Amazing food fact: The main ingredient in tapioca pudding is a tropical tuber that provides a huge portion of the world's dietary carbohydrates

Saturday, December 03, 2011 by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger Editor of NaturalNews.com (See all articles...) Tags: tapioca, carbohydrates, food sources

---

(NaturalNews) After rice and wheat, the most important human carbohydrate source is not what you might guess. It's not the starchy potato, or any of the major sweetener-producing crops (sugar cane, sugar beet or corn). It's a tropical tuber known by the names cassava, manioc and yucca (in Spanish), and it's the main ingredient in tapioca pudding.

Although little known in North America, cassava was a staple food for the pre-Columbian cultures of tropical America and remains an important food in that region of the world today. It has also acquired a central place in African cooking, and is a significant calorie source for that continent. That's because cassava is not only both versatile and highly nutritious, it's also a good source of fiber, calcium and phosphorus, among other essential nutrients.

In addition to being cooked and eaten like a potato, cassava can also be ground into a flour. The starch of the cassava is not called "cassava starch" (as you might expect based on "corn starch" or "potato starch") but tapioca, and is most famously used in puddings and in the "boba" balls of certain Asian teas. These are sometimes called "pearls" and are often served with a milk-enriched tea called "pearl milk tea" or, in Chinese, phonetically spelled out: "jen-joo-nai-cha." (I used to drink this all the time in the night markets of Taiwan, where it was sold from street carts, alongside noodles, papaya milk smoothies and fried onion-cakes ("tsong-yo-bing").

Source: 25 Amazing Facts About Food, authored by Mike Adams and David Guiterrez. This report reveals surprising things about where your food comes from and what's really in it! Download the full report (FREE) by clicking here. Inside, you'll learn 24 more amazing but true facts about foods, beverages and food ingredients. Instant download of the complete PDF. All 25 facts are documented and true.

Sources for this article include:
http://www.africanfoods.co.uk/cassava.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassava
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tapioca