The papaya is a wonderfully juicy fruit with a butter like texture. Its taste is something like a mix of a pineapple and a peach without the tartness. Besides its splendid taste, this tropically grown fruit can delivery some amazing health benefits.
The papaya’s biggest claim to fame in the health world is its content of a digestive enzyme called papain. Papain is able to digest protein into amino acids and can be a great benefit to those with a weak or problematic digestive systems. Some people with digestive problems find that their health can improve substantially when they take papain supplements or drink papaya juice everyday. In fact papain is so effective that it is used as a meat tenderizer to help break down tough meaty fibers.
Papain is also considered to be helpful with pain and healing wounds. In the tropical countries were papaya grows, such as Hawaii and Tahiti, the local people make a poultice out of the skins (which are a densely concentrated source of papain) to apply topically to burns, rashes, cuts and stings. When Harrison Ford was filming one of the Indiana Jones movies he used papain injects to help him heal from a rupture disk!
The health benefits of Papain don’t end there either! Research has found that papain, and another similar enzyme found in papaya called chymopapain, have powerful anti-inflammatory effects. This might, in part, explain why papain is useful for helping to reduce pain, especially pain induced by inflammatory conditions. Papain supplements and papain juice may be a great aid for those with inflammatory conditions such as arthritis and asthma.
Papaya is also a great source of vitamin C, and a good source of vitamin E and beta-carotene. These three nutrients have independently been discovered to have anti-inflammatory effects. Vitamin C in particular has been shown to be very effective in helping to reduce the inflammation based pain in older people with arthritic knees, especially in higher doses of 500mg a day or more. This benefit was even greater when the vitamin C was obtained free real food sources, such as whole fruits and juices, rather than supplement form.
So if you have digestive problems, asthma, arthritis or other inflammatory conditions a daily papaya juice may benefit you. To make your own homemade papaya juicer recipes, you will need 4 papayas. Remove the skins and scoop out the seeds and put only the flesh into your juicing machine and wallah – fresh papaya juice. Enjoy!
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