Fruit that is the Dinner: Breadfruit Bagels and World Hunger

I guess I must be a city slicker because I have always thought of fruit as something like a banana, that you eat as a snack or after dinner. Now I discover that some fruit can actually be the dinner! Apparently breadfruit not only tastes like a bagel but can provide nutrition including carbohydrate and be used as food. Enter the Trees that Feed Foundation whose goal is to help alleviate hunger by increasing the numbers of edible fruit trees in order to feed people.











Per Wikipedia "Breadfruit is a staple food in many tropical regions. They were propagated far outside their native range by Polynesian voyagers who transported root cuttings and air-layered plants over long ocean distances. They are very rich in starch, and before being eaten they are roasted, baked, fried or boiled. When cooked the taste is described as potato-like, or similar to fresh-baked bread (hence the name)".




The Trees that Feed Foundation has as it's goal "to help reforest tropical areas with trees that produce edible fruit, in order to feed people while benefiting the environment. Improved diets in tropical countries, with reduced dependency on imported foods and agro chemicals".



Breadfruit is roughly 25% carbohydrates and 70% water. It has an average amount of vitamin C (20 mg/100g), small amounts of minerals (potassium and zinc) and thiamin (100 μg). Breadfruit was widely and diversely used among Pacific Islanders. Its lightweight wood (specific gravity of 0.27) is resistant to termites, consequently used as timber for structures and outrigger canoes. Its wood pulp can also be used to make paper, called breadfruit tapa. It is also used in traditional medicine to treat illnesses that range from sore eyes to sciatica. Native Hawaiians used its sticky sap to trap birds, whose feathers were made into cloaks.

Trees That Feed Foundation