With their delicious, sweet taste and small, beaded appearance, grapes or angoor serve as a great addition to fruit salad. Besides, they are also a healthy addition to your diet, offering key health-promoting components that are not so easily obtained through food that you eat regularly. Apart from the fact that you can just pop them as you go along without bothering much about cutting, slicing, peeling or removing seeds, we give you some real reasons to include them fruit in your diet.
1. Cancer prevention
The compound found in grape skins, resveratrol, a potent antioxidant, is incredibly effective against cancerous growths. Research has shown that resveratrol has the ability to deeply penetrate the center of a cell’s nucleus, allowing the DNA to repair free radical damage that might otherwise contribute to cancerous growth.
2. Cardiovascular health
The photochemical in grapes activate a process in our genes, which helps reduce damage to the heart muscle itself! Consuming at least 1-2 cups of grapes daily will not only help reduce the signs of heart muscle damage, but it will help lower blood pressure and improve heart function.
3. Allergy relief
Grapes contain an anti-inflammatory called resveratrol, which helps relieve allergy symptoms and improves your ability to breathe (especially in spring when things go to seed!).
4. Digestive health
Grapes are great for GI tract health. They help soothe an irritated digestive tract and work great as a mono-meal themselves to help improve digestive function. Eat some grapes to help get rid of indigestion and unnecessary irritation.
5. Bone health
Who knew that grapes could help nourish and strengthen our bones? According to the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research, grapes may protect bone health by improving bone calcium retention. If you want to reduce your chances of developing osteoporosis later in life, eat grapes and ditch the dairy (and other high-protein food products).
6. Migraine relief
A great way to seek relief from a migraine is to eat grapes! Grapes help reduce blood pressure, and migraines are caused by an enlargement of blood vessels in the head. Put two and two together and you get effective reduction in enlarged blood vessels simply by consuming a cup or two of grapes.
7. Sustained energy
Grapes are one of the purest forms of helping to improve energy levels and sustain them throughout the day. I like to refer to grapes as little mini rocket fuel balls – they contain the perfect balance of water and sugar and are a great afternoon pick-me-up!
8. Eye health
Regular grape consumption may play a role in eye health by protecting the retina from deterioration. Grapes protect our photoreceptors and help prevent macular degeneration and other eye related diseases.
9. Kidney health
Grapes and freshly pressed grape juice is a diuretic and is excellent for cleaning out the kidneys and may help remedy kidney stones! Grapes are also great for the bladder by improving urination and eliminating toxic waste material more efficiently.
10. Help lower cholesterol.
Along with the cardiovascular benefits of resveratrol, grapes also contain a compound called pterostilbene that has shown to reduce cholesterol and triglycerides. In one study, researchers found that pterostilbene reduced cholesterol as effectively as a prescription drug.
Nutrition Facts
Grapes are rich source of micronutrient minerals like copper, iron and manganese. They are an also good source of vitamin-C, vitamin A, vitamin K, carotenes, and B-complex vitamins such as pyridoxine, riboflavin, potassium and thiamin. Just one cup of grapes provides 20% of your daily intake of vitamin K, 15-20% of vitamin C, and 2-10% of iron, magnesium, potassium and B vitamins!
TEAM | BBI