Prickly Pear Fruit

(Opuntia Ficus-Indica, Prickly Pear, Cactus Pear, Nopal Cactus)

Evidence: Low
Possible Benefits: Reasonable
Safety: Reasonable

TABLE OF CONTENTS

What is the prickly pear fruit?

Prickly pear fruit is a popular type of fruit that grows on Opuntia Ficus-Indica, also known as the prickly pear cactus. sometimes sold as a supplement for its wide variety of health benefits. This fruit can reduce inflammation, boost antioxidant defenses, improve cardiovascular health, and more. This article is about the main benefits of the prickly pear fruit, its potential side effects, the best time to take it, and more.

Possible benefits

All of the potential benefits mentioned below are dose-dependent. As with other fruits and plants in general, there is a sweet-spot dose that allows you to get most of the benefits without causing meaningful side effects or tolerance buildup in the body. We will discuss the best dosing protocol later in this article.

Minor benefits

  • Antioxidant properties – This fruit contains a wide variety of flavonoids and other beneficial compounds, many of which have strong antioxidant properties and can help reduce oxidative stress in the body.
  • Reduced inflammation – Many compounds in prickly pear fruit are proven to reduce inflammation in the body through various mechanisms.
  • Improved immune health – Secondary to the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, prickly pear fruit can improve innate and adaptive immune system health and function. This fruit can also reduce the symptoms of various autoimmune conditions.
  • Improved digestion – Like most other fruits, prickly pear fruit can slightly improve gut health, bowel movements, and digestion.
  • Improved cholesterol levels – This fruit can slightly improve cholesterol levels by lowering LDL cholesterol and possibly increasing HDL cholesterol. This benefit mainly applies to people with elevated cholesterol. The antioxidants in this fruit may also prevent or reduce the oxidation of LDL cholesterol.
  • Improved insulin sensitivity – People with insulin resistance may experience a slight improvement.

Possible side effects

The side effects below are dose-dependent. The risk for them increases (often linearly but sometimes exponentially) as you increase the dose. Some of the side effects only apply to very high doses.

  • High sugar content – Sugar in fruit generally isn’t problematic as it doesn’t raise your blood glucose levels much. However, if you have to keep your sugar intake low for whatever reason, keep in mind that prickly pear fruit contains high amounts of this macronutrient.
  • Allergic reaction – While an allergy to this fruit is rare, some people may experience an allergic reaction after ingesting the fruit. If you experience allergic symptoms like itching or swelling of the mouth, coughing, sneezing, rash, or other skin reactions because of the fruit, it is probably best to stay away from it.
  • Diarrhea – This unpleasant effect is relatively common with fruits and fruit supplements, especially as one starts consuming them. It is usually nothing to worry about.
  • Toxicity – Many flavonoids and other bioactive compounds in this fruit have adaptogenic properties and act as mild stressors on the body. That is usually a great thing as it allows your body to adapt to specific forms of stress and become more resilient. However, stressing the body too much can be counter-productive and cause multiple side effects, including mild toxicity. While acute toxicity is extremely rare, taking or eating large quantities of prickly pear fruit could lead to mild chronic toxicity and cause some health problems over time. To prevent chronic toxicity or the buildup of tolerance, staying below 500 grams of fresh fruit or 50 grams of dried fruit in a day is best unless you have a great reason to consume more.
  • Contamination – If growing or storing conditions are not adequately controlled, prickly pear fruit can be contaminated with bacteria, molds, and other potentially harmful microorganisms. Many growers also use pesticides that can be unsafe. Choose the brand you get fruits and fruit powders from wisely. For fruit powders and supplements, it is often best to use websites like Amazon, where thousands of users have reviewed and rated the products. You are less likely to buy something of lower quality there.

Who should not eat or take prickly pear fruit?

You should probably avoid prickly pear fruit if you:

  • are allergic to this fruit
  • experience a severe adverse reaction after eating the fruit (though a mild adverse reaction is usually not a problem and can even be seen as positive as it is a sign that the adaptogenic molecules in the fruit are causing a hormetic response that allows the body to adapt and become more resilient)

Who will benefit the most?

You should consider taking the fruit or adding it to your diet if you:

  • enjoy the taste of it
  • wish to improve general health
  • have a high budget for supplements and are willing to experiment with a variety of them (assuming you don’t fall into any of the categories that should avoid this fruit, prickly pear fruit appears safe and is unlikely to do more harm than good for most people)

How much prickly pear fruit should you take?

Because many flavonoids and other chemicals in the fruit are adaptogenic, they act as mild hormetic stressors on the body, which allows your body to adapt and become more resilient to certain kinds of stressors in the long term. A higher dose of these compounds isn’t necessarily better because they may put too much stress on the system.

The sweet-spot dose typically ranges between 50-200 grams of fresh prickly pear fruit or 10-20 grams of dry fruit or dry powder daily. If you buy an x:1 extract, divide the dry powder dosage by x.

The higher end of this range usually provides slightly more benefits in the short term. If you plan to take or eat this fruit regularly for a longer time (multiple months or years), the lower end is probably a better way to go.

While this fruit could theoretically cause acute toxicity, you’d need to take an extremely high amount that would be way beyond what even the most potent extracts contain.

Like most other plants, it is best to cycle prickly pear fruit and take about two days off weekly to reset your tolerance to the adaptogenic compounds in the fruit. That will allow you to keep getting the benefits in the long term.

Best time to take prickly pear fruit

Most bioactive compounds in prickly pear fruit are water-soluble, so you don’t need to take the fruit with food to absorb them well.

Whether you take the fruit in the morning or the evening does not make much difference. Both options are fine so feel free to experiment.

Where to buy prickly pear fruit supplements?

In most countries, Amazon is the best option for ordering prickly pear fruit and other fruit powders and supplements. They offer some very affordable products backed by many positive reviews. Also, you can choose from a wide range of brands without having to search through other markets on the Internet.

Some brands display the dosage per serving instead of per pill or capsule. Therefore, you may accidentally buy something less potent than you intended. Do not fall for this marketing trick.

FAQ

As for most other fruits and supplements, it is best to cycle prickly pear fruit and take a break from it for about two days per week to reset your tolerance back to baseline. You can also eat this fruit only during its season and take a break from it for the rest of the year. Both of these strategies will keep your body sensitive to the fruit and allow you to keep getting the benefits in the long term.

Fresh fruits generally have a slightly higher antioxidant content. Many micronutrients and beneficial compounds get lost during the extraction process. On the other hand, supplements and dry powders don’t expire nearly as fast as fresh fruit, don’t need to be stored in perfect conditions, and are often cheaper.

Generally not. If anything, frozen fruit is better as it is frozen right after it gets harvested. That means fewer antioxidants get lost during the transportation and storage of the fruit. Fruits sold as frozen also tend to be harvested when they are fully ripe whereas fruits sold fresh generally have to be harvested long before they ripen.

Yes. This fruit will not worsen your sleep quality in any way. Whether you take it in the morning or the evening doesn’t matter much if at all.

Dry fruit powders and supplements can expire but not nearly as fast as fresh fruits. They can also lose potency over time but very slowly if you store them well. Keep the supplement in a cold, dark, and dry place. It should remain just as potent for many months or even years there.

This fruit contains a variety of adaptogenic compounds that act as mild stressors on the body. That is usually a great thing as it allows your body to adapt to specific forms of stress and become more resilient. However, stressing the body too much can be counter-productive and cause mild toxicity over time. High doses can also make you develop tolerance much faster than lower doses, and they may be less effective at improving health in the long term.

While you could safely take or eat higher amounts, there is usually no point in eating more than 200 grams of fresh fruit or 20 grams of dried fruit daily. This amount should give you most of the benefits without meaningful side effects.

This fruit contains many bioavailable compounds, and each has a different half-life. However, most of the effects of this fruit are cumulative, so they mostly happen in the long term rather than acutely. Therefore, the half-life of this fruit isn’t very relevant in practice.

Unfortunately, this fruit is relatively high in sugar and even small amounts of it can break a fast.

References

Most of the information in this guide is based on scientific research that can be found and verified in the PubMed medical library. We highly encourage you to use the library to verify anything you read in this article. We excluded from consideration studies that are either confounded or have a high conflict of interest.

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We hope this guide has helped you determine if you should add prickly pear fruit to your diet or supplement stack and how to do it right.

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