Which fruit do you think will become the next cure all?

[grude]

First it was noni, bottles of overpriced noni juice where everywhere. Then mangosteen, now the current fad seems to be cactus fruit or prickley pears(which anyone who has lived in the SW US knows are common and eaten forever) but suddenly it is a miracle cure!

I'm guessing oahite or java apple will be the next target of the fruit hucksters.

[WhyNot]

My money (not really) is on lychee. It's exotic enough to appeal to the snobs, but also available fresh at supermarkets without straining yourself too hard looking for it. It's Asian, which is good for the anti-Western medicine types and those who buy into Ancient Eastern Wisdom, but it's also grown in the US, which can bring the price down a bit if it gets more popular.

Google shows that it's already being quietly talked up as a cancer fighter and love tonic, but I think it's got some room to get bigger and go mainstream. Haven't seen it on The Doctors yet.

And it's delicious.

[living_in_hell]

You forgot the old stand-bys: blueberry, pomegranate...

I'm going with durian. Nothing says love like durian.

[Smapti]

The store I work at just started selling dragonfruit on a huge display with little pamphlets about how to eat them.

I'm calling it as the next fad.

[grude]

Originally Posted by Smapti

The store I work at just started selling dragonfruit on a huge display with little pamphlets about how to eat them.

I'm calling it as the next fad.

Heh while it looks cool and sounds cool the taste is so light and delicate it makes lychee seem strong, seriously probably the most subtle fruit out there.

[pseudotriton ruber ruber]

African mango is next.

[An Gadaí]

I accidentally bought a mixed fruit Polish drink that had lychee in it. It was the most disgusting drink I've ever tasted and has put me off the concept of lychee in perpetuity.

[Antigen]

You forgot the acai berries! They make you immortal!

[ralph124c]

Ah..Tahitian Noni juice-my BIL is a heath food nut-he's always buying that crap. Once, he bought a whole case of noni juice-he wound up giving it away (I got a bottle). It was nasty!
Nobody has mentioned the old standby-apple cider vinegar and honey-drink it every day!

[Mangetout]

Fuschia berries.

[Student Driver]

We've had to deal with a ton of these fads at my pharmacy over the years, almost all driven by the diet pill industry. In addition to all of the previously mentioned fads (dragonfruit made a run about 15 years ago), we've also had fads in quince, hawthorn berries, teaberry, grapefruit, apple cider, green tea, kombucha, cranberries, konjac, dark chocolate, and more. Long-running diet pill brands will get reformulated to include each new fad. Most formulations right now include green tea, and many also have acai and/or pomegranate. The two big fads emerging recently have been raspberry ketones and green coffee extract. So, in answer to the OP, it's the rather mundane "raspberry."

[MrDibble]

Here's hoping Marula fruit will take off in a big way. Because the derivatives are nice.

[kferr]

The original reseach seems to be a couple years old, but I saw a program on BBC about the benefits of beetroot juice

[TriPolar]

First it was the apple. Actually an apple caused all the problems, but later it was the cure.

[Ludovic]

Originally Posted by WhyNot

cancer fighter and love tonic, but I think it's got some room to get bigger

Which is what you want in a love tonic!

[Labrador Deceiver]

Sour cherries.

[hogarth]

Hopefully saskatoon berries/serviceberries. They're pretty tasty.

[enalzi]

Originally Posted by Antigen

You forgot the acai berries! They make you immortal!

Yep, I heard all about it from a woman in [Location of your IP address]!

[Dallas Jones]

Originally Posted by living_in_hell

I'm going with durian. Nothing says love like durian.

Nothing says "who took a shit in my gym socks?" like durian.

[fluiddruid]

Originally Posted by Student Driver

We've had to deal with a ton of these fads at my pharmacy over the years, almost all driven by the diet pill industry. In addition to all of the previously mentioned fads (dragonfruit made a run about 15 years ago), we've also had fads in quince, hawthorn berries, teaberry, grapefruit, apple cider, green tea, kombucha, cranberries, konjac, dark chocolate, and more. Long-running diet pill brands will get reformulated to include each new fad. Most formulations right now include green tea, and many also have acai and/or pomegranate. The two big fads emerging recently have been raspberry ketones and green coffee extract. So, in answer to the OP, it's the rather mundane "raspberry."

FWIW, there actually appears to be something to the green tea thing, though it does seem to take quite a lot of it.

And that's the thing with a lot of these fads. A lot of them start with a nugget of truth -- some extract of some fruit can show a slightly higher level of whatever -- but then it's just thrown in a mix in a diet pill in a concentration that's too small to matter along with dozens of other things that have never been tested in combination with it. Voila, snake oil!

Anyway, my guess for the next fad? Buddha's Hand. It looks cool, has a cool name and is a fruit.

[salinqmind]

Is coconut a fruit? It's everywhere. Coconut oil to cook with. Coconut water to drink.

[The wind of my soul]

I think it'll be blueberry. It's been in the news for a while about all the benefits it provides to your health, but the fad hasn't really caught on to the point where we see blueberry juice, blueberry smoothies, blueberry yogurt, chocolate covered blueberries, etc. As blueberries become more in demand, marketers will probably start putting blueberries and blueberry flavoring into more things.

[Leaffan]

Richard Simmons.

[pulykamell]

Originally Posted by grude

Heh while it looks cool and sounds cool the taste is so light and delicate it makes lychee seem strong, seriously probably the most subtle fruit out there.

Yeah, dragonfruit is perhaps the most disappointing fruit I've ever had. It just looks so awesome and cool, both inside and out, and then you eat the flesh and ... almost tasteless. I've found it makes a nice sorbet-like substance when you halve it and freeze it, but that's about it.

I'm going to throw a random one out there: gooseberries. I have no idea whether it is purported to have health benefits, but it seems exactly the type of fruit that would.

[ratatoskK]

Originally Posted by The wind of my soul

I think it'll be blueberry. It's been in the news for a while about all the benefits it provides to your health, but the fad hasn't really caught on to the point where we see blueberry juice, blueberry smoothies, blueberry yogurt, chocolate covered blueberries, etc. As blueberries become more in demand, marketers will probably start putting blueberries and blueberry flavoring into more things.

Already happened.

[WhyNot]

Yeah, blueberries were the big UTI fighter about 8 or 9 years ago. Eat a pint of blueberries day! More good stuff than cranberries! But they didn't get the panacea treatment, that I recall. Mostly UTI/antioxidant stuff.

[Absolute]

Gooseberries are awesome! I hope they make it big.

[madrabbitwoman]

Mountain ugni and/or jostaberry. I recently bought a seedling of each and want my investment to pay off.

[purplehorseshoe]

Originally Posted by fluiddruid

... Anyway, my guess for the next fad? Buddha's Hand. It looks cool, has a cool name and is a fruit.

I'm good with that. I love the stuff (slice and steep in good vodka for a couple of days, for one thing) but it's a holy bitch to find around here. Smells great, looks freaky.

[VOW]

I hope it's juniper berries. We've got a LOT of juniper trees on our property, and it would be nice to cash in on a fad.


~VOW

[Odesio]

I thought goji berries (wolfberry) was the super food de jure.

[living_in_hell]

Originally Posted by TriPolar

First it was the apple. Actually an apple caused all the problems, but later it was the cure.

I thought it was a pomegranate?

[Gorsnak]

Originally Posted by hogarth

Hopefully saskatoon berries/serviceberries. They're pretty tasty.

As someone who lives in Saskatoon, grew up on a farm near the riverbank where wild saskatoons are plentiful, and who has eaten buckets and buckets of saskatoons, I can confirm that they are far beyond "pretty tasty" (the wild ones are far better than the farmed varieties, but smaller and don't bear fruit very reliably) but sadly do not cure all.

[runner pat]

Originally Posted by Gorsnak

As someone who lives in Saskatoon, grew up on a farm near the riverbank where wild saskatoons are plentiful, and who has eaten buckets and buckets of saskatoons, I can confirm that they are far beyond "pretty tasty" (the wild ones are far better than the farmed varieties, but smaller and don't bear fruit very reliably) but sadly do not cure all.

Didn't stop the other "super fruits".

[dngnb8]

Scrotum Cherries