The health benefits of grapes

Grapes, like most other fruits, come with a host of health benefits when eaten on a regular basis.

Here are just some of the known and/or possible health benefits that have been attributed with this humble berry (yes, believe it or not, grapes belong the berry family).

They may help in preventing cancer

While you can never 100% state whether a particular fruit or other food can help prevent cancer, research does tend to suggest that the antioxidants contained in grapes, polyphenols, have been attributed as playing a potential role in reducing the likelihood of getting certain cancers, including lung, mouth, pancreatic, prostate and colon cancer. Of course, there are other factors that determine one’s susceptibility to cancer, but studies tend to support that grapes can help in prevention.

A healthier heart

The health benefits that are often tied to a moderate consumption of red wine (usually one glass a day) include the fact that it can make for a healthier heart. It is something known as resveratrol that makes red wine famed for assisting in a healthy heart. Resveratrol is a type of polyphenol, the aforementioned antioxidant, and is found in the skins of red grapes. So if you’re not that much of red wine drinker but would like to make your heart a little healthier, then red grapes are a good option.

All grape types are believed to help reduce your chance of cardiovascular disease, which also means they likely help in reducing…

…high blood pressure

Grapes are filled with potassium, and it’s believed that if you have a low levels of potassium in your system, this can attribute to high blood pressure much in the same way that high sodium levels do. So if you do have high blood pressure, there is the chance that you’ll be told to eat more grapes – especially if your potassium levels are at dangerously low intake levels. The more grapes you eat, the more they should help bring your blood pressure under control. Just keep in mind that there can be other contributing factors to suffering high blood pressure.

Other benefits

Two other health benefits grapes offer include 1) minimising constipation, and 2) helping with certain allergies. As grapes possess both high water content and fibre, these two combined components help in maintaining regular bowel movements (hydration matters for this) and minimising constipation, respectively.

While no official human studies have been carried out, it’s believed that the anti-inflammatory effects of quercetin, which grapes contain, help to alleviate symptoms of allergies including a running nose, watery eyes, and hives.