Powder, tea bags, energy bars — these are some of the ways
that moringa is attempting to make inroads into the American diet.
Mahafreen H. Mistry/NPR
The moringa tree is a scrappy plant that grows like a weed in dry, tropical climates and produces bitter leaves that taste like horseradish. Moringa is also contending for a spot as the next hot "superfood," with an emerging focus on its potential to make life better for people in developing countries. Moringa supplements and bars are also becoming more popular here in the U.S.
Although most parts of the plant are edible, moringa's power is in its leaves and seed pods, which are high in digestible protein, calcium, iron, vitamin C and antioxidants and have a nutritional profile that rivals milk and eggs, says Jed Fahey, a nutritional biochemist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who has been studying the plant for 20 years.
With a long history of traditional use, moringa has also been touted for some 300 medicinal benefits, of which Fahey suspects a handful will survive scientific scrutiny. He is putting together a small trial to test its anti-diabetic properties.
Even better, moringa is a drought-tolerant tree that grows well in
sandy soils in the tropics of West Africa, South Asia and South
America, often where malnutrition is widespread. It's already a staple
in some of these parts, but advocates think moringa could make an even
bigger nutritional impact in those regions, particularly for children,
pregnant women and nursing mothers. Ounce for ounce,
according to some analyses, moringa leaves have double the protein in
yogurt, four times more calcium than milk, and seven times more vitamin C
than oranges.
"One doesn't need to do very much to prove that if you are hungry or nutritionally replete, then eating moringa as a source of vegetable protein in a varied diet is a good thing to do," says Fahey, who will speak at an international symposium on moringa in November in Manila, Philippines. "We're beyond the need to prove that."
What's needed now, experts say, is better motivation for people to grow and eat it. In many places, moringa carries the stigma of a "poor person's crop" and like Brussels sprouts, people tend to eat it only if they have to, says Lisa Curtis, founder of a company called Kuli Kuli Foods, which sells moringa products in the United States.
NPR
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