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Soursop Nutrition Facts and Health Benefits

Soursop is a member of the custard apple family and comes from the Annona muricata broadleaf evergreen, known for its health benefits including reducing inflammation, improving the immune system, and easing digestive symptoms. Read more soursop benefits below.

What is Soursop?

The unusually shaped soursop fruit—it looks like an oversized strawberry crossbred with an apple with thorns—is native to Central and South America and is a popular, sweet delicacy there. Soursop tastes like a combination of strawberries, pineapple, and citrus.

Soursop Nutrition Facts

One cup of soursop pulp (225g) provides 148 calories, 2.3g of protein, 37.8g of carbohydrates, and 0.7g of fat. Soursop is an excellent source of vitamin C, fiber, and potassium. The following soursop nutrition information is provided by the USDA.1

Carbs

Soursop contains almost 38 grams of carbohydrates per cup. The carbs in soursop are from naturally occurring sugars and contain more than 7 grams of fiber per serving (about a quarter of your recommended daily intake). The glycemic index of soursop is low.2

Fats

Soursop is low in fat, providing less than one gram per serving.

Protein

Soursop, like most fruits, is not a good source of protein. A single serving contains only 2.3 grams of protein. So you'll need to incorporate other protein sources, such as salmon, lean meats, and legumes, into your diet to meet your daily needs.

Vitamins and Minerals

Soursop comes packed with micronutrients. One cup provides 46.4 mg of vitamin C. The USDA recommends an intake of 90 mg daily to support your immune system. Soursop also provides 626 mg of potassium for blood pressure regulation and rapid workout recovery.

Soursop Benefits

Soursop, also known as graviola or guanabana, may also provide a range of other health benefits. For example, graviola tea—made from the leaves (not the fruit) of the soursop plant—is often used to treat infections (both bacterial and viral) that cause cold-like symptoms. In addition, some people use it to treat sexually transmitted diseases like herpes.

Not enough scientific evidence supports these uses, although studies show that some soursop extracts may provide immune system support.3

Potential for Cancer Prevention

One study reported that extracts from soursop fruit and the tree's bark, roots, and leaves had the therapeutic potential to combat cancer and other non-malignant diseases.4

However, not enough human data support this claim. Experts from Cancer Treatment Centers of America warn against using soursop as a cancer fighter, and they note that soursop is associated with numerous unsubstantiated claims.5 Drugs developed from compounds in the soursop plant are more likely to be effective than simply consuming the fruit or tea made from its leaves.6

Promotes Digestive Health

Due to its high fiber content, soursop may aid with proper digestion. The fruit’s juice can also act as a diuretic and cleanse the gastrointestinal tract by removing excess sodium from the body. An extract of soursop has been shown to help heal gastric ulcers in lab animals.7

Fights Inflammation

Like most fruits and vegetables, soursop is a good source of antioxidants, which might help the body repair cell damage and combat inflammation.8

Allergies

There are no cases of soursop allergies reported in medical literature. But any food that contains protein can theoretically be allergenic. If you experience food allergy symptoms (such as itching, swelling, or hives), consult a physician for diagnosis.

Adverse Effects

You should avoid consuming soursop or drinking the fruit in a tea if any of the following apply to you:

• You have diabetes, as graviola has blood sugar-lowering effect in laboratory animals.
• You are taking drugs to reduce hypertension, as graviola is shown to have additive effects when taken with drugs for this health issue.9
• You have liver disease.
• You have kidney disease.10

Studies in laboratory animals have shown that compounds in graviola cause movement disorders and myeloneuropathy, a disease with symptoms similar to Parkinson’s Disease.9 

Varieties of Soursop

In some regions, both "sweet" (less acidic) and "sour" soursop are cultivated. The sweet version is more likely to be eaten raw.

Soursop tea is brewed from the leaves of the soursop tree. It has traditionally been used to relax the body and decrease stress.

When Soursop Is Best

This tropical fruit is mostly available in Central and South America. However, some grocery stores carry frozen soursop.

You can substitute soursop with cherimoya, a popular alternative available online and in some groceries. Cherimoya tastes similar to soursop, as it comes from the custard apple family and offers comparable nutritional value. However, cherimoya does not have the cancer-fighting potential of soursop or the same anti-inflammatory properties.

If you cannot find cherimoya or soursop, you can create soursop's flavor profile by blending equal parts of strawberries, pineapple, and bananas.

Storage and Food Safety

You can store unripe, whole soursop fruits at room temperature. Ripened fruits will keep for a couple of days in the refrigerator.

How to Prepare

Because the fruit is local to the tropics, you will not find soursop in abundance in North America. If you get your hands on the fruit, you can eat it like any raw fruit. You can also incorporate soursop into syrups, smoothies, and other desserts such as ice creams, candies, and sweet beverages. 

Papaya Nutrition Facts and Health Benefits

Can You Freeze Walnuts? The Complete Guide

If you take your time to look, walnuts may be one of the strangest-looking foods we eat. The wrinkly, brain-like shape of it is pretty bizarre. But, what they lack in aesthetics, they make up for in utility, health benefits, and flavor. 

Walnut flesh comes in two ways: in its shell or de-shelled. Due to processing, the meats may be whole, half, or in smaller pieces. And they can be used in a variety of ways. They can be eaten raw, toasted, or pickled on their own, or as part of a mix like muesli, or as an ingredient in a meal like walnut soup, fudge, banana cake, coffee cake, walnut pie, or brownies.

Additionally, walnuts have quite a few health benefits. They are good for the brain and your heart. They’re mood-boosting. And lastly, they can support weight loss and gut health. 

One thing with walnuts, though, is that due to the high oil content they can become rancid if they’re not stored properly. And you can store them in a couple of ways. But, can you freeze walnuts? Yes, you can freeze walnuts. 

Can Walnuts be Frozen?

Yes, walnuts can certainly be frozen. And it’s quite easy to do it! You also don’t need to worry whether you have shelled walnuts or unshelled walnuts, they can be frozen the same way. 

Freezing walnuts is actually one of the best ways to store them long-term. This is because, as I alluded to previously, the high oil content can make them turn rancid quickly. Specifically, it’s the walnuts’ healthy polyunsaturated fat that makes appropriate storage crucial. Walnut oil will alter and turn rancid if exposed to warm temperatures for an extended length of time.

Storing walnuts in the freezer allows you to store them for much longer periods of time than when they’re stored at room temperature or even in the fridge.

Why You Shouldn’t Freeze Ground Walnuts

You should avoid freezing ground walnuts because the results won’t be as good as if you were to grind the walnuts after they’ve been stored in the freezer.

By freezing them whole and then grinding them after, you can best preserve their taste and texture.

How To Freeze Walnuts

Freezing walnuts is very easy. There are only a couple of things you need to keep in mind when doing it, and it’s pretty hard to mess it up. These same methods can be used for both opened or unopened walnuts.

Packaged Walnuts

First up, if you have an unopened package of walnuts then there is almost no work involved at all. All you need to do is simply label the package with the date you put it into the freezer and then place it in the freezer. 

Loose Walnuts

If you have loose walnuts, whether they’re from an opened package or from a walnut tree, then you should first make sure to put them in an appropriate container before you freeze them.

You can either put them into a freezer bag or a sealed airtight container. Either works just as well to keep them fresh and the moisture out as the other as long as they’re airtight. Make sure to label the container or plastic bag with the date and then place it in the freezer. 

Aside from choosing an appropriate container, the only other thing you should keep in mind when storing walnuts in the freezer is that walnuts can easily absorb odors from other foods. So, to prevent this from happening, try to place them in a location in the freezer that is far from other foods that may give off strong odors. 

Lastly, while it’s not vital if you plan on only using a few walnuts at a time, you should freeze them in smaller, individual portions. This way you don’t have to repeatedly take out the walnuts from the freezer. The repeated freezing and defrosting may also have a negative impact on the walnuts. It’s also just a more convenient method. 

How Long do Walnuts Last in the Freezer?

When you freeze walnuts, you can greatly increase their shelf-life. They can last between 18-24 months when stored in the freezer. This is much longer when compared to other methods. In the pantry, they can only last for about two to four weeks, and in the fridge, they can last for about 9-12 months. 

Since they really don’t lose any of their quality after they’ve been frozen, it’s almost silly not to freeze them. Especially since walnuts can be quite expensive and it’s a shame to see them go to waste. 

How to Thaw Walnuts

Just as when you freeze walnuts, thawing is just as simple. There are a few different ways, though. And some of them require a bit more effort than others. The best way to do it, like with other foods, is to put the walnuts directly into the fridge from the freezer. You can leave them for a few hours or overnight.

A slightly riskier method is leaving them out at room temperature. I say it’s a bit riskier because as I said before, they can get rancid when they’re kept at room temperature. So, to keep them fresh, longer but without freezing them, you can put them into the fridge after they’re defrosted to keep them in top shape, longer. 

If you plan on using the frozen walnuts in your cooking, there really isn’t any need to thaw them. You can simply toss them into the meal and they’ll defrost amidst the meal when it’s cooking. However, this may depend on what exactly you’re cooking and you may only want to do this in certain situations. 

One more method you can choose is toasting the walnuts in the oven. First, you should preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Then, line a baking pan with parchment paper and then lay the walnuts (shell removed) across the baking pan. And finally, place the baking pan in the oven and toast them for about five to ten minutes, or until they turn a golden brown.

 Can You Refreeze Walnuts?

Technically, yes you can certainly refreeze walnuts. And compared to other foods, refreezing walnuts won’t have such a disastrous effect on them.

But, it can depend on how you plan on using them because any additional refreezing will have a slight impact on the texture.

So, if you plan on cooking them or grinding them, then the effects can hardly be noticeable. However, if you plan on eating them plain, then it’s perhaps not a good idea to refreeze them as the change will be more noticeable. 

How to Tell if Walnuts Have Gone Bad

Since there is such a high oil content in walnuts and other nuts, they’ll certainly go rancid if they’re not stored properly. It’s quite easy to tell if they’ve gone rancid though through your sense.

Rancid walnuts will give off an off smell. They will also have a shriveled appearance. And lastly, they will taste bad. Hopefully, you’ll be able to tell before you taste them, however. 

If they are seriously rancid, they can also be covered in mold. If you notice any of these signs then you should throw them away. 

Reference: The Kitchen Journal 

Rethinking the germ theory: A balanced take on microbes and disease outcomes

In a recent review published in the journal PNAS, researchers examined the germ theory from a non-centric perspective on infection outcome, considering the variables that influence illness severity while drawing on a known understanding of microbial pathogenesis, evolutionary biology, and pathogen-host interactions. 

 

The germ theory revisited: A noncentric view on infection outcome. Image Credit: ImageFlow / Shutterstock© Provided by News Medical

The germ theory revisited: A noncentric view on infection outcome. Image Credit: ImageFlow / Shutterstock

Background

The germ-disease theory, created in the nineteenth century, is a critical medical paradigm claiming that pathogenic microbes cause infectious diseases. However, this explanation is microorganism-centric, failing to explain varying disease severity and symptomatic profiles among individuals. While the microorganism is necessary to produce illness, it cannot solely determine the infection outcome. As a result, the theory must consider the host's status fluctuations, which considerably impact infection outcomes.  

Recent research questions the theory, giving rise to the full-blown host theory, which holds that infectious illnesses are caused by inherited or acquired immunodeficiencies in the host. According to this hypothesis, viruses are passive environmental triggers, and disease development results from pre-existing host immunodeficiencies. These inadequacies can be covert or overt, depending on diagnostic procedures used to identify critical diseases.

About the review

In the present review, researchers investigated the relative relevance of pathogenic microbes and hosts in determining infection outcomes, revealing a non-centric perspective that acknowledges essential roles for both the pathogenic microorganism and the host in defining infection outcomes. 

Pathogens and virulence

Pathogens are germs that can cause illness among immunocompetent and healthy hosts; nevertheless, asymptomatic carriership occurs when pathogens infect or colonize hosts without causing symptoms. Examples include Helicobacter pylori and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), which can cause asymptomatic infections in 40% to 80% of cases. Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the most prominent example of pathogens producing asymptomatic carriership, with one-fourth of the worldwide human population latently infected but exhibiting no symptoms of illness.

 

Examples demonstrating the evolved ability of S. pyogenes to promote disease in immunocompetent individuals. (A) The surface M protein recruits human C4BP to inhibit complement opsonization (C3b) of the bacterial surface. (B) Secreted streptokinase (SK) binds to human Plg, which causes a conformational change of Plg into a plasmin (Pl) active state. (C) The secreted endoglycosidase EndoS inactivates effector functions of IgG by cleaving off N-glycans from the Fc-region. (D) Secreted superantigen (SAg) causes antigen-independent T cell activation by cross-linking the TCR with HLA-II on antigen presenting cells (APC). SAgs have different affinity for different fully functional HLA-II haplotypes. (E) The STING responds to S. pyogenes-derived c-di-AMP to induce transcription of the interferon β gene, which is inhibited by the enzymatic activity of bacterial NADase. Human STING and S. pyogenes NADase exhibit polymorphisms affecting their relative ability to respond to c-di-AMP and to suppress interferon transcription, respectively.© Provided by News Medical

Examples demonstrating the evolved ability of S. pyogenes to promote disease in immunocompetent individuals. (A) The surface M protein recruits human C4BP to inhibit complement opsonization (C3b) of the bacterial surface. (B) Secreted streptokinase (SK) binds to human Plg, which causes a conformational change of Plg into a plasmin (Pl) active state. (C) The secreted endoglycosidase EndoS inactivates effector functions of IgG by cleaving off N-glycans from the Fc-region. (D) Secreted superantigen (SAg) causes antigen-independent T cell activation by cross-linking the TCR with HLA-II on antigen presenting cells (APC). SAgs have different affinity for different fully functional HLA-II haplotypes. (E) The STING responds to S. pyogenes-derived c-di-AMP to induce transcription of the interferon β gene, which is inhibited by the enzymatic activity of bacterial NADase. Human STING and S. pyogenes NADase exhibit polymorphisms affecting their relative ability to respond to c-di-AMP and to suppress interferon transcription, respectively.

In contrast, opportunistic microbes cannot cause illness in usual settings but can be pathogenic in the case of compromised host steady-state conditions. For example, Clostridium difficile, a spore-forming bacteria, can cause symptomatic illness when treated with antibiotic medications, which reduces the microbiota and allows Clostridium difficile germination to develop a footing. Commensal Candidal fungi can also cause illness in regular settings, but only in the case of immunosuppression, as observed in individuals with HIV-associated immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS).

Virulence, a pathogen's capacity to generate illness symptoms or pathology, is vital to infection outcomes. According to evolutionary theory, a pathogen's Darwinian fitness is often maximized at an intermediate degree of virulence, resulting in fitness costs and benefits. This idea gains support by controlled laboratory tests and epidemiological research on human illnesses such as AIDS.

Host-pathogenic microbe interactions and genetic variability

Streptococcus pyogenes, a bacterium often present in humans, can cause asymptomatic carriership and symptomatic illnesses such as septic shock and necrotizing infections in soft tissues. Streptococcus pyogenes' surface M proteins are polymorphic virulence factors that impart phagocytic resistance and prevent complement opsonization, recruiting the serum C4b-binding protein (C4BP) and enabling, allowing rapid bacterial proliferation in blood.

A secreted Streptococcus pyogenes protein, streptokinase, preferentially binds with and stimulates human plasminogen (Plg), promoting proteolytic actions and bacterial spread. Transgenic mice infection revealed the importance of this relationship in virulence, revealing that Streptococcus pyogenes activates fibrinolytic pathways to cause illness.

The association of bacterial virulence characteristics with the genetic diversity of the host is critical. Superantigens (SAgs) of streptococcal species form cross-links with T-cell receptors (TCRs) to human major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II molecules, causing antigen-independent T-lymphocyte activation. Fully functional human leukocyte antigen II (HLA-II) variations considerably affect infection outcomes. Type I interferon (IFN) signaling protects Streptococcus pyogenes-infected mice against host-damaging inflammation.

Uncommon mutations that profoundly impact infection outcomes cause Casanova's inborn immunity defects. More frequent alleles with lesser effects play a primary role in the phenotypic variance in infection outcomes, maintained by balanced selection. In addition to host genetic diversity, pathogens exhibit enormous genetic variation, and the combination of host and pathogen genotypes considerably impacts disease severity.

Based on the review findings, microbes have evolved to flourish in extreme conditions such as polar ice, scorching vents, sulfur-acidic lakes, and immunocompetent hosts. Pathogens have developed methods to avoid host defenses, allowing them to infect and produce clinical illness in immunocompetent humans. The review stresses that the host and the pathogen's genetic diversity can impact infection outcomes, implying that both species play active roles. The researchers' proposed full-fledged host theory is disproven in favor of a non-centric approach, recognizing crucial roles for the causal bacterium and the host in determining infection outcome.

Reference: News Medical:  By Pooja Toshniwal Paharia