Figs

There have been traces of figs found in excavations of Neolithic sites dated at 5000 BC, almost seven thousand years ago. The ancient Greek civilizations treasured the fig, and Pliny is supposed to have known almost 29 varieties of it. It finds mention in an ancient Babylonian hymn book, dated about 4000 years ago. Legend maintains that the Fig was the "Autumn Fruit’ as revealed by the Greek Goddess, Demeter, and the tree is still held sacred in most part s of the Mediterranean. The Romans regarded figs as being given by Bacchus, the God of wine, so he is almost always depicted as wearing a crown of fig leaves.

A native of West Asia, the little bulbous fig was distributed across the Mediterranean area by migration with people. With time, its cultivation is believed to have spread throughout what is now Western and Central Europe, stretching between Afghanistan in Asia to Germany and even Canary islands. It must have been quite a popular choice of fruit to get that kind of dispersal. In the mid fifteenth century the fig arrived in England and by then it was already growing in gardens of wealthy households of China. The European variety had also reached India, Japan, South Africa and even Australia.

In the New World, they came in 1560 but reached the United States only in 1699, when it was first planted in Virginia, sailing in from Europe. The fruit plantations soon spread to almost all the states of the country. In Bahamas and the Bermudas, it was already known from earlier times (perhaps a distant memory that traveled over the Atlantis???).

Figs were perhaps one of the first fruits to be dried and stored by man. It is not a mere co-incidence that the fig leaf happened to be around when Adam ad Eve became aware of their nakedness, if the Garden of Eden was anywhere close to where Christ was born, it could have been the most popular tree there. However, it is still debatable whether the fig was actually the forbidden fruit or was it the apple.

A very interesting anecdote here is the origin of the word `sycophant’, an informer of flatterer of the wealthy and influential. In Greek, the phrase is "to show the fig". In ancient Greece, figs were valuable and sacred so their export was banned. At that time, Sycophants were people who would reveal the figs being exported and accuse the robbers, thus getting into the good books of the wealthy noblemen.

Mithridates, the Greek king of Pontus had declared figs as a cure for all ailments, and made it mandatory for all his citizens to eat figs daily. To give them their place of honor, figs were presented to the winners at the Greek Olympics too. That the ancient Greeks and Romans attached a lot of importance to the fig is amply proven by the commonly held idea that figs were a storehouse of nutrition and could be used to cure almost all ailments known to them. So much so that figs were the favorite fruit of Cleopatra and the aspen that bit her was brought to her in a basket of figs, which she really relished!

The honors heaped on this little fruit are not meaningless. It is indeed a highly nutritious and contains almost all the nutrients our body requires to grow as well as build. Figs contain iron, potassium, beta-carotene (with anti-ageing properties) as well as benzaldehyde (anti-cancer compound), flavonoids. They also add on a digestive enzyme called ficin. With these nutrients, figs are useful for prevention of constipation (with their high levels of dietary fiber), anemia and also help protect against cancer. A little known fact is that figs contain a chemical, Psoralens, which has been used in y\traditional medicine for thousands of years to cure skin pigmentation diseases.

The nutrition found in figs is especially good for our busy lifestyles today. A quarter cup serving of figs provides almost one fifth of our daily requirement of fiber, to keep our digestion running smoothly. It also adds on 1.2 mg (6%) iron, 53 mg (6%) calcium, and 244 mgs (7% of the daily value) for potassium that our body needs. All this with no fat, sodium or cholesterol. It is also one of the best alternatives to sugar, that enemy of the system. Pureed fig can also be used as sweeteners in many recipes.