
We Might Be Eating Cactus in the Future - curtis
https://earther.com/we-ll-all-be-eating-cactus-in-the-future-thanks-to-clim-1821389891
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ProfessorLayton
Cactus-based dishes and prickly pears are common foods in Mexican cuisine, and
hardly uncommon in the US, due to a large population of Mexican descent.

Cactus is cheap, delicious, and can be found in your local Hispanic foods
mart. Prickly pears are high in fiber, and only about 40kcal/100grams —
Sprinkle a little bit of Tajín on them and you've got a guilt-free snack.

I suppose it will become more common in the future, but the main reason for
that will probably be due to the growing Hispanic population in the US.

~~~
swampthinker
Sounds ripe for an MBA to take it and brand it as a hipster snack discovered
from Mexico.

~~~
jxramos
I love an example in this direction of `That Indian Drink`. When I first saw a
label of it I read it in my mind as spoken by a Southern California Valley
Girl accent. [http://www.thatindiandrink.com/behind-that-
drink/](http://www.thatindiandrink.com/behind-that-drink/) Pretty funny play
on likely found ignorance by others mixed with self-deprecating humor.

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DoreenMichele
The HN title is worse than the already bad article title as it loses the
implied "some people already do this, but it may become a lot more
mainstream/widespread as it works well as a solution to some of our current
global challenges."

How do you create a title conveying that without it being hyperbolic click-
bait while keeping it at 80 characters or less? I have no clue. But that's the
gist of this article.

~~~
QAPereo
Some Already Do, But Eating Cactus May Become Mainstream Under Global
Pressures.

Not perfect, but it took me 10 seconds, and of course, is less inviting to
clicks.

~~~
Falling3
The "Some already do" part seems awfully unnecessary.

~~~
QAPereo
A fair portion of the world actually already eats cactus on a regular basis.

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wizardforhire
Prickly Pears are delicious! Both the leaves and the fruit. Most Hispanic
grocery stores carry them. Well worth the adventure.

~~~
ars
I love them, but the seeds are a pain.

~~~
always_good
Just swallow them. Same as a guava.

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notananthem
From chicago, cactus is super commonplace streetfood in tacos, same all over
the US. Dumb article

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mromanuk
I'm always amazed by the wide range and variety of food, we can consume. Never
heard of edible cactus, I love to try them.

~~~
8ytecoder
Nopal[1] is common in Mexican and TexMex cusines[2].

[1] [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nopal](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nopal)
[2]
[http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodmexican.html](http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodmexican.html)

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hcarvalhoalves
In the northeast region of Brazil, which has arid climate similar to north
Africa, cactus has been used for cattle and human consumption since forever. I
know of four edible species, and one is even used for jam and liquor.

It's the backup plan when the drought hits hard - which is basically every
other year in that region.

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mrchucklepants
I ate cactus quite frequently when I lived in Mexico. It’s pretty good when
prepared well.

~~~
coldcode
Used to eat a tasty cactus soup at my favorite Mexican place in Texas.

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gwbas1c
I was hoping this was about some impending legalization of Peyote!

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obiefernandez
Context: Recently relocated to Mexico (July '17)

As is common to newcomers, I was struck with bouts of diarrhea on a regular
basis for the first few weeks. When I started eating "tuna" (which is the
prickly pear fruit mentioned in the linked article) every morning as part of
my breakfast routine, the intestinal issues went away. I don't know for sure
that the two things are connected, but definitely has made living here a lot
easier.

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pbowyer
Surely the title should be "We’ll All Be Eating Cacti in the Future Thanks to
Climate Change"? Plural of cactus, as we'll be eating more than one.

~~~
scrooched_moose
They both work fine, depending on how you meant to structure the sentence.

"We'll all be eating rabbit" and "We'll all be eating rabbits" have slightly
different connotations (generic term for the meat vs specific animals) but
mean effectively the same thing. The former seems to be the more common usage,
as it's more analogous to "We'll all be eating beef" instead of "We'll all be
eating cows".

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equalunique
Prickly Pear is a source of N-Acetyl Cysteine (NAC), an amino acid that helps
the immune system function - it is the same amino acid abundant in chicken
broth & the secret to it's efficacy as a remedy for colds/flu.

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voyager2
"in parts of the world that are getting wetter, for instance, the cactus won’t
thrive."

    
    
      They certainly thrive in northern Florida.

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seanmcdirmid
I had cactus and pork dumplings in china once. They were definitely tasty,
with a sage-like bite to them.

