In this Ingredient Spotlight episode, we’re diving into one of the most underrated ancestral healing foods on the planet: guava.

Long before colonization and long before global trade reshaped Caribbean foodways, guava was already sustaining communities, healing bodies, and supporting everyday life.

Now, modern research is finally catching up.

In this episode, host Tyree Humphrey breaks down:

🔥 How guava helped repair lung tissue damaged by cigarette smoke: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8189814/#B13

🔥 How guava lowers blood pressure and improves cholesterol naturally: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8383769/

🔥 How guava reduces inflammation comparable to NSAIDs — without the side effects: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/41017930/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1876382021000081?via%3Dihub

🔥 Why guava quietly outperforms “popular” fruits like apples, blueberries, and oranges

🔥 Its pre-colonial, pre-global trade roots across the Caribbean and surrounding regions

🔥 Why reconnecting to ancestral ingredients is a path to modern healing

This isn’t trendy health advice.

This is inherited wisdom backed by science — the kind our ancestors already practiced instinctively.

If you’re a former smoker… if you struggle with blood pressure… or if you just want to reconnect with a culturally-rooted fruit that can truly nourish your body…

This episode is for you.

Make sure you follow the show and be sure to follow me on TikTok @THERIPSUPPLY and subscribe to my YouTube Channel @THERIPSUPPLY and my instagram @swankszn_

And remember…

Reconnection is Power.

Let’s go!

Before the ships, before the sugar, before the noise — there was rhythm.

The Caribbean’s first people — the Taíno, Arawak, and Kalinago — lived by the drumbeat of the land and the ocean. Their medicine grew wild, their food healed, and their balance came from the roots beneath their feet.

In this episode, we go deep into the pre-colonial Caribbean — the real Caribbean.

We uncover what the ancestors actually ate before global trade and colonization reshaped the islands: cassava, papaya, guava, fish, and coastal greens that powered their bodies and grounded their spirits.

You’ll also hear the science behind their wisdom.

🎧 Listen now to reconnect with the real Caribbean — where food was medicine, culture was balance, and rhythm was survival.

Because remembering where we come from… is how we heal where we are.

Reconnection is Power.

YT & TikTok: @THERIPSUPPLY

Instagram: @swankszn_

References:

1. Newsom, L. A., & Wing, E. S. (2004). On Land and Sea: Native American Uses of Biological Resources in the West Indies. University of Alabama Press.
2. Keegan, W. F., & Hofman, C. L. (2017). The Caribbean before Columbus. Oxford University Press.
3. Murphy, R., et al. (2018). Ancient starch evidence of plant foods in the pre-colonial Caribbean. Antiquity, 92(364), 1205–1222.

1. Pagán-Jiménez, J. R. (2011). Early plant use in the Caribbean: a view from precolonial Puerto Rico. Latin American Antiquity, 22(4), 533-563.
2. Mohidin, S. R. N. S. P., et al. (2023). Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz): A systematic review for pharmacological activities, traditional uses, nutritional values, and phytochemistry. Journal of Evidence-Based Integrative Medicine, 28, 2515690X231206227. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37822215/
3. Mohanty, B. P., et al. (2019). Nutritional composition of fish and its role in human health. Frontiers in Life Science, 8(4), 290-299. https://doi.org/10.1080/21553769.2015.1043657
4. Ghosh, S., et al. (2014). Dietary omega-3 fatty acids and brain health. Nutrients, 6(12), 6005-6026. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25412151/ ”

1. Morton, J. F. (1987). Fruits of Warm Climates. Miami, FL: Creative Resource Systems, Inc.
2. Lim, T. K. (2012). Edible Medicinal and Non-Medicinal Plants, Vol. 2: Fruits. Springer.
3. Gunn, B. F., et al. (2011). Genetic evidence for the origin of the coconut (Cocos nucifera L.). PLoS ONE, 6(8): e21143. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0021143
4. Mohidin, S. R. N. S. P., Moshawih, S., Hermansyah, A., Asmuni, M. I., Shafqat, N., & Ming, L. C. (2023). Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz): A Systematic Review for the Pharmacological Activities, Traditional Uses, Nutritional Values, and Phytochemistry. Journal of Evidence-Based Integrative Medicine, 28, 2515690X231206227. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37822215/
5. Oboh, G., et al. (2019). Soursop (Annona muricata) fruit and leaf extracts ameliorate hypertension by improving antioxidant status and nitric oxide bioavailability. Journal of Food Biochemistry, 43(1), e12777. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31462727/