What is guanabana in English? Soursop. That doesn’t sound too appetizing, does it? Well it’s actually delicious.
Whether you say the Spanish name, the Brazilian Portuguese (graviola), or the English translation… they’re all referencing the exact same fruit.
Chances are though if you live in the United States, you haven’t heard any of those names before.
Don’t expect to find it for sale at Walmart. Not even grocers with an organic emphasis like Whole Foods sell it. Where you can buy soursop in the US is often limited to Asian and Latin grocers in major cities like Los Angeles, Miami, and Houston. Those aside, you probably have never seen it for sale in the US.
But in Central and South America, it’s a popular fruit. Likewise for some African countries like Nigeria and a number of Southeast Asian countries.
In the Philippines they call it yet another name; guyabano. In addition to using the raw pulp in recipes, making herbal tea with the leaves is a popular beverage.
You can eat the fresh white pulp inside, or the nectar can be turned into juice, punch, and desserts like ice cream. There are many culinary uses.
Whatever form you fancy, what are the health benefits of guanabana? We will go over all of them but first let’s address the elephant in the room.
Lately, there’s been a lot of controversy about it allegedly being good for cancer. One major nutritional website claims it’s what big pharma “doesn’t want you to know about” and a herbal remedy website implies there is “strong evidence” it may be an alternative treatment. Some of these natural news bloggers cite purported cancer cure testimonials as part of their pitch.
Similar to reishi mushrooms and cancer, a lot of people out there are taking very preliminary research, then extrapolating (and exaggerating) it to mean something it doesn’t.
We will review the guanabana cancer research below, but first we think it’s important to be crystal clear and nip in the bud the wi
