Look For Graviola on the Label!

It’s hard to believe that there are certain foods we can’t get here in North America, but there are. Take for example the soursop fruit so abundant in tropical islands of the Caribbean.

This fruit is officially known as graviola, which tastes like a marriage between apples and pineapple with a consistency of banana and can grow up to an impressive 14 pounds! We all want more of the nutritional profile, antioxidant power, and vitamins and minerals that graviola has to give but, unless you’ve traveled to Carribean, you’ve probably never heard of it.

We can’t grow it here and it doesn’t survive transport very well but, as I recently explained on Fox 5 in Washington DC, start looking out for the leaves of this superfuit as an ingredient in tea, the freeze dried fruit infused coffee bars (that taste like premium chocolate), or premium skin care products containing graviola extract.

As the author of  “The Antioxidant Prescription: How To Use the Power of Antioxidants to Prevent Disease and Stay Healthy for Life” and “Power Plants: Simple Home Remedies You Can Grow,” and because I travel to the Caribbean a lot, they wanted my opinion on the latest superfood to hit my radar.

If you’ve ever been to the tropics, there’s one standout feature of the people who live there that you’ve probably noticed – their skin. I’m not talking about any one ethnicity – “Caribbean Skin” is a real thing, which makes me wonder, “What exactly do these people do to keep their skin looking so clean, fresh and young, even though they’re exposed to more sun than we are?”

One thing they do is eat a lot of remarkably nutrient and antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables including graviola! This must be the answer to how they age so gracefully from the inside – out. But, what is interesting is that they don’t just eat the graviola fruit, they also make tea out of the leaves. And guess what…where we can’t easily get the fruit here, we CAN and DO have access to graviola LEAF products in North America.

Graviola is loaded with vitamin C and a host of other nutrients such as quercetin, tangeretin and luteolin, all of which function as antioxidants. In fact, quercetin is one of my favorite ingredients used for for its anti-inflammatory properties as well as its antibacterial and anti-histimine (anti-allergy) benefits.

One company who is manufacturing Graviola and making health products on a large, sustainable scale is Agravitae. They have developed patented processes to ensure their Graviola Tea, premium skin care products, and tea leaf infused health bars which contain the rich supply of nutrients found naturally in graviola fruit.

Just because we don’t have graviola in our supermarkets doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy its benefits!

Take a listen to my latest podcast where I interviewed tea expert Nigel Melican about adding years to your life with tea. He’s also a graviola expert!