Benefits of Green Papaya

Benefits of Green Papaya (Pawpaw)

Often, when the fruit papaya is mentioned it is thought of as ripe, or to be used for cooking your meats or stew.  But how many of you know that green papaya can be eaten raw, make delicious healthy salads, and aids in food digestion and prevent gas?
It’s interesting to know that green papaya has health benefits which can improve your health to a large degree and cause you to want to use it with every salad or every meal.

It was a Sunday afternoon, my beautiful wife and I were doing some research on the benefits of drinking green papaya leaf to cure the dreaded Chikungunya virus that plagued the Caribbean, when we stumbled upon a green papaya salad recipe. After our discovery, we decided to do some research on its value and benefits for human consumption.  This is why I wrote this blog; to share with you the great value and benefits of the green papaya. It is a very healthy fruit to the extent that the papaya tree is dubbed, “THE MIRACLE TREE.” Green papaya converts proteins into essential amino acids, which help to combat fat buildup and boost your immune system; amino- acids is also useful for muscle development. Green papaya also cleanses the colon, fights nausea and constipation. Moreover, it protects the urinary tract in women from infections. Green or unripe papayas are rich in enzymes such as papain and chymopapain; rich in vitamins and phytonutrients. Raw, green, unripe papayas contains essential nutrients and minerals such as potassium, magnesium and Vitamins A,C,B, and E, just to name a few.

Papain: is a powerful digestive enzyme commonly found and extracted from papaya fruit (carica papaya), the papaya enzyme papain plays a key role in digestive processes involving breaking down tough protein fibers.
Chymopapain:  A proteolytic enzyme from the latex of the papaya that is used in meat tenderizer and has been used medically in chemonucleolysis (Spinal cord problem).
Phytonutrients: Are chemicals produced by plant.  Foods with phytonutrients have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory benefits.
Potassium: Benefits of potassium includes better brain function, better muscle function, and lower risk of heart problems, maintains fluid balance, stronger bones improve blood pressure numbers, improve nervous system and more.
Vitamin A:  Has antioxidant properties which protects cells from daily toxic damage of oxidation. Vitamin A is key for good vision, and a healthy immune system.
Vitamin C: Benefits of Vitamin C include protection against immune system deficiencies, cardiovascular disease, prenatal health problems, eye disease, skin wrinkling and much more.
Vitamin B: These Vitamins help the process body uses to get or make energy from the food you eat, the eight B vitamins are B1,B2, B3,B5, B7, B9, B12.  These essential nutrients help convert our food into fuel allowing us to stay energized throughout the day.
Vitamin E: Reduces cholesterol and the risk of developing cancer.  It also improves immunity levels and removes free radicals-the unstable compounds that damage the cell structure.

Green Papaya Salad

Ingredients
1 Green (unripe) Papaya
3 garlic cloves
1 lemon
2 tsp sugar (to taste)
½ tsp sea salt
11/2 Tsp coconut oil
1 tsb cayenne
2 pimento peppers
Small Tomatoes (optional)
Chopped nuts (optional)
 
Directions

1. First prepare the papaya by peeling the dark green skin. Then, hold the papaya in your hand, and smack the fruit lengthwise with a good sized knife. You want to create 1/2″ or so deep cuts into the fruit. Do this over and over until you’ve created a good amount of cuts. Watch your fingers! Then, cut the papaya lengthwise to produce long strips.
2. In a ceramic mortar and pestle or calabash, add the whole garlic cloves and cayenne pepper and coconut oil (little at a time). Pound with the pestle a few times to mash.

1. Pound a few more times, and add a pinch of papaya. This helps mix the garlic & cayenne. Pound some more.
   
2. Add the brown sugar and salt and pound more. Make sure everything is well mixed.
   
3. Add the tomatoes. Pound more, but not as hard. Add the lime juice, pimento and the rest of the papaya.  You want to evenly coat the papaya with the juices while pounding the flavor into the papaya, but don’t pound so hard that the papaya disintegrates. Add the peanuts, mix and serve.

​
By Bro. Maydon Parris

---