Health Benefits Of Nungu(Ice Apple), Nutritive Value And Source Of Nungu, Palm Sugar And Benefits

 

Fig- Palm tree with fruit (Nungu)

Health benefits of ice apple (nungu) Scientific name - Borassus flabellifer

The fruit is a native of south and south-east Asia. In India, it is mostly found in the western and southern regions and has a variety of names. It is known as taadgola in Marathi and Gujarati, nungu or nungu in Tamil, thaati nungu in Kannada, paal nungu in Malayalam, thaati bonda in Tulu, and thaati munjalu in Telugu.

The tree reaches to a height of 30 metres (98 ft) and lives more than 100 years. In the initial stage, the young palmyra palm grows slowly, but grows faster with age. Looped with leaf scars, the covering can be seen with green-bluish leaves together with several dozen fronds diffusing 3 m (9.8 ft) diagonally. Ringed with leaf scars, the large trunk of the tree bears a resemblance to that of the coconut tree.

Borne in clusters, the fruit is just about 4 to 7 inches in diameter and has a black shell. In order to let slip the three sweet jelly seed sockets, the top portion of the fruit must be cut off. These sockets are translucent pale-white in color, akin to that of the lychee, but it exudes a milder flavor and comes with no pit. The fruit has a part that is just like jelly and it is covered with a thin, yellowish-brown skin. The fleshy white body contains watery fluid; however the fibrous and ripened outer layer of the palm can also be eaten raw, boiled or roasted.

Nutritional Value And Sources

That said, the fruit is often used as a natural coolant and often recommended in the hot, summer months. With its high water content, sugar palm fruit may help keep the body hydrated or reduce the risk of dehydration.

Traditionally, palm fruit is believed to be healing in nature. Many swear by it and say it is useful in treating skin conditions such as dermatitis and prickly heat. Others say it aids digestion and helps combat constipation and acidity. However, there is not enough research to prove this.

Rich in Phyto nutrients

Ice apple also known as palm fruit is a nutrient-rich fruit and a good source of:

• Biotin (vitamin B7)
• Vitamin K
• Folate
• Energy
• Dietary fibre (both soluble and insoluble)
• Water 87.6g
• Protein .8g
• Fat .1g
• Carbs 10.9g
• Fiber 1g
• Calcium 27mg
• Phosphorous 30mg
• Iron 1mg
• Thiamin .04mg
• Riboflavin .02mg
• Niacin .3mg
• Vitamin C 5mg

Palm fruit is best eaten fresh. You could sprinkle cardamom (elaichi) or cinnamon (dalchini) powder on it for added flavour. It can also be blended with coconut water and chilled for some time to enhance its natural coolness. This can be a healthier alternative to aerated drinks or packaged juices which are high in calories and sugar.

This fruit can also be used to prepare traditional desserts such as nungu kheer.

Fig- Nungu(Palm Fruit)

Benefits Of Palm Fruit (Nungu)

🌴 The fruit pulp helps to cure skin inflammations.

🌴 Prevention of Diabetes, Due to the low Glycemic Index.

🌴 Heals Migraines-Natural medicinal content of palm jaggery helps to reduce this pain.

🌴 Prevents chicken box

🌴 Improves digestion

🌴 Keeps your body cool. It also helps in preventing a number of heat related problems like prickly heat, dehydration, dry skin, kidney failure and hair loss. 

🌴 Helps relieve skin related problems-The anti-inflammatory properties of the fruit are helpful in treating redness of the skin due to intense heat. Poultice made from Nungu is found to be effective in treating dermatitis. It can be used safely in babies as well.

🌴 For Beauty- Pure sandalwood powder is mixed with ground fresh Nungu with a little coconut water. This pack is applied in a thin coat on the face and left to dry after which it is washed off with cold water. This is a good remedy for treating and preventing boils, prickly heat and redness of the face. It is also effective for the inflammatory skin problems faced after sun exposure.

🌴 Relife in painful urination- During peak summer, many suffer from painful urination. This simple and tasty drink will take care of the problem very effectively. Take around 3 peeled tender palm fruits in a blender add around 3 cups of fresh coconut water and whiz together. Don’t grind it to a fine paste, it should have some very tiny pieces of the palm fruit.

🌴 Prevents constipation problem in pregnant women

🌴 Good for acidity problem

🌴 The high potassium content helps eliminate body toxins

🌴 Good for liver and spleen disorders

🌴 Rich in Phyto nutrient Rich in Phyto nutrient Rich in Phyto nutrients Spaced out from helping in all the aforesaid conditions, fresh sap of palm is called 'Neera' which has antiphlegmatic properties that is highly functional in inflammatory affections and leprosy.

How To Eat A Palm Fruit(NUNGU)?

🌴 To open and cut the Nungu is no easy task; a vendor armed with a machete can make it easy to separate the skin from the pods. However, you can try doing this to enjoy the fruit: First is to carefully extricate each pod from the shell and then hack away starting at the top, slice the purple, fibrous shell away from the centre part and then lever open away the jellylike pods from the white skin.

🌴 Seeing that, cut and drained Nungu is receptive oxidation, consider using it for immediate consumption, else the fruits flavor begins to change. As a matter of fact, the fruits rapid fermentation over the course of a mere three hours is the main reason why villagers prefer Nungu as a fast, inexpensive and easy source of alcohol. If you don't want it to be eaten immediately then, opt for each section to be scooped intact with the tan, stringy skin still encasing the husk. By this means you can preserve them in the refrigerator, only by a day or so. Hence, the fruit should be eaten within a day.

Fig- Palm Fruit (Nungu)

🌴 When you want to eat, cut the top part off and scoop pout the flesh and eat. If you buy it already opened and peeled, it will spoil faster, so always store in the refrigerator. Encourage young children to consume this fruit often before going out to play in the hot sun.

Palm Sugar

This is the sugar got from palm tree, we call the sugar pana sarkarai in Tamil and the palm candy is called panakarkandu in Tamil and the palm jaggery is called Pana Karupatti in Tamil. We add panakarkandu to sweeten teas and milk and we also make sweets and candies with palm jaggery.

Fig- Palm Sugar(Panangkaruppatti)

Palm sugar usually refers to thickened sap sourced from different types of palm trees. The resulting sugar is brown to dark brown in colour with a very distinctive flavour and smell. 

In Tamil Nadu, palm sugar usually refers to palmyra palm candy (crystals) as we don’t use coconut palm sugar much as it is a recent introduction whereas we have been using panakarkandu for years. But we do use both coconut jaggery and palm jaggery which are nothing but palm sugar in block form. But please remember though it sold in various forms as palm candy, palm sugar and palm jaggery, they are all technically the same with slight variation in taste but with the same health benefits.

Benefits Of Palm Sugar

💎 As Cancer killer substances

💎 Palm sugar has high antioxidant property, before that we must know about the two types of antioxdants,

Natural Antioxidants

Some kinds of native good substances be found in plants or fruits that useful to prevent, reduce or slow down a symptom of disease within our body, defending from free radicals, kill harmful toxins that can not be consumed by the body and kill cancer cells that develop in our body.

Synthetic Antioxidants

Antioxidants that created from chemistry reaction. But for your information, this type of antioxidants is not good for our body. So the best choices is eat some fruits or vegetables which have a high native antioxidants.

Cancer is one of rare disease that caused by a lot of factor, but sometimes cancer cell is a “strange” cell that can killed by antioxidants. After some research from researcher and the expert in their field of interests, nipa palm fruits contain a very good antioxidants. Some doctors and the expert in their field of interests said that antioxidants inside of nipa palm’s fruit more higher than antioxidants score in vitamin C and vitamin A in any others fruits.

💎 For Anemia

Most of us Indian women suffer from anemia and consuming white sugar only aggravates the condition. Since palm sugar is rich in iron and consuming it regularly will greatly ensure that we don’t suffer from anemia. Since it is rich in iron it will greatly prevent hair loss caused due to anemia too.

💎 Promote Digestion

we also serve palm jaggery tea made with palm sugar, dried ginger and peppercorns to promote digestion.

💎 Energy Booster

Palm sugar is a wonderful energy booster for both adults and children alike. It is rich in vitamins and minerals like vitamin B, iron, calcium and keeps us energized.

💎 Palm Sugar For Breast Feeding & Pregnant Women

Pregnant and lactating women should try to avoid white sugar completely. Instead replace with nutrient rich natural sugars like palm sugar. Even women who are suffering from PCOS will benefits replacing white sugar with palm sugar.

💎 Low Glycemic Index

 Palm sugar has a low glycemic index compared to white sugar which has a high glycemic index of 61 so it does not spike our blood sugar levels immediately.

Though palm sugar is rich in nutrients and is a wonderful substitute for white sugar, we should remember that it is still a concentrated form of sugar and has high amounts of fructose (almost 40 %) so please moderate your intake. Diabetic patients should be cautious while consuming palm sugar and should limit the intake greatly.

💎 Palm sugar is generally used in remedies for treating cough and cold. Ginger tea sweetened with palm candy is a very good remedy for cold and cough. It also treats hiccups and aids digestion. Since palm sugar is rich in magnesium, it also has a soothing effect on our nervous system.