Papayas, our local delight with options

Papaya is one of the highest nutrition local fruits, rich in vitamin C, vitamin A, fiber and enzymes including protein-digesting enzyme.  We are blessed to be living in a climate  where papayas can be grown easily with  minimal care.  There are many varieties of papayas and the shape and size differs.  Not all papaya trees produce fruits, there are some that just produces flowers.  To produce healthy papayas, it is important to ensure that it is free from chemical pesticides, herbicides and chemical fertilisers.  For me, I avoid GMO papayas as well as the usage of hormones to modify size, taste and texture.  t would be silly to eat something to care for our health when it also contains toxic chemicals.  There is no need to put herbicides to kill off the weeds around the plant and have it be introduced into the fruits that we eat.  Just clear the weeds manually and you can just leave it to dry off or place it in your compost pile.  I also practice salting the ground with coarse salts on a quarterly basis for several reasons.  The type of papayas we grow are less fibrous is texture giving a creamier taste.

It is a great fruit to start the day, having middle of the day and also in the evening supplying us with loads of antioxidants and helping our digestive system.  The fiber in papaya binds with the cancer-causing toxins in our digestive system, keeping them away from our healthy colon cells hence it is a good preventive against colon cancer. The other nutrients in papaya such as the vitamin C, vitamin E, folate and beta-carotene have been found to reduce the risk of colon cancer.  A healthy digestive system further promotes our overall health.

For adults, this fruit is a great fruit to eat as protection against rheumatoid arthritis based on a study that was reported in the Annals of the Rheumatic Disease.    So great for women who tend to suffer this as we age.  For men, in a cancer study reported in the Asian Journal of Clinical Nutrition, it was found that this lycopene-rich fruit helps to reduce  the risk of prostate cancer.  The nutrients in the papaya also helps to inhibit the oxidisation of the cholesterol, protecting our heart.

So, with one fruit, you get to cover your digestive system, bones, heart as well as immune system, it is definitely sitting high in my list of fruits to eat.  I get easily bored or tend to "forget" to eat it if there is only one way of eating them.  There are many ways of eating papaya and still get the necessary nutrition so it makes it easier to incorporate into my daily diet.

We are most familiar with eating the ripe papaya raw but we can also eat the unripe papaya in many ways.  It can be fermented to make it into a probiotic-rich  food.  The fermented green papaya can be eaten similar to sauerkraut or turned into a salad or our local kerabu.  The free papaya can also be skinned and cut into pieces and turned into nutrition soups or used in cooking savoury dishes like curry.  A simple soup is to brown shallots and garlic, add water and the cut pieces of green papaya and bring to boil and allow it to simmer until the pieces are soft.  You can add salt and other condiments to taste.  This soup can be dressed up with other ingredients such as chicken, beef, seafood or other vegetables.

The ripe papaya can also be turned into nutritious drinks like milk shakes or added with other fruits and vegetables to create a healthy drink.  It can also be turned into a healthy, nutritious and delicious snack by dehydrating them.  The dehydration process removes the moisture and it is best to dehydrate it to contain less than 15% moisture as this will inhibit the growth of bacteria that will result in the dried papaya to spoil.  When dehydrating papaya pieces, it is best to use the ripe papaya of good quality and not spoilt or mushy papayas that has already started to spoil.  The end result is a great snack that has minimal loss of its nutrients and ready to be enjoyed at any time.  It is also easy to store them and does not require refrigeration and lasts for months (although you will find that you consume it much faster).  What I do is to pack them in serving sizes as this means that I do not expose the dried papayas to the environment unnecessarily.  The thickness of the papaya pieces will determine whether you end up with crispy pieces or slightly chewy papaya chips.

With its nutrition and health benefits along with its versatility, why not go local and consume our papayas :)