Home to Quinoa and Açai Berries, Peru Has a New Superfood
The nutrition-packed lucuma fruit is tough to transport out of its native land. But it’s still finding a way onto restaurant menus, into grocery stores, and even onto the shelves at Walmart.
The lucuma fruit, long prized in Peru, grows at altitudes of around 9,000 feet.
Photographer: Javier Rivero for Bloomberg Businessweek
Peru has a knack for introducing superfoods to the rest of the world. Its rich geography, which includes portions of the Andes Mountains and the Amazon rainforest, has already brought forth high-protein quinoa and açai berries. The latest nutritional powerhouse to appear on global menus is lucuma, a fruit that grows at altitudes of about 9,000 feet. Long prized in Peru, it’s gaining traction in U.S. cities.
While it resembles a large, round, orange-fleshed avocado, lucuma has a pronounced caramel taste. It’s almost impossible to find fresh outside South America; unusually delicate, it starts to spoil soon after picking. But the fruit, esteemed by the Incas for purportedly enhancing fertility, is increasingly available powdered or frozen at American health-food stores; Walmart stocks it, too. That’s because lucuma is high in beta carotene, iron, zinc, calcium, protein, and fiber. It also contains antioxidants and potassium, which are said to be good for your heart, immune system, and skin.