Taioba - forget spinach, this dark green leaf from Brazil is a nutrient powerhouse
I keep mentioning taioba in my posts, so when I saw this CSA Brazil meme regarding its nutritional benefits in my Facebook feed today I thought I'd translate and share it!
Taioba leaves are eaten in Minas gerais and Rio de Janeiro, although it is a food custom that more times than not is associated with memories of grandparents and is only recently seeing a resurgence in popularity. Whilst you're unlikely to see it available in a supermarket, you are very likely to see a bunch of leaves for sale for a few reais at a farmers market.
Taioba is a rather half-wild half-domesticated plant, sometimes being planted and oft times occurring naturally, or "spontaneously" ("espontaneamente") as Brazilians would say. It is frequently seen in backyards and the margins of cultivated fields. Whilst younger smaller leaves from shady spots are the best for eating, these leaves can grow to impressively enormous size.
As I mentioned previously, taioba should not be eaten raw, and care should be taken to correctly identify it. Many people in rural Rio de Janeiro have a story up their sleeve about some second cousin or aunt who died after eating taioba brava having thought they had correctly identified it.
Contains:
-Carotenoids
-Vitamin C
-Vitamin B2
-Vitamin B3
-Iron
-Calcium
-Boron
-Copper
-Manganese
-Potassium
-Fibres
Benefits:
-Good for maintaining healthy eyes.
-Significant help for the immunological system and production of collagen.
-Contributes to metabolism of nutrients.
-Good for the red blood cells and transport of oxygen.
-Contributes to maintaining healthy bones.
-Significant contribution for a healthy heart and brain.
-Antioxidant activity, protecting cells and organs.
-Helps muscular function.
-Assists intestinal functions and reduces the risk of diabetes and high blood pressure.
Credit:
This image is a promotional material from CSA Brazil and IBN Functional.
I'm currently doing a PhD regarding wild and semi-domesticated food plants in Brazil, and the reasons why people collect them... and trying to some extent map the complexity of socio-economic values they hold for people. If that sounds interesting please Upvote and Follow!
Have you seen this tool used in Brazil?https://steemit.com/foraging/@openparadigm/1-foraging-tool-the-hori-hori
its a japanese tool that I like.
Hiya, yes I was literally just using that tool in the last couple of days. But it was the only time I saw it here!!! And my friend who had it has strong connections to the US so it might be that he got it there rather than in Brazil.
This may be a dumb question, but in your research, do you find people eating any wild plants that aren't nutritious in some way? It seems like edible plants are nutritious in some way or another. It's too bad that people remember their grandparents eating this plant, but then aren't sure of the identification and may get it mixed up with something toxic. That drives home the need to keep learning and sharing what we know about wild plants, so we can all get it right!
I was sure I had replied to this post... hmmm, must have written something and never pressed post! I'd have to say I can't think of anything that has NO nutritional value. But of course sometimes things are used for other purposes, such as softening meat, food colouring, sweetener. And of course some plants might have side effects. I'd heard it often that manioc leaves have a decalcifying effect, so if you eat a lot then it can weaken your bones. Although that's not to say that it has no nutritious value. Here where I've been studying in Brazil though people don't have the custom of eating the leaves anyway. I visited Madagascar before and it's an important traditional dish there. An example from back home, Galium aparine, or cleavers / goosegrass / robin-run-the hedge, interestingly it has a negative calorific effect, so it speeds up the metabolism and you end up using more energy to digest it than what you get from it. Apparently Victorian ladies used to eat it as a dieting tonic. I'm surprised it's not used in that way today to be honest considering society's obsession with weight loss.
There's still lots of expensive laboratory work to be carried out to detail the nutritional contents of wild plants. The general pattern though is that the wild edible plants that have had extensive lab work to map out their nutritional qualities, usually they are extraordinarily nutritious. Many of them send down tap roots to eek out the maximum of nutrients from the soil.
And yep, there is astounding loss of ethnobotanical knowledge all around the world. It can disappear rapidly. Sometimes it seems that people think that Google knows everything and that we don't need to take any proactive action ourselves to preserve knowledge, but there is just so much info that you cannot get from a Google search....and, so much knowledge that doesn't particularly lend itself to being transmitted in modern media formats. Never mind the more philosophical / spiritual aspects of some of that "wisdom".
The general pattern seems to be this, there is rapid loss of traditional knowledge in rural communities where people are aspiring to achieve a more modern life-style, or are simply being forced into a more modern life-style and either no longer value that knowledge or simply don't have time, or have moved away to the city and broken the inter-generational transmission pathways....whilst meanwhile the middle-class of the city generally have little traditional knowledge within their own immediate families but are actively seeking to reconnect with ancestral imaginative. That is happening in Europe and Brazil and no doubt lots of other countries. It's interesting to see in Brazil a lot of people putting energy into reviving and allocating value to traditional knowledge, it's still fresh, many city-dwellers have grandparents who lived in the "roça".
Went on a bit of a ramble there, hope I answered your question!
Oxe!eu Adorooo taioba
I forgot to specify that the common type of taioba usually eaten is Xanthosoma taioba, although there are several varieties.
Thanks! If folks are having trouble identifying the right plant, like your post describes, then the scientific name seems pretty important There must be some problematic look-alikes out there! And it drives home, for me at least, the importance of keeping traditional knowledge strong. When we stop connecting with the plants and memories fade, the risks go up.
When you are doing your research now, do you search for these plants yourself or with the locals? Or do you track its appearance in the markets? It's so interesting! Is there a term for those half-wild half-domesticated plants in other regions? It would be a useful term, there are so many of those kinds of plants!
Interesting. I am going to look if I can find this one in Florianópolis , thanks @kate-m
Let me know if it's there, I haven't even been that far south!
Great to learn something new about healthy and nutritious plants on your blog! I have never heard of this one before but I would love to try it! Plants are amazing!
Yes - plants are amazing!!!!
We have wild purslane where I live (Canada). Much better than spinach nutritionally as well.
Yes they call that "Beldroega" in many parts of Brazil - it's so tasty and with a great texture! I had it growing in a tiny weed/herb garden I had at my front door in Brazil, would pop it into salads. It's so amazing the nutritional content of so many wild plants.
Beldroega? I like it!
Yes, unlike modern crops where they breed plants for flavors at the expense of nutrition. Wild plants or 'weeds' (according to most) are powerhouse foods as well as medicine for a great number of illnesses.
#EatTheWeeds has been my motto for years.
I thinks it's also that cultivated plants get an easy ride, beign pampered there are an excess of nutrients availabel to them so it's like they can evolved to be lazy, whereas wild plants are like mean street cats, they have to strive and suck up every nutrient they can get their ancillary roots on! hence they are actually pretty choca block full of goodness, although as you say they are also pretty bitter and there is a blurry line between food>medicine>poison!
Haha yes! They are the mean street cats of the plant kingdom that despite their benefits they get a bad wrap because of that mean cat facade.
Plus the decades of negative campaigns to stigmatize these wild plant foods for their own profits from herbicides and allopathic medicines.
I guess as well they used to often be looked upon as famine foods so there would have been a certain social stigma assocaited with them much of the time, in the sense that people don't want to be seen as poor, and what you are forced to eat when you're poor must be inferior to what you buy when you have dosh.
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