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When I eat a superfood, I like to know more about it other than the fact that it’s considered a food for good health – Like how it looks and tastes, where it comes from, why it’s good for me and what I can do with it. With that said, here’s some info on camu, a superfood relatively new to the health food market here.
The camu camu fruit is actually a berry, roughly the size of a lemon and pale orange to red in colour. Native to the Amazon, it grows on small, shrub-like trees along the riverbanks of lowland rainforests. In Peru, Columbia, Brazil and Venezuela, you can eat camu camu straight from the tree. Although it doesn’t grown here in Australia, we can get it in a dried, crushed and powdered form, so we can still reap its nutritional benefits, which it has been traditionally used for for centuries.
So what’s it good for? Camu camu is packed with vitamin C, being one of the richest food sources of this nutrient; Just one teaspoon of Bioglan SuperFoods Camu Powder gives you 23 times more vitamin C than an orange. I like it because it’s a natural form of vitamin C; Most vitamin C supplements on the market are synthetic.
I could dedicate a whole article to the health benefits of vitamin C, but to name a few, it has shown to reduce the length and severity of colds* and is a powerful antioxidant, fighting environmental free radicals (toxins like pollution, pesticides and cigarette smoke) that cause cellular damage. It also can be great for skin health and repair due to its role in collagen production.
How does it taste? While some superfoods don’t go down too easily, camu has a pleasant, mild citrus flavour and is a little tangy, so works well in fruity dishes like banana smoothies (delicious with creamy coconut yoghurt), frappes (blend with pineapple coconut water and ice for a tropical-treat), or this Mango-Camu Frozen Yoghurt from Bioglan:
Ingredients
- 500g frozen mango cubes (if possible use fresh mangos, cut up into cubes and freeze overnight)
- 2 tsps Bioglan SuperFoods Camu Powder
- 2 tbsps honey
- Fresh mint
- 250 g natural yoghurt
Method
- Place frozen mango cubes in food processor and blend till smooth.
- Add Camu powder, honey, mint and yoghurt and blend until you have a smooth consistency.
- Serve immediately as soft frozen yoghurt, or divide into iceblock moulds and freeze for later.
* Source: Hemilä H, Chalker E. Vitamin C for preventing and treating the common cold. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2013, Issue 1. Art. No.: CD000980. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD000980.pub4.
To find out more about Bioglan’s Camu Powder go to: www.bioglan.com.au