Ghana's Everyday Fruits May Be Its Best-Kept Health Secret

Each day people in Ghana pass by fruit stalls that are full of mangoes, oranges, watermelon and some less well-known kinds such as yellow mombin and soursop, usually without giving it a second consideration. However, recent laboratory results indicate that some of these fruits are in fact doing a great deal more for our health than we tend to give them credit for.

The human body is constantly subjected to chemical attacks. Pollution, stress, bad sleep, and even normal metabolism produce highly reactive molecules known as free radicals. If these molecules are not checked, they damage cells and are associated with heart disease, diabetes, premature ageing, and some types of cancer. To protect itself against this kind of damage the body makes use of antioxidants, which are substances that destroy free radicals before they can cause any harm. Among the available sources, fruits are one of the richest, cheapest, and most accessible supplies of these compounds for the typical Ghanaian household.

A recent laboratory study of twenty fruits that are commonly sold in Ghanaian markets aimed at finding out precisely how much antioxidant power each of them has. I used three well-known international scientific tests to evaluate the fruits' ability to neutralise harmful free radicals and their overall reducing power, which is an indicator of how efficiently a substance can donate electrons in order to stabilise unstable molecules in the body.

The results were remarkable. Three fruits consistently stood out and ranked as among the best performers in every single test carried out.

Yellow mombin, which is known by various names in different Ghanaian communities and is frequently ignored in favour of fruits that are more widely marketed, proved to be the strongest source of antioxidants in the study, exceeding all the other fruits tested by a large margin. The fruit,

which is yellow and resembles a plum, contains the plant compounds that are capable of neutralising cell-damaging radicals.

Soursop, which was already well known in local herbal circles for its supposed health benefits, confirmed this reputation with solid laboratory evidence by finishing in second place and demonstrating consistent and reliable performance in all the methods employed.

Star fruit, with its uniquely star-shaped slices, finished in the top three positions, achieving the highest reducing power of any fruit tested and always ranking among the best performers in the study.

The fact that this discovery is so encouraging is that all of these three fruits are neither expensive nor hard to find. They are grown locally, sold in local markets, and are generally not mentioned in the health discussions which tend to concentrate on imported 'superfoods'.

For a long time public health advice in Ghana has simply promoted the eating of fruit in a general way. This study indicates that it might now be advisable to be more specific. It could be a low-cost and accessible way of helping the body's natural defence mechanisms against chronic disease if families were encouraged to include yellow mombin, soursop, and star fruit in their diets as well as the usual fruits.

Since non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and hypertension are still increasing all over the country, one possible solution to part of the problem is already available, unnoticed, at the local fruit stand. Africans do not have to look overseas for foods high in antioxidants. In fact, some of the most effective ones may already be growing in their own backyards.

Author: Akoto Emmanuel
Medical Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Student UNIVERSITY OF HEALTH AND ALLIED SCIENCES