Watermelon fun

Like many last weekend, I ate slice after slice of watermelon, scrunching the fruit right down to the rind. My appetite insatiable, I took another whole watermelon and ground it up, making a pitcher of watermelon juice. And I am here to report that...wow, the melon and the juice tasted good.

Yep. That's it.

Who knows what else I'd have to say if I were a man? According to a news release from Texas A&M University, watermelon contains a chemical with Viagra-like properties. The chemical in question-- citrulline, richest in the rind of the melon--is converted into the amino acid arginine when it gets into the body. "Arginine boosts nitric oxide, which relaxes blood vessels, the same basic effect that Viagra has," says watermelon researcher Bhimu Patil of Texas A&M, in the news release.

The release doesn't refer to any studies done by the scientists demonstrating Viagra-like properties in humans or animals, or experiments in dishes with little pieces of human penile tissue, as was done for compound UK-92,480, the name that Viagra once went under.  And if arginine's the business, why not cut out the middle man and scarf it directly? Or go for protein-rich foods? (Proteins, you'd think, would have plenty of arginine, since they're made of amino acids.)

Though these are pressing issues, maybe what we're really seeing here is yet another jostle in the battle for superfruit supremacy. Already, as we reported last week, mangosteens and açai berries are facing potential healthful-fruit challenges from the decidedly-odd-looking baobob tree. And now, this.  "The more we study watermelons, the more we realize just how amazing a fruit it is in providing natural enhancers to the human body," Patil says.   

Fruit. It's good for you. Eat lots of it. Maybe we should just be satisfied with that?

-- Rosie Mestel

Photo: Tony Gutierrez / Associated Press   

Mangosteens are so yesterday

Move over, goji berry! Sayonara, acai! Fickle is the consumer seeking everlasting life in a bowl or smoothie glass, and we've just gotten wind of a new fad fruit -- that of the baobab tree.

The baobab has everything a superfruit should have. Unfamiliarity. A name that's hard to pronounce. The fact that it grows far away (in various countries in Africa) and that its fruit has been eaten by ancient peoples. And lord, just look at it! I mean, seriously. Something that odd-looking has got to be good for you.

Plus, it's pollinated by fruit bats.

An article in the online food trade publication FoodQualitynews.com reports that scientists in Britain have been studying use of baobab fruit pulp in smoothies and cereal bars. A spokesperson with PhytoTrade Africa, a natural products association of southern Africa, says plans are afoot to research its "health giving properties." The fruit is reportedly high in antioxidants, and stimulates growth of good bacteria in the gut.

Of course, it's a matter of debate whether a baobab -- or any of these superfruits -- are more healthful than a proletarian apple or pear would be -- as we explored in a March 10 article about superfruits.

(Still, let's take one more look at it, shall we?)

-- Rosie Mestel

photo credit: DreamWorks Animation SKG, from the animated feature "Madagascar"