Papaya Eating Benefits For Health And Athletes
Papaya - or melon tree - a tree and edible fruit of the same name. The papaya tree is slender, reaching 5-10 meters in height. It has large leaves and flowers that turn into huge fruits up to 70 cm long. Papaya bears fruit all year round. Externally, the papaya fruit looks like a pear-shaped melon. Initially, the papaya fruit is green in color, as it ripens, it becomes dark yellow, closer to orange. Papaya seeds are dark in color.
Papaya is considered an ancient culture of the Aztecs and Mayans. No wild ancestor of this tree has been found. Papaya is believed to be native to Guatemala and southern Mexico. This plant became known to Europe in the 15th century, after America was discovered by Columbus. Vasco da Gama called it "the golden tree of India" because at that time the Europeans mistakenly considered the lands they discovered to be part of India.
Beneficial features:
Papaya is primarily valued as a dietary supplement that improves digestion. According to some reports, the fruit helps with stomach ulcers. In the United States, papaya fruit is used to make herpes pills.
Papain, a substance obtained from the unripe fruit of papaya, is considered a medicinal drug. It accelerates the breakdown of proteins and fats, and therefore is considered especially useful for people who suffer from protein deficiency due to their complete or partial indigestibility. Papain is used as a blood anticoagulant in the treatment of thrombosis and gastritis.
Papaya is eaten raw, removing the skin and seeds. Unripe fruits are used to make curries, cut into salads. Another name for papaya is breadfruit. It appeared because when papaya is baked over a fire, the smell of a tree begins to emanate from the fruit. Also, a healthy concentrated juice is obtained from papaya, which, however, is harmful to health in large quantities.
Papaya is ideal for meat dishes, especially if you need to solve the problem of dryness and toughness of meat. Ripe fruit is stored for no more than a week in the refrigerator. Unripe fruits are used as a vegetable. It, along with spices and salt, is served as a snack, adding ham, cheese, crabs. Boiled fruits can be stuffed with spicy minced meat and baked. Papaya, a short, slender tree with a thin, branchless trunk 5-10 meters high, topped with an umbrella of finger-dissected leaves on long petioles. The leaves are large, 50-70 centimeters in diameter. Flowers develop in the axils of the petioles, turning into large fruits, 10-30 cm in diameter and 15-45 cm long. Ripe fruits are soft and have a color ranging from amber to yellow. Papaya fruit can vary greatly in shape and size. The peel of the ripe fruit is red-orange in color, and the flesh is reddish, firm and sweet in taste. Papaya trees can be male or female. "Men" pollinate flowers, and trees - "women" bear fruit. Sometimes it happens that trees - "men" also bear fruit, and the fruit grows on them in the form of a long chain. This is considered a mystery of nature. Papaya seedlings grow very quickly - the first crop can be harvested in 6 months. Papaya ripens very quickly, the skin of the fruit, when ripe, changes its color from green to golden orange. Papaya is usually harvested for sale in markets when the fruit is still green. The ripe fruit should be firm to the touch, and the greenish-orange rind should be smooth and slightly soft. If the fruit is not ripe enough, place it in a dry, dark place to ripen. Peel the papaya, slice the peeled fruit lengthwise, remove the seeds from the sliced fruit rings. Papaya should be stored in the refrigerator, ripe fruit should be stored for no more than 5-7 days.
The healing properties of papaya have been recognized since ancient times. This fruit is extremely beneficial for digestion, as the papain it contains helps the body to extract the maximum nutrients from food. Papaya juice is sometimes used to treat insect bites and relieve burn pain. Papaya is also actively used in the production of cosmetics around the world. This fruit is used to make skin exfoliators, and papaya juice is used to treat skin conditions. Papaya is recommended for duodenal ulcer disease, colitis, bronchial asthma. This fruit normalizes liver function, blood sugar. With the help of papaya, they cleanse the intestines, it gives strength and vigor to the body. Papaya is able to neutralize the effect of excess acid in the human stomach, and therefore is useful for those who suffer from heartburn, hernia or gastritis. It is also recommended for pregnant women. Easy-to-digest, mashed papaya is an ideal food for babies and a great tonic for growing children. Papaya juice is very healthy. In some tropical countries, it is used in the treatment of the spine, stomach ailments and eczema. But this is not the end of its beneficial properties: papaya juice is an excellent anthelmintic. Papain is also used externally: in medicine - to treat burns, and in cosmetology - to remove unwanted hair and to remove freckles. Its mechanism of action on hair is simple: it destroys keratin, thus weakening the grown hair and preventing the appearance of new ones. From the peel of the still unripe papaya fruit, milky juice is extracted, which, when dried, is used by modern medicine to cure eczema, as well as various gastric ailments.