El chontaduro

El chontaduro – staple food for CrossFit athletes in LATAM?

During my stay in Colombia I was told about this fruit called ‘chontaduro’ (peach palm). I was told it was like coriander, either you hate it or you love it.
When studying at a café, a lady came in, selling small bags with pieces of chontaduro, served with honey and salt. When I asked her more about the fruit, it seemed to be magical: rich in protein, fibre, minerals and, oh, a great natural aphrodisiac (claims legislation, anyone ?).
For me, coriander is a no-go, but chontaduro I like. The consistency is fibrous, somewhat dry, like yuca and I cannot compare the taste to anything else. Intrigued by this fruit, I decided to do some research and to see whether this fruit could be a staple food for CrossFit athletes in Latin America.

I checked the national database and some scientific studies for its nutritional values (great way to improve my Spanish academic reading skills ). I found slightly different values, but here are the most interesting ones from the national database.

Nutritional values per 100 g uncooked chontaduro

*derived from the paper ‘Valor nutriticional y caracterización de los ácidos grasas del chontacuro Rhynchophorus palmarum L. Espinosa et. al., 127-138.

Macronutrients
If we analyse the product, you can see that it is quite energy dense, mainly due to its high content of fatty acids. It does contain quite a bit of carbohydrates and fibre as well, and not that much sugar, especially thinking of the fact that it is classified a fruit.
The protein content is definitely higher than other fruits, but to say it is a great source of protein, no. Considering the fact that the fruit fills you up easily (hello fats, long chain carbs and fibre), it will not make a significant contribution to your daily protein intake.
The fat composition is around 50/50, with the unsaturated fats mainly being omega 6 and 9 and the other half being saturated fats. As we know, saturated fats are not promoting general health.
For your digestive tract, it is an excellent source of fibre. You can actually see in this picture that they are very fibrous.

Micronutrients
The fruit is a source of some interesting nutrients, I would like to highlight one of these. The high iron content is particularly interesting, especially for female athletes on a vegetarian or vegan diet. The recommended daily intake (RDI) for women is higher than for men. Since iron from animal sources is better absorbed than from plant sources, the chontaduro might be an interesting source of iron. A portion of 100 grams provides about 1/3 of the RDI (for women, it is about 75% of the RDI for men). It even contains a little vitamin C, which helps improve iron absorption (though this small amount is likely to be insufficient).

In summary

In moderation, the chontudaro could be part of a healthy diet of a CrossFit athlete. Its main positive properties for this are its fibre and iron content.
It does not contribute much to the daily protein intake, nor is the fat composition ideal. Whether it is an aphrodisiac, I did not find any scientific research . But as an ingredient in a delicious curry, highly recommended.