Tag Archives: mangosteen fruit

I Ate a Mangosteen!

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I told you a week or so ago that our son arranged to send us some Mangosteens from a place in Miami. He lives in Thailand, and this is one of his favorite things.  I had never heard of them, but found out that pharmaceutical companies are going nuts making supplements from the powder. I actually bought a bottle and am taking the supplements, but I haven’t felt any difference, and don’t look a thing like Julia Roberts yet, so I probably won’t order another bottle.

The mangosteen fruit came really nicely packaged in a styrofoam box with a dry ice type thing in it. We looked at all the fruit, but all of them were really hard, like billiard balls. We put a few on the island in the kitchen to ripen.

I’ve been testing them each day, eager to try one. Finally, two of them ‘gave’ a tiny bit when I pressed them, so I followed my son’s video, sticking my thumb in just under the green leaves at the top and pulling the top off. I then pulled all the purple part off, exposing the nice, white fruit inside. It looks just like this photo! The purple part is fairly hard to get off, but I think this is mostly because I was hurrying things a bit, anxious to try the fruit. The first mangosteen I opened didn’t have white fruit, so I threw that away. The second one looked JUST like the one above, so I carefully separated the white sections, which are remarkably similar to an orange.

They are, indeed, delicious. I ate three sections – which were very small – and took the other three to my husband to try. He said, “These are nice, but not something I would travel far for.” I can’t wait for more of them to ripen. I put six of them in a paper bag, taking the suggestion from Marsha, a good friend of mine. We’ll see if that works. The rest are still in the fridge in their styrofoam box. I certainly don’t want them all ripening at once!

What a fun experience!

 

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A Wonderful Surprise!

Fedex delivered a ‘perishable items’ box to us this afternoon. Inside was a styrofoam box filled with Mangosteens. They were shipped from MiamiFruit.org, sent as a gift to us by our son in Thailand. He discovered these at the market recently and absolutely loves them. We had never heard of them!  I checked around and was unable to find anything but supplements MADE from Mangosteen. I ordered a bottle and have taken about half of them.  Our son said he thought he had found a place in the U.S. that sold them and could ship them to us for us to try.

Most of the Mangosteens are in our fridge inside the styrofoam box. We left these out on the counter to ripen more. There is supposed to be a little ‘give’ when you squeeze them, and these are like billiard balls. :0)  According to the website, you’re supposed to cut them in half horizontally and then suck out the fruit.

 

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This picture that I found on the net shows the inside white part that looks kind of like orange wedges. I look up information about Mangosteens –

“Unique for its appearance and flavor, mangosteen is often revered as “the Queen” of tropical fruits, particularly in the South-East Asian regions. This exotic, round, purple color fruit is quite popular for its snow-white, juicy, delicious arils all of the Asian countries, and in recent years by the European and American fruit lovers as well!  Internally; it features 4 to 10 juicy, snow-white, soft, fleshy, triangular segments as in oranges. Each segment may carry 1-4 off-white colored seeds. Seeds are inedible and bitter in taste. The flavor of the fruit can be best described as sweet, mildly tangy, fragrant, and delicious.

Health benefits of mangosteen

  • Delicious and juicy, mangosteen is one of the popular tropical fruits. It comprises of an impressive list of essential nutrients which required for normal growth and development and overall nutritional well-being.
  • It is moderately low in calories (63 calories per 100 g) and contains no saturated fats or cholesterol. Nonetheless, it is rich in dietary fiber (100 g provides about 13% of RDA).
  • Mangosteen is good source of vitamin-C and provides about 12% of RDA per 100 g. Vitamin-C is a powerful water soluble antioxidant. Consumption of fruits rich in vitamin-C helps the human body develop resistance to combat viral flu and help scavenge harmful, pro-inflammatory free-radicals.
  • Fresh fruit is a mild source of B-complex vitamins such as thiamin, niacin, and folates. These vitamins are acting as cofactors the help body metabolize carbohydrates, protein, and fats.
  • Further, it also contains a splendid amount of minerals like copper, manganese, and magnesium. Potassium is an important component of cell and body fluids and helps control heart rate, and blood pressure, thus, it offers protection against stroke and coronary heart diseases.”

Source: www.nutrition-and-you.com/

Our son is asleep now (there is 12 hours difference between us), but we’ll get some tips from him as to how to get them open without cutting off our own body parts.  I’ll let you know what we think when we’ve got a ripe one and have had a chance to sample them. Isn’t this a fun gift!

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Interesting Experiment

Our son lives and works in Thailand. He enjoys discovering new food. (I’m basically discovery-averse when it comes to food. I’m usually much too hungry to ‘risk’ getting something I don’t like, but I’m trying to change my ways.)

A few days ago he mentioned he had walked to town and gotten several mangosteens. He talked about how delicious they were and that they really seemed to ‘agree with him.’

I had never heard of them. I Googled them and found that lots of supplement companies are making products from mangosteens. I found that the actual fruit wasn’t available ( or at least, not that I could find.)

Since they are supposed to be good for ‘whatever ails you,’ and “(1) Increase Energy, (2) Reduce & Diminish Pain, (3) Lose Weight, (4) Fight Heart Disease, (5)Fight Free Radicals, (6) Fight Crohn’s Disease, (7) Fight Hypertension(8)  Improve Digestion, (9)  Improve Urinary Tract, (10) Improve Oral Hygiene(11) Ease Asthma, (12) Diabetes, (13) Mental Awareness(14) Allergies, (15) Fight Infections, (16) Depression, (17) Improve Skin Health, (18)Eye Health, (19) Lower Cholesterol, (20) Kidney Stones” 

AND probably claim to make you look like Julia Roberts – ALWAYS high on my own personal list, I ordered 90 capsules (a one month supply) to see if their claims had any merit in my case.

Our son wrote that he was trying to have some of the actual fruit delivered to us! He said he thought it was shipping out of Florida, so it’s already approved to be brought into the United States and won’t get hung up in customs or any other nasty speed bumps. I can’t wait to try the actual fruit, since my son rarely raves about a food.

If you are in an area where you can buy some, or you try the supplements, we can compare notes!

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Filed under DIET!, Health Alert, Healthy Eating, quality of life, taking care of yourself