Guanabana

[smokingboot]

My mother has been banging on about guanabana for months. Every text, every phone call, every message contained at least one admonition to drink guanabana leaf tea forever. It became an obsession with her. I couldn't even research guanabana because I was so sick of the word constantly in front of me. So now as I begin again, seeking out healthy additions to my lifestyle, I decided to check on it; after all, it might have the benefits she claimed and it would make her so happy if I sent her videos of me making and drinking the tea.

First I learned that guanabana is also called soursop. Then I learned that dried organic soursop leaves cost upwards of £34 per 100 grams, and lastly I learned that in the EU the loose leaves cannot be sold as tea or anything to be taken internally. Generally they are offered for bathing. I think you can make a soup of this stuff and sit in it. No-one needs a video of that.

Maybe Brexit makes it easier to order strange leaves off the internet, but as Russ said 'this is the EU, where snails are fair game and absinthe is fine! What the hell's in this stuff?'

A quick run around the web suggests that the fruit is lovely and nutritious, the seeds are toxic, and teas made from the leaves may induce kidney damage, nerve damage, and movement disorders with symptoms like Parkinson's disease.

Swear to God, one day that woman will get me killed.

Comments

[asakiyume]

LOL, do be careful!

But I can assure you that as you found, the fruit is *wonderful*, especially in juices, which is how I've had it.

[smokingboot]

I would love to taste it! My mother's favourite fruit is the cherimoya so I'm not surprised she thinks its relative is a divine rescuer :-D

[westernind]

… does she drink it herself? 😬

[smokingboot]

Heh. No. Thank God she is too paranoid to ever order anything off the internet, or god knows what she's be putting down her throat.

That photo of you is very cute btw!

[mallorys_camera]

I always marvel that you don't straight out lie to yr mother just to get her to stop talking about stuff like that. 😀 You're fundamentally such a good person. (Unlike me. 😀)

[philosophi_cal]

I've never worked out why humans evolved with a wish to believe random things without any evidence. I guess it helps with concepts like Justice and Mercy but it's a very indiscriminating capability.

[smokingboot]

I guess it's about how the individual defines evidence. My mother would argue that she does lots of research and reads many testimonies etc and has found consistent info confirming these things, so who am I to say that all these people are wrong/lying? She's also a stubborn anti-vaxxer particularly with regard to the Covid vaccine, believing we have all been lied to. So, she would argue, if we can believe that nonsense with little to no evidence, why can't she trust the evidence that she finds?

I took her to task re the soursop because one of these days she's going to poison herself with some rubbish she's seen on the internet. She is now not best pleased with me...

[smokingboot]

Not so much goodness as my innate fear that she would know anyway. Mothers always know!