes of lime, pineap­ple, pear and straw­ber­ry. But the aro­ma of the fruit is real­ly strik­ing — it is very bright and sat­u­rat­ed, and appears long before the berries are ful­ly ripe.

Fei­joa flesh is white and watery, the core is trans­par­ent. Each fruit con­tains from 20 to 40 small seeds, and in some vari­eties — even about 100. But these seeds are so tiny that the berries are invis­i­ble dur­ing con­sump­tion.

What is in the berries

Fei­joa is a valu­able source of vit­a­min C, potas­si­um and fiber. One cup of slices of this amaz­ing berry has only 125 kcal, but 13 g of fiber, 35 mg of cal­ci­um, 18 mg of mag­ne­sium, 353 mg of potas­si­um, 67 mg of vit­a­min C and 47 micro­grams of folic acid. Such a rich com­po­si­tion makes this berry very ben­e­fi­cial for health.

Amazing Health Benefits of Feijoa

Fei­joa fruits can be eat­en whole, and the peel of the plant is con­sid­ered even more use­ful than the pulp. But she is very tough. There­fore, it can only be eat­en in grat­ed form.

Fei­joa berries are eat­en like this: cut the fruit in half and eat away the pulp with a tea­spoon. What does it give to health?

Supports immunity

Due to the high con­cen­tra­tion of vit­a­mins, min­er­als and antiox­i­dants in the com­po­si­tion of fei­joa, its reg­u­lar use stim­u­lates the pro­tec­tive func­tions of the body, so that it more effec­tive­ly resists virus­es and bac­te­ria.

Inter­est­ing­ly, 100 g of fei­joa (this is one serv­ing) con­tains more than 50% of the dai­ly require­ment of vit­a­min C, a pow­er­ful antiox­i­dant that sup­ports the body’s resources.

Strengthens the health of the heart and blood vessels

Foods rich in potas­si­um, includ­ing fei­joa, are very ben­e­fi­cial for heart and vas­cu­lar health. They help low­er high blood pres­sure, and there­fore reduce the risk of car­dio­vas­cu­lar dis­ease, includ­ing ath­er­o­scle­ro­sis and stroke.

Normalizes digestion

Due to the fiber con­tent, fei­joa has a ben­e­fi­cial effect on the func­tion­ing of the diges­tive sys­tem, stim­u­lates peri­stal­sis and improves the absorp­tion of nutri­ents.

Reg­u­lar con­sump­tion of the berry can relieve the symp­toms of indi­ges­tion, relieve con­sti­pa­tion and bloat­ing, elim­i­nate cramps, and gen­er­al­ly improve well-being.

Improves cognitive functions

Antiox­i­dants in the exot­ic fruit of the study are asso­ci­at­ed with improved mem­o­ry, the abil­i­ty to con­cen­trate and remem­ber things, and a reduced risk of neu­rode­gen­er­a­tive dis­or­ders.

So, in one study in 2011, it was proved that the antiox­i­dants in fei­joa can neu­tral­ize free rad­i­cals in the body, the destruc­tive effects of which lead to many seri­ous dis­eases.

Increases bone strength

Fei­joa berries abound not only in vit­a­mins and antiox­i­dants, but also in min­er­als. Due to the high con­cen­tra­tions of man­ganese, cop­per, iron, cal­ci­um and potas­si­um in the fruit, a per­son who fre­quent­ly includes fei­joa in their diet can expect an increase in bone min­er­al den­si­ty.

Fei­joa is very use­ful in old age, as it reduces the like­li­hood of osteo­poro­sis and the risk of frac­tures. This unique fruit can also boost your ener­gy lev­els and give you the boost you need to get things done every day.

Useful during pregnancy

Fei­joa con­tains one of the most impor­tant vit­a­mins for a wom­an’s health dur­ing preg­nan­cy and the prop­er devel­op­ment of the fetus — folic acid. The rec­om­mend­ed dai­ly intake of folic acid dur­ing preg­nan­cy is 550 to 800 micro­grams per day. Part of the required amount can be obtained from the tasty and fra­grant fei­joa berries.

Helps maintain a healthy weight

The abun­dance of fiber in berries makes fei­joa an excel­lent dessert dur­ing weight loss. Fiber is also help­ful in main­tain­ing a healthy weight. It stim­u­lates the prop­er func­tion­ing of the intestines, reduces the risk of death from heart dis­ease and oncol­o­gy, and also helps pre­vent dia­betes.

There­fore, foods high in fiber must be includ­ed in the diet of every per­son.

What to cook with feijoa?

Fei­joa is active­ly used in cook­ing. Pan­cakes, pies, pies, rolls and pud­dings, sauces, wine, jel­ly, jam and many oth­er deli­cious dish­es are pre­pared on its basis. And the leaves of the plant are used to brew fra­grant tea.

Pre­pare with berries deli­cious and fra­grant raw jam! The recipe does not allow cook­ing, which means that most of the nutri­ents are retained in the dessert.

You will need:

• Fei­joa — 1000 g.
• Orange — 1 pc.
• Hon­ey — 2 tbsp. spoons.
• Sug­ar — 200 g.

How to cook?

Wash the fei­joa fruits and remove excess frag­ments — the top and bot­tom of the berry. Cut each fruit in half, do not cut the peel. Peel the orange, cut it into slices.

Pass the pre­pared fruits through a meat grinder or process with a blender. Add sug­ar and hon­ey to the result­ing mass and beat with a blender. Arrange the fin­ished jam in jars and store in the refrig­er­a­tor.

Anoth­er great berry-based dessert is con­fi­ture. Giv­en its rich com­po­si­tion, it turns out a real “vit­a­min bomb”.

You will need:

• Fei­joa — 300 g.
• Fresh gin­ger root — 5 cm.
• Lemon — piece.
• Sug­ar — 150 g.
• Water — 50–70 ml.
• Gelatin — 1 tbsp. l.

How to cook?

Wash the fruits. Peel the gin­ger root and grate it on a fine grater. For fei­joa, remove excess frag­ments from above and below, cut in half. Beat the result­ing halves with a blender until smooth. Com­bine gelatin with two tbsp. spoons of sug­ar.

Com­bine fei­joa, gin­ger, gelatin with sug­ar and juice of half a lemon in a saucepan. Stir and bring the mix­ture to a boil. Enter the remain­ing sug­ar, add water, bring the mass to a boil and then sim­mer for anoth­er 10 min­utes. Con­fi­ture is ready. It can be put into jars and rolled up.

Eat right and be healthy!

Shut­ter­stock pho­to mate­ri­als used