The Health Benefits of Eating Grapes

The Health Benefits of Eating Grapes
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With the increasing number of people developing diseases every year such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes, it is not surprising that more and more people are looking into eating healthier and living a healthier lifestyle. For your diet, you need not look elsewhere, there are many “superfoods” that you can include in your diet to boost your immune system and one of them is grapes.

Pro-Heart Properties

Grapes are amazing fruits to include in your everyday diet. Due to the high amounts of polyphenols that can be found in them, benefits of eating grapes are plentiful and perhaps the most known health benefit is its pro-heart properties.

Studies reveal that eating grapes helps in increasing the nitric oxide production in your body. This in turn helps in decreasing clots from forming and clogging your blood vessels. Furthermore, eating grapes benefits your heart by stopping the LDL cholesterol in your system from being oxidized and becoming harmful to your heart and health.

Lowers Cholesterol Levels

A powerful antioxidant called pterostilbene that is known for its cancer fighting properties is also present in grapes and research done by scientists at the USDA Agricultural Research Service found that pterostilbene is very effective in the activation of PPAR-alpha. PPAR-alpha is vital to your lipids metabolism which includes cholesterol. Grapes, along with blueberries and cranberries, are known to boost your internal cholesterol burning machinery.

Cancer-Fighting Properties

Research has revealed that this wonderful fruit also contains resveratrol. Once purified, it showed to have activities of cancer chemoprevention. The research performed in the University of Illinois showed that the resveratrol slows down tumor growths in three stages namely, the initiation, promotion and progression stages and it is a great candidate as a cancer-fighting agent for prostrate, liver, breast and lung cancer preventive agent.

Other Health Benefits

It is a common belief that if you have high blood pressure or suffer from hypertension, drinking a glass of wine with your dinner is a good practice. It reduces the risk of death from hypertension-related disease.

Red wine and purple grape juice also has medicinal purpose for food-borne illnesses. They act as antibiotics and inhibit food borne pathogens without destroying your body’s probiotic bacteria that promotes intestinal health.

The bioflavonoid quercetin can also be found in red grapes. This acts as a powerful anti-oxidant together with Vitamin C and boosts your immune system to fight infection and other common illnesses. It also helps reduce inflammation and relieves pain suffered from joint pains such as rheumatoid arthritis. It is also known to help in preventing gout by lowering the uric acid in your blood stream.

As you can see, eating grapes and including them in your everyday diet is very beneficial to your health. They are very inexpensive, taste delicious and promotes longer and healthier life!

References:

https://whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=40#healthbenefits

https://circ.ahajournals.org/cgi/content/short/103/23/2792

https://www2.med.umich.edu/prmc/media/newsroom/details.cfm?ID=1561

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/186652.php

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8985016