The photo on top is the place where I first tasted jackfruit. It was a coconut-palm covered beach resort on an estuary in the South Indian state of Kerala—also known as ‘God’s Own Country.’ Just before our boat trip into the backwaters where we would be viewing the dense tropical growth, we were served a plate of this bright yellow fruit. The texture is hard to describe—it’s a bit like a stringy mango, but not as wet, or a dried apricot, but not so dry. The flavor, in my opinion, resembles a subtly sweet apple.
It’s fitting to eat jackfruit in Kerala, because that’s where it originates. It grows in the forests of the Westerns Ghats, the mountain range vertically dividing India’s southern point. Its name comes from Kerala’s native language, Malayalam, in which it is known as chakka. Portuguese traders picked up the word as jaca.[1] It flourishes in rainy, tropical climates, like South India. Countless locals don’t farm it on purpose, but simply harvest it. My in-laws’ backyard has a number of jackfruit trees and a single tree can produce 200 giant fruits in a season. When I say giant, I mean giant—measuring up to 90 cm and weighing up to 50 kg!
Kerala, a coastal state, has harbored active trade for millennia. Ancient texts, such as the Tamilian Sangam poems, mention the Yavanas—a word indicating foreigners, including Greeks and Romans. While the Greeks established thriving kingdoms in northwest India for around 300 years, they did not penetrate much into the South.[2] The Romans never occupied the subcontinent, but did establish numerous trade networks, on both Indian coasts and in Sri Lanka. The Roman product of choice was black pepper,[3] which also thrives in Kerala, along with papayas, mangos, bananas, nutmeg, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, coffee, tea, cashews, tapioca, and a whole variety of other fruits, vegetables, and spices. And yes, you can see them all growing there. The most abundant native fruit is certainly coconut, and even the state’s modern name ‘Kerala’ means ‘coconut land’ in Malayalam.
All of these foods have made their way to rest of the globe, beginning in ancient times. I heard a joke that, for all the effort Europeans put into controlling the Asian spice trade, European food is surprisingly bland. While funny, the truth is that Indian spices have become commonplace in European cuisine. Just think of the ubiquity of black pepper, or the prevalence of cinnamon and nutmeg in cakes and pastries. What is missing from European cuisine is the ‘hot’ spiciness that people often associate with Indian food. Ironically, the heat-creating chilis, now common in India, actually originated in Mexico. Like potatoes and tomatoes, chilis only came to India post-Columbus.[4]
Jackfruit is one Indian food that hasn’t made much of a stir in Europe and North America until the past decade. Sure, it spread through Southeast Asia and southern Africa in the deep past. It wasn’t until the 1800’s, however, that French and Spanish traders introduced it to Brazil, the Caribbean islands, and Hawaii.[5] Even then, it didn’t catch on much. Perhaps this is because the fruits are so large, and sticky when handling. Throughout south and southeast Asia, however, its preparations are manifold. When still green and not yet sweet, cooks use the fruit in savory recipes, like curries, chips, and pickles. People eat the sweet, yellow, ripe fruit fresh or use it to make juice, ice cream, custard, jam, and even the addictive sweet halwa—gelatinous bricks made of boiled jaggery (sugar cane syrup). Don’t be shy; give it a try! You can even eat the seeds, roasted like nuts.
So why is jackfruit the subject of an article about sustainable foods? Well, jackfruit has recently come on the scene in Western countries as a possible meat substitute. Anything that replaces meat perks up the ears of sustainability-thinkers, as it is now beyond a doubt that plant-based foods are drastically more environmentally sustainable than animal products. But a fruit, replacing a meat? This is not a new idea. Whether green or ripe, the flesh is tough and hearty, and when green, it’s already served as a ‘vegetable,’ not a dessert. In this way it’s similar to its close relative, the breadfruit, the pacific staple that is also used in a multitude of savory and sweet preparations.[6] The possibility of jackfruit passing off as meat came about when formerly carnivorous vegans discovered that cooked, green jackfruit’s texture resembles that of shredded pork or chicken.
In making dietary changes, a person can’t ignore nutrition. According to the USDA, a 100 gram portion of raw jackfruit contains 1.72 grams of protein.[7] That is low. Compare this with a portion of lean beef, which carries a whopping 23.7 grams of protein. A tasty serving of hummus contains 7.35 grams, which one can consider a good protein value for a plant-based product. The bottom line is, you’re not going to get enough protein from eating jackfruit, so your jackfruit sloppy joe or curry meal will need to contain another source of that building-block-of-life.
Can jackfruit redeem itself with other nutrients? It’s pretty low in fiber at 1.5 g. The recommended daily fiber intake for adults is 25 grams for women and 38 for men.[8] That means a serving of food should contain around 5 grams. Jackfruit does provide some vitamins, like calcium, magnesium, and potassium, but it is also high in fructose–the natural sugar found in fruit. So what is the big picture? Jackfruit carries the nutritional profile of a fruit, not a meat or meat-substitute. That’s not to say a vegetarian can’t enjoy it cooked in savory, smoky, or spicy sauces. If it takes up a whole meal though, than the eater is missing out on an opportunity for taking in essential nutrients.
My primary criterion for evaluating foods is not their nutrition, but their sustainability. We future-focused humans must look for ways to make our insatiable consumption habits less detrimental to the planet. One way to measure an agricultural product is by its water footprint–how much water it requires to grow and produce. Jackfruit, although massive, is entirely average in terms of water footprint for fruit.[9] One tree uses about 966 liters of water to produce a kilogram of food, similar to other fruits and grains. Vegetables require much less water, around 300 liters per kilo. Nuts are famous for being thirsty, drinking as much as small meat-animals (6,000-10,000 liters/kg). Luckily for jackfruit, it grows in rainy, tropical climates, so the trees don’t usually need more water than the sky provides. They are also extremely bountiful considering the trees don’t take up much more space than other tropical fruit trees, like bananas.
Looking at jackfruit overall, it is neither less, nor more, sustainable than other fruits. Due to its climate requirements, however, a farmer in a cold or dry country would need a greenhouse to raise it. Usually it is shipped to consumers around the world. Of course, long-distance transportation means a high carbon footprint. Jacks are also equal in nutrition to their fellow fruits. They are certainly not a protein source. Therefore, I would say that one should enjoy them for what they are–a tasty, versatile ingredient, yummy in sweets and savories alike. Munch down that jackfruit ice cream or curry. But to create a sustainable food world, we need to overcome our dependence on livestock, and that is something that jackfruit cannot do.
I must direct readers to an interesting study I came across in which a team of scientists used the otherwise wasted cores of jackfruits and durians to make energy-storage ultracapacitors![10]
[1] https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2014/05/01/308708000/heres-the-scoop-on-jackfruit-a-ginormous-fruit-to-feed-the-world
[2] This is my own area of research expertise.
[3] Anonymous, Periplus Maris Erythraei, 56.
[4] https://www.pnas.org/content/111/17/6165
[5] http://[5] https://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/jackfruit_ars.html
[6] https://www.tourmaui.com/breadfruit/
[7] https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/index.html
[8] Turner ND, Lupton JR. (2011). Dietary fiber. Adv Nutr. 2(2):151-152. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3065764/
[9] https://waterfootprint.org/
[10] Lee, K., Shabnam, L., Faisal, S.N., Hoang, V.C., Gomes, V.G. (2020) Aerogel from fruit biowaste produces ultracapacitors with high energy density and stability. Journal of Energy Storage 27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.est.2019.101152