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FOOD OF THE WEEK
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Custard Apple, Poor Man's Banana, Hoosier Banana!

This song was around when I was a child and kids use to sing it and most of us had no idea why or what it meant!
    
Where, oh where,
Is dear little Nellie?
Where, oh where,
Is dear little Nellie?
Where, oh where,
Is dear little Nellie?
Way down yonder
In the pawpaw patch.
 
Come on, boys,
Let's go find her.
Come on, boys,
Let's go find her,
Come on, boys,
Let's go find her,
Way down yonder
In the pawpaw patch.
 
Picking up pawpaws,
Puttin' 'em in your pocket,
Picking up pawpaws,
Puttin' 'em in your pocket,
Picking up pawpaws,
Puttin' 'em in your pocket,
Way down yonder
In the pawpaw patch.

Paw Paw, pawpaw, Graviola and soursop, all the same. Is grown on a very small Graviola tree in the Amazon jungle and some of the Caribbean islands.  The pawpaw is also said to be native to the woodlands of the eastern U.S. The American Indian is credited with spreading the pawpaw across the eastern U.S. to eastern Kansas and Texas, and from the Great Lakes almost to the Gulf. The graviola tree (Annona muricata) produces the delicious fruit commonly called paw-paw, which is widely consumed by indigenous peoples. The name of this plant is sometimes spelled Papaw - and in that form is often confused with another fruit that sometimes goes by that name, the Papaya, Carica papaya. (The latter is in a totally different family than our Pawpaw, and can only grow in tropical areas.)
 
Individual fruits weigh 5 to 16 ounces and are 3 to 6 inches in length. The larger sizes will appear plump, similar to the mango. The fruit usually has 10 to 14 seeds in two rows. The brownish to blackish seeds are shaped like lima beans, with a length of 1/2 to 1-1/2 inches. Pawpaw fruits often occur as clusters of up to nine individual fruits. The ripe fruit is soft and thin skinned. Known in some circles as the "poor man's banana" lucky them!
 
A number of animals such as foxes, opossums, squirrels and raccoons will eat the fruit. But a great thing to grow around deer as goats, deer and rabbits will not eat the leaves or twigs. The Zebra Swallowtail butterfly's larvae feed exclusively on young, pawpaw foliage, but never in great numbers.
 
The skin of the green fruit usually lightens in color as it ripens and often develops blackish splotches which do not affect the flavor or edibility. The yellow flesh is custard like and highly nutritious. The best fruit has a complex, tropical flavor unlike any other temperate zone fruit. At present, the primary use of paw paw is for fresh eating out of hand. The ripe fruit is very perishable with a shelf life of 2 or 3 days, but will keep up to 3 weeks if it is refrigerated at 40 - 45 F.
 
Native Americans used the fruits as food and the bark for medicine and fish nets. Extracts of paw paw have been used as an emetic (inducing vomiting), by Eli Lilly in 1898 - before deciding man could adulterate drugs that are better than nature!
 
Not only is the Pawpaw fruit tasty and healthy but the Pawpaw tree bark and twigs, have proven to be the ultimate cancer-fighter. Studies by the National Cancer Institute already show that Graviola extract is 10,000 times stronger than top chemotherapy drugs...
 
Yet its incredible precision hunts down cancer cells while leaving healthy cells completely alone! Graviola just seems to 'know' which cells to kill and which to avoid. There's no nausea, no hair loss, no weight loss, no weakening of the immune system.
 
Could this prove to be "The magic bullet" scientists have been seeking for so long. Dr. Garland uses the PawPaw as a cancer treatment in a portion of his cancer patients, with great results! But I'm not sure the pharmaceutical world will home in on this inexpensive treatment because it is inexpensive and unpatentable!
 
The Pawpaw taste is a mix of banana, pineapple, and mango and contains a high level of amino acids, vitamins A and C, potassium, along with other nutrients still under study. According to the Purdue University Crop Fact Sheet, the Pawpaw is more nutritious than apples, peaches and grapes in most vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and food energy value. Nutrient rich in Vitamin A, C, Thiamin, Riboflavin, Niacin, Potassium, Calcium, Phosphorus, Magnesium, Iron, Zinc, Copper, Manganese, Essential amino acids, Histidine, Isoleucine, Leucine, Lysine, Methionine, Cystine, Phenylalanine, Tyrosine, Threonine, Tryptophan and Valine. Unless refrigerated, it lasts only two to three days but in the fridge it lasts up to three weeks. You can substitute pawpaws for bananas in many recipes including banana bread. Because of its custardy texture, it's ideal for drink mixes, baby food, and ice cream. Because of its blendability and aroma, it is used in cosmetics and skin products. According to one pawpaw expert on the Internet, "If you have tried them and don't like them, suspect your sample to have been unripe, or from an inferior tree.
 
Mashed paw paw also makes a great face mask and aids wound healing, while the liquid extract is made from the paw paw leaf and is a rich source of the antioxidant nutrients beta carotene and vitamin C, which explains its relevance in helping to prevent and treat cancer. Also several acetogenins have been isolated from Graviola (PawPaw tree twigs).
 
Its anti-tumor efficacy against human ovarian carcinoma in athymic mice were demonstrated in studies in 1993.  There have been over 100 scientific papers published on the chemistry and biology of the paw paw compounds.
 
Paw paw is not toxic according to studies with beagles (dogs). It appears to be impossible to 'overdose', 32 capsules 4x/day were non toxic because it caused vomiting.
 
In clinical trials with human research subjects, generally using one capsule 4x/day, some breast cancer patients experienced partial or complete tumor reduction.
 
In men with prostate cancer, some patients experienced subjective benefits as well as tumor reduction and PSA decreases. One patient even took half the suggested dose (mistakenly) and still had great results.
 
There were good results with lymphoma - Non Hodgkins where white cell counts were reduced, as were lymphocytes. A patient with stage IV lung cancer also had subjective and objective results.
 
Hundreds of human research subjects have used paw paw, with many types of tumors. Significant reductions in tumor sizes has been seen (verified by CT, etc.) There have been reductions in tumor antigen levels (PSA, CA27/29, CA125, alkaline phosphatase, etc.)
 
There have been very few unwanted effects, some itching and some nausea/vomiting but many have reported 'increased energy'. There was no hair loss, no GI bleeding, no bone marrow depression.
 
Benefits have been seen with cold sores, shingles, toe nail fungus, acne, athlete's foot, eczema, cancer and psoriasis.  PAW PAW tea and capsules are part of a cancer treatment protocol that is getting great results in this age of drug industry's push away from natural!

Consider a Paw Paw Pie?

ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1 1/2 cups pawpaws (peeled & seeded)

Place all of the ingredients into a sauce pan and stir together. Cook over medium heat until thickened. Pour into an unbaked pie shell and bake in 400ºF until the crust is done (Approx 25 mins.. Top it with whipped cream.
 
So not only is PawPaw great eating but great medicine as well! I'm sure we will hear much more about this down the road, if only the drug releases telling you it's not effective or some such thing!
Lena

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 HEALTH TODAY
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