Editing Sago (section)

===Nutrition===
Sago from ''Metroxylon'' palms is nearly pure carbohydrate and has very little protein, vitamins, or minerals. {{convert|100|g|oz|abbr=off|frac=2}} of dry sago typically comprises 94&nbsp;grams of carbohydrate, 0.2&nbsp;grams of protein, 0.5&nbsp;grams of dietary fiber, 10&nbsp;mg of calcium, 1.2&nbsp;mg of iron and negligible amounts of fat, carotene, thiamine and ascorbic acid and yields approximately {{convert|355|kcal|kJ|order=flip|abbr=off}} of [[food energy]].{{citation needed|date=September 2018}} Sago palms are typically found in areas unsuited for other forms of agriculture, so sago cultivation is often the most ecologically appropriate form of land use and the nutritional deficiencies of the food can often be compensated for with other readily available foods.

[[File:Sago pancake Papua New Guinea.jpg|right|thumb|A sago pancake]]
Sago starch can be baked (resulting in a product analogous to bread, pancake, or biscuit) or mixed with boiling water to form a paste. It is a main staple of many traditional communities in [[New Guinea]], [[Maluku Islands|Maluku]], [[Borneo]],  [[South Sulawesi]] (most known in [[Luwu Regency]]) and [[Sumatra]] in the form of [[Papeda (food)|papeda]]. In [[Palembang]], sago is one of the ingredients to make [[pempek]]. In [[Brunei]], it is used for making the popular local dish called the [[ambuyat]]. It is also used commercially in making noodles and white [[bread]]. Sago starch can also be used as a [[thickener]] for other dishes. It can be made into [[steaming|steam]]ed [[pudding]]s such as sago plum pudding.

In Malaysia, the traditional food "[[keropok lekor]]" (fish cracker) uses sago as one of its main ingredients. To make keropok lekor in Losong in [[Kuala Terengganu]], each kilogram of fish meat is mixed with half a kilogram of fine sago, with a little salt added for flavour. Tons of raw sago are imported each year into Malaysia to support the keropok lekor industry.

In 1805, two captured crew members of the shipwrecked schooner [[Betsey (schooner)|''Betsey'']] were kept alive until their escape from an undetermined island on a diet of sago.<ref>''Australian Shipwrecks - vol1 1622-1850'', [[Charles Bateson]], AH and AW Reed, Sydney, 1972, {{ISBN|0-589-07112-2}} p40</ref>

[[File:Sago1.jpg|thumb|right|Pearl sago]]
Any starch can be pearled by heating and stirring small aggregates of moist starch, producing partly [[Starch gelatinization|gelatinized]] dry kernels that swell but remain intact on boiling. Pearl sago closely resembles pearl [[tapioca]]. Both are typically small (about 2&nbsp;mm diameter) dry, opaque balls. Both may be white (if very pure) or colored naturally gray, brown or black, or artificially pink, yellow, green, etc. When soaked and cooked, both become much larger, translucent, soft and spongy. Both are widely used in [[Indian cuisine|Indian]], [[Bangladeshi cuisine|Bangladeshi]] and [[Sri Lankan cuisine|Sri Lankan]] cuisine in a variety of dishes and around the world, usually in [[pudding]]s. In [[India]], it is used in a variety of dishes such as desserts boiled with sweetened milk on occasion of religious fasts.

The [[Penan people]] of [[Borneo]] consume sago from [[Eugeissona]] palms as their staple carbohydrate.