From acai to pomegranates to green tea, researchers are quickly unearthing some of Mother Nature’s most powerful and nutrient-dense foods. Now the next treasure to be “discovered” out of the Amazon Rain Forest is Aguaje (pronounced ag-wah-hey), a brightly-colored yellow fruit encased in a scaly burgundy shell. Tasting a bit like a carrot, the aguaje packs about three times the Vitamin A punch as its bunny-beloved counterpart.
The aguaje might become a “Cinderella fruit,” a term coined by Nigel Smith, a Venezuelan-born geographer and professor at the University of Florida who has spent almost 40 years studying the Amazon region. Aguaje is like a fit for the coveted glass slipper since it matches up with some of the criteria that have made these other Amazon fruits so successful: it’s already popular, abundant locally, easily incorporated into products like juice, and relatively simple to transport.
So watch out at your health food stores for juices, supplements and freeze-dried products containing this latest nutritional wonder to come out of the Amazon. And you can be sure that your experts at Diets in Review will be some of the first on the scene to give you just the information you need to include this fruit into your healthy diet.
I am always a little skeptical of these “super foods”. An overall pattern of healthy eating is a much better predictor of long term health than any single food or food group.
That doesn’t mean they aren’t good to eat though….