What’s the Deal with Papaya Leaves? | Herbal Goodness

3 comments Jan 15, 2017

Papaya is a popular tropical fruit that most people have tried or at least heard of. Papaya boats and green papaya salads have been trending as refreshing summer recipes for years. What most people don’t realize about papaya, however, is how you can eat pretty much every part of the plant - including the fruit, the seed, and our personal favorite, the leaves!

You may think eating straight papaya leaves sounds like a strange appetizer for your next dinner party, but there are countless other ways to eat these nutritious parts of the papaya. Many people don’t realize just how important papaya leaves can be for your health, but we’re here to show you why papaya leaves are our favorite source of daily healthy goodness.

So let’s break it down to what you should know about papaya leaves.

The Benefits of Papaya Leaves

Digestion

Perhaps the most well-known benefit of papaya leaves is its ability to breakdown a lot of tough foods in your body. Papaya leaves contain the super enzymes papain, which helps digest proteins, wheat, fat, and carbohydrates and speed up metabolism. Your digestive system benefits greatly from papaya leaves as a whole and keeps it running smoothly.

Papaya leaves are even used sometimes as a natural meat tenderizer for BBQs because there are so good at breaking down proteins.

Blood Platelets

Another popular use of papaya leaves is how well they maintain good blood platelet levels in the body. Basically, blood platelets allow your blood to coagulate and clot where there is an open cut. They stop us from bleeding by attaching themselves to damaged blood vessels and repairing them in the process.

Because of their importance in the bloodstream, platelets help maintain healthy cardiovascular function as well. In other words, they’re very important to the body.

Healthy Skin

An often forgotten about the benefit of papaya leaves is healthy skin. If you drink papaya leaf tea regularly, your skin will likely brighten and look youthful and healthy. You can also cool and apply papaya leaves topically for other skin ailments that come up. For example, many people use the leaves to alleviate itchy bug bites.

Immune System

Lastly, papaya leaves are the perfect addition to your daily life for a boost in immunity. This is because of the many nutrients found in papaya leaves. The leaves help to revitalize the human body while increasing energy and vitality.

These are just a few of the ways that papaya leaves are good for your body, but there are many other health benefits to discover in this wonderful part of the papaya as well. We encourage you to do your own research on the many studies and articles that have been written about the benefits of papaya leaves, there's a lot of interesting information out there on this part of the plant.

How to Eat Them

One of our favorite ways to get the most out of papaya leaves is through our Papaya Leaf Extracts. The reason for this is because, unless you live in a tropical location, it can be difficult to find fresh papaya leaves on a day-to-day basis. Our extracts are made with long-lasting PH-balanced vegetable glycerin, and they're extremely shelf-stable with no preservatives. So adding heat or freezing them does not affect the bioavailability of the papaya leaf properties.

Another thing to note about our papaya leaf extracts is that they can be better for bio-absorption in the body than just taking papaya leaves in other ways. Our glycerin extract is made using the whole organic papaya leaf herb and contains nutrients that help get all the good things in your body as soon as possible.

Another great way to eat papaya leaves is by brewing them in hot water as a tea. You can either find fresh papaya leaves to brew yourself or look for papaya leaf tea at your favorite local or online store. Although there’s no caffeine in our papaya leaf teas, they can be a great natural energy drink because of the boost in immunity you get from a hot or iced brew.

Conclusion

Papaya leaves can be a great addition to any diet and can help with improving digestion, maintaining blood platelets, and boosting immunity and skin health. If you’re someone who deals with intestinal issues, or if you are simply looking for a good daily boost in health, papaya leaves are the perfect place to start in your alternative health goals.

If you’re pregnant or trying to get pregnant, please consult your doctor before taking papaya leaves or seeds.

Let us know - Have you tried papaya leaves before? Did you know about the many benefits that are packed in this part of the plant? What is your favorite way to eat papaya leaves?

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