Nutritional Benefits of Starfruit

I was just introduced to the strange-looking greenish colored fruit called starfruit also known as carambola. Starfruit is native to the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka.   My family was sent an entire box of these funny looking fruits, in addition to two GIANT boxes of avocados from our new friends in Florida who have starfruit trees growing in their backyard. I’ll get into the absolutely insane amount of avocados I have right now in another post sometime soon. When I first saw the star fruit, I was totally turned off. It looks really strange! At least to me it looked like some sort of alien fruit. Finally I got the nerve to look up more about it and how to eat it. When I took my first bite I was pleasantly surprised! To me it tasted something like a pear, plum, or grapefruit. It has a slightly sweet but sour taste. The coolest part about the fruit is the reason why it got its name. When you cut across it, it literally forms pieces of fruit in the shape of a star! You may have seen starfruit used as a garnish for cocktails for this reason.

Starfruit has some great nutritional benefits including providing 75% of the RDA of vitamin C, vitamin A, E, B complex, iron, fiber, and trace amounts of calcium, magnesium, selenium, copper, and zinc. The fact that starfruit is loaded with antioxidants and has a nice amount of zinc, makes it a great addition to an acne-free diet. There is also research being done on the fruit, because researchers believe that consuming starfruit helps to slow the aging process and delay the appearance of wrinkles. Some additional benefits of eating starfruit include: lowers your cholesterol, prevents heart disease, prevents and treats constipation, slows down agin, promotes weight loss, boosts immune function, and is useful for treating infection from bacteria like salmonella and e.coli. Starfruit has also been used as a natural remedy to recover from a hangover.

***WARNING!*** The only thing that is frightening is you should NOT consume this fruit if you have kidney failure, kidney stones, or are on dialysis. Starfruit contains oxallic acid which can be dangerous and harmful for anyone with kidney issues and cause hiccups, vomiting, numbness of limbs, decreased muscle power, mental confusion, and in bad cases, DEATH. This does not sound like something you want to mess with. In my research I read several accounts of people with kidney problems who died after consuming starfruit.  If you do not have kidney problems, please don’t worry, you’ll be completely fine.

If you are interested in trying this funny looking fruit, there are a few ways you can eat it. You can wash the fruit, and remove all blemished parts and eat as is, add it to fruit salads, smoothies, or use it as an exotic salad topping. You can juice starfruit as well, and it makes a great light sweetener for your green juices instead of apple. Hopefully, the next time you see this exotic fruit you won’t run for the hills like I almost did; I recommend you try it to add some variety to your fruit choices and get a nice serving of antioxidants to keep you youthful. A starfruit a day can apparently keep the plastic surgeon away. -XoXo Raw Girl