Overview
About Zapote
Zapote is a name rather than a fruit, and untangling it is the most useful thing this page can do.
In Mexico and Central America the word covers several unrelated species: mamey sapote, dense and orange fleshed; black sapote, the so called chocolate pudding fruit; white sapote, which is not a sapote at all but a citrus relative; and sapodilla, which has its own page here. They belong to four different plant families and behave differently, so a reaction to one tells you very little about another, and this row cannot distinguish between them.
Sensitivities
How Zapote scores
Watch for
What trips people up
- Identify which fruit you actually ate before logging anything. Mamey sapote is Sapotaceae, black sapote is Ebenaceae and related to persimmon, white sapote is Rutaceae and a citrus relative, and sapodilla is a fourth thing again. These are not varieties of one fruit.
- White sapote has a documented reputation for sedative and drowsiness inducing effects, and it is the one member of this group where that has been consistently reported. If you feel unusually sleepy after a sapote, that is the species to suspect.
- Seeds should not be eaten in any of them. Mamey sapote seed in particular contains compounds that make it unsuitable for consumption, and the seeds are large and easy to avoid.
- Black sapote is genuinely unpleasant and astringent until fully ripe, at which point the flesh turns almost black and pudding soft. Underripe fruit is a tannin problem rather than just a flavour disappointment.
- Every FODMAP column on this row is unrated, and the grades it does carry are shared byte for byte with a block of unrelated entries in the alphabetical tail of the dataset. Treat this row as untested.
Diet fit
Where it fits
Swap ideas
More alternatives
FAQ
Common questions about Zapote
What is the difference between mamey, black and white sapote?
They are four unrelated fruits sharing a name that comes from Nahuatl and simply meant a soft, sweet fruit. Mamey sapote is Pouteria sapota, in the Sapotaceae, with dense salmon coloured flesh tasting of sweet potato and almond. Black sapote is Diospyros nigra, in the persimmon family, whose ripe flesh is dark brown and custardy and is nicknamed the chocolate pudding fruit despite containing no chocolate. White sapote is Casimiroa edulis, a member of the citrus family, custardy and mild. Sapodilla is a fourth species again. Sharing a name is the only thing they have in common.
Does white sapote make you sleepy?
It has a persistent reputation for it, and unlike most fruit folklore this one is specific enough to be worth passing on. White sapote, Casimiroa edulis, has traditional use as a sedative and the plant contains alkaloids that have been investigated for that effect, with most of the concentration in the seeds and leaves rather than the flesh. Reports of drowsiness after eating the fruit exist but are not well quantified. If you eat a sapote and feel unexpectedly heavy afterwards, white sapote is the species to suspect rather than mamey or black.
Is zapote safe on a low FODMAP diet?
There is no honest answer for this row, because it is untested on two levels. Every FODMAP column is unrated rather than measured, and the row does not distinguish between four botanically unrelated fruits with quite different sugar profiles. Mamey sapote is very dense and sweet; black sapote is milder. If you are in a strict elimination phase, identify the specific fruit, trial a small portion on a quiet day, and log it by species name rather than as zapote.
References
Read the background
Ratings reflect the Triggerbites ingredient database and may vary with portion size and preparation.