Wouldn’t it be great to hear that something that you already eat and love is also incredibly nutritious? Like dark chocolate, right? It fights free radicals, contains valuable flavonoids and antioxidants, good for blood pressure, and the heart. What a bonus! in moderation, of course. 

Mexican food lovers probably already know and love this root vegetable, but now you can love it even more!  And you don’t have to cook it. Nice to have options. How does strawberry, mango, jicama and cilantro sound? Or black beans, lime juice, cumin, jicama and garlic? Or jicama fries? That’s right, jicama is the common denominator, pronounced HICK-uh-muh. I was making a salmon salad the other day and didn’t have any celery, so I used jicama. It was awesome!

What I did not know was that it is high in inulin. Inulin is a soluble plant fiber which improves gut function, is filling, good for the heart and has minimal effect on blood glucose levels. It’s a great munchie that does not mess with your blood sugar levels.

The other freebie-advantage is that it’s a prebiotic which means that it feeds the probiotics in the gut. Now, probiotics are not new or a fad. Probiotics are gut bacteria that help to break down food and absorb nutrients, support the immune system, fight infections, and possibly synthesize neurotransmitters. The inulin in jicama feeds the probiotic bacteria, helps it to thrive and repopulate. Win-Win!

Eating our probiotics in the form of food is preferable to taking a probiotic pill: yogurt (sugar-free), kefir, kimchi, miso, tempeh, kombucha, sauerkraut, apple cider vinegar, kvass are all good probiotics. It’s the same for prebiotics. Inulin is found in jicama, ground chicory root, dandelion root (chicory and dandelion make a great coffee substitute!), asparagus, leeks and onions, garlic, artichokes, yams, fresh herbs.

So if you haven’t tried jicama or artichokes, ground chicory or miso or beet kvass, you’re missing out on a huge variety of foods that can awaken and tantalize your taste buds, and nourish and energize your body!