MAYA NUT
For recipes with maya nut, visit www.mayasuperfoods.com/recipes
I was first introduced to maya nut from the cacao shaman I studied with. I learned that maya nut was a stigmatized food in Latin America. Although this food is highly nutritious, grows in the wild and produces sufficient food to provide sustenance to local communities, it is underutilized. Sadly, for decades the rainforest has been cut down to make way for corn and bean crops. These foods hold some or very little nutritional value relative to the maya tree. "If you're eating maya nut, it means you're too poor to afford corn."
I started eating medium roast maya nut everyday in my cacao while I was studying in Guatemala. I had a robust Ashtanga yoga practice at that time and I noticed that it steadily increased my musculoskeletal strength. I attribute this to the high amounts of bioavailable calcium and magnesium in maya.
maya nut is a supreme synergist to cacao, providing a grounding base for the upward expansion of cacao. These two trees grow together in the same ecosystems and thus are synergists. Cacao trees thrive in biodiverse ecosystems and the maya nut tree acts as a sort of pillar in the ecosystems.
We have partnered with the mayanutinstitute.org to source the wild harvested maya nut. Every bag you buy goes to support local women and children in Guatemala and Nicaragua, providing them with dignified jobs to contribute to the household. To learn more about maya nut, visit mayasuperfoods.com
An excerpt on maya nut from my teachers website:
"Growing together in the same ecosystem, cacao synergises extremely well with Ujuxte/ Maya Nut/ Ramón (Brosimum alicastrum) – from the largest canopy tree in the Central American rainforest and a staple food of the lowland Maya before they became corn planters (barely discovered as a superfood) – check out Maya Nut Institute http://mayanutinstitute.org/ for one of the most needed and cleanest rainforest and people saving environmental organizations around. You might have to come to Guatemala for some (update, Maya Nut Institute now has an international distributor)… the roasted-to-brown nut tastes a bit like chocolate, or coffee… tremendous smoothie ingredient, notable for its available calcium, tryptophan, high antioxidant content, and low glycemic index, etc. Rico as a minor component in any baked good… bread, cake, muffin, brownie, and my favorite chili corn bread. I brought down a mill from the States, and we may ship finely ground smoothie-grade Maya Nut as we do the cacao. I suggest you will feel more from this in a smoothie than an equivalent amount of Maca! A supreme synergist with cacao, and they grow together in the same ecosystem, the Maya Nut as canopy and cacao as understory. The Maya Nut provides a connecting base to support and stabilize all the cacao upward expansion - it is by far our favorite synergist / superfood to mix with cacao. I have seen many an energetically sensitive person who would normally quickly down a cup of cacao, get about half-way through a cup with a couple rounded teaspoons of Maya Nut in it... stop... and settle into deeper energetic presence."
We hope that you get to experience the magic and nutrition of this forgotten superfood. You can now order this wonderful, ethical, super nutrient dense food from our website.