The Jerusalem artichoke, also called sunroot, sunchoke, earth apple or topinambour, is a species of sunflower native to eastern North America, and found from eastern Canada and Maine west to North Dakota, and south to northern Florida and Texas. It is also cultivated widely across the temperate zone for its tuber, which is used as a root vegetable.
It is a herbaceous perennial plant growing to 1.5–3 metres tall with opposite leaves on the upper part of the stem but alternate below. The leaves have a rough, hairy texture and the larger leaves on the lower stem are broad ovoid-acute and can be up to 30 centimetres long, and the higher leaves smaller and narrower.
The flowers are yellow and produced in capitate flowerheads, which are 5–10 centimetres in diameter, with 10–20 ray florets.
The tubers are elongated and uneven, typically 7.5–10 centimetres long and 3–5 centimetres thick, and vaguely resembling ginger root, in appearance, with a crisp texture when raw. They vary in colour from pale brown to white, red, or purple.
The artichoke contains about 10% protein, no oil, and a surprising lack of starch. However, it is rich in the carbohydrate inulin (76%), which is a polymer of the monosaccharide fructose. Tubers that are stored for any length of time will digest their inulin into its component fructose. Jerusalem artichokes have an underlying sweet taste because of the fructose, which is about one and a half times sweeter than sucrose.
Jerusalem artichokes have also been promoted as a healthy choice for diabetics. This is because fructose is better tolerated by people that are diabetic. It has also been reported as a folk remedy for diabetes. Temperature variances have been shown to affect the amount of inulin the Jerusalem artichoke can produce. When not in tropical regions, it has been shown to make less inulin than when it is in a warmer region.
Jerusalem artichokes were first cultivated by the Native Americans long before the arrival of the Europeans; this extensive cultivation obscures the exact native range of the species. Jerusalem artichoke had become a very common vegetable for human consumption in Europe and the Americas and was also used for livestock feed in Europe and colonial America. The French in particular were especially fond of the vegetable, which reached its peak popularity at the turn of the nineteenth century. The Jerusalem artichoke was titled 'best soup vegetable' in the 2002 Nice Festival For The Heritage Of The French Cuisine.
High levels of inulin bypasses digestion and reaches the lower gut to feed the good bacteria that resides there. Studies show that feeding the indigenous micro flora and warding off bad bacteria is an important part of the treatment and prevention of hypertension.
A one cup serving of sunchokes contains 643 mg of potassium, which is essential for overall health and can help to reduce heart disease. Increasing your dietary potassium, in addition to reducing excess sodium, is especially beneficial for people at risk for high blood pressure.
Along with normalizing blood triglyceride levels, these small vegetables affect the way that the body metabolizes fats thanks to their high levels of probiotics. The sunchoke is a great way to increase your iron intake especially since it has no fat and only 109 calories per cup.
Iron is an essential component of the proteins involved in the delivery of oxygen to each and every cell in your body. A deficiency of iron limits the delivery of oxygen to the cells resulting in fatigue and decreased immunity.
Not only does this wonderful root contain more protein than most other root vegetables, it’s particularly high in the sulfur-containing essential amino acids taurine, methionine, homocysteine and cysteine. These sulfur containing amino acids are essential for maintaining the flexibility of connective tissue as well as allowing the liver carry out detoxification.
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