Reasons why you should add Grapes to your Dietary Charts!

Table of Content

• Types of Grapes and Health Benefits

• Health Benefits of Eating Black Grapes

• Green Grape Health Benefits

• 10 Health Benefits of Grapes

• Reasons to Add Grapes to your Diet

• Interesting Facts about Grapes

• Take-Home Points

• FAQ on Reasons why you should add Grapes to your Dietary Charts!

Introduction

Coming from the berry family, grapes are one of the most loved fruit across the world. It is a non-climatic type of fruit, native to the Middle East region which is known as the homeland of grapes. We all have known grapes as a source of wine and many other beverages. What if the same grape will help you in your health and diet? Yes, here are the facts and unknown benefits of simple sweet, sour fruit grapes you would like to add to your diet.

Types of Grapes and Health Benefits

Although there are over 60 different species of Vitis plant and thousands of grape varieties in species, out of which only a handful of them are eaten raw by people and the rest are utilized for winemaking.  Most of the population is aware of 2 types of grapes, green grapes, and black grapes.

The black grapes loved by the majority of people are officially known as the autumn-royal variety, (Vitis vinifera) are juicy and sweet. These are grown in Europe and Asia for up to 6000 years. This is grown in western Asia near the Black Sea.

Health Benefits of Eating Black Grapes

1. Black Grapes has Antioxidant Property

Few of the black grape varieties are loaded with polyphenolic compounds that aid in antioxidant action, they protect your cells from any sort of damage, and reduce the initiation of many diseases like cancer, diabetes, Alzheimer, Parkinson’s, and many cardiovascular diseases.

2. Black Grapes are Good for Cardiovascular Health

Resveratrol is an essential component of black grapes which possesses exceptional benefits for the heart and brain especially. These compounds are abundant in grape skin, pulp and seeds.

3. Black Grapes Lowers Cholesterol

Increased levels of cholesterol are a major risk factor for heart disease, root cause results in an imbalanced diet. A study was done on hypercholesterolemia adults, resulting in a diet including grapes, and sun-dried raisins; the bad cholesterol also known as LDL levels dropped by 16% compared to baseline content.

4. Black Grapes are a Healthy Fruit Option for Diabetics

The diabetics are stressed because every single time they have to think before eating anything, well black grapes give you relief, and you can treat your sweet tooth and dopamine cravings without being worried. Because grapes and raisins have low to moderate Glycemic indexes.

These are very healthy and great dessert options for diabetics.

5. Grapes Help in the Prevention of Dental Caries

There is a myth about the sugar content of grapes and cavities, people think with the high content of sugar it will stick to the teeth advancing dental caries.

Fact check! ---- eating grapes and raisins will definitely stick to the teeth for quite a long time, but they will not cause dental caries instead they possess antimicrobial and antioxidant action that helps in the prevention of dental caries.

Even if you eat grapes at night it will only benefit you, with deep sleep and relaxes your mind.

6. Black Grapes May Help Fight Obesity

Pterostilbene along with resveratrol has been shown to help in obesity problems in animal studies, they both improve the gut environment, and improve energy levels.

Black Grapes’ Chemical Content

Green Grape Health Benefits 

Green grapes are similar to black grapes with changes in pigment and mineral, and vitamin contents. These are very handy snacks for your lunch box, in the evening time which will keep your body strong.

1. Green grapes help to Lower blood pressure. Potassium in the grape helps to flush out excess sodium in your body. Green grapes are high in fructose sugar, try to avoid large portions of green grapes if you are diabetic.

2. Green grapes help the immune system

3. Green grapes help in bone health, with the high concentration of vitamin k, calcium, magnesium, and potassium it help in bone growth and development.

4. Green grapes have some amount of melatonin in them that improve sleep

10 Health Benefits of Grapes

1. Promote hair growth

2. Prevention of heart disease

3. Improve bone health

4. Improve blood flow

5. Regulate sleep

6. Anti-obesity property

7. Diabetic friendly

8. Healthy teeth

9. Lowers cholesterol

10. Exfoliate skin

Reasons to Add Grapes to your Diet

1. Grapes are one of the best fruit to eat as a diet component or even on daily basis, it adds more value and simplicity to your daily life, and your routine along with a healthy life with the least effort added.

2. It has been proven grapes are helpful in reducing cancer initiations, one can have a habit of eating small portions of grapes and will never have to change it for good health.

3. Along with the disease benefits, grapes have prominent effects on the skin, they act as an exfoliating agent, and help in cell regeneration and cell protection. Its resveratrol component also protects the retinal cells that maintain our vision and protect us from UV radiation

4. You can enjoy grapes in any form, if you like drinks you got high-quality options and ample varieties to try and enjoy. If you do not drink, you will get most of the benefits with raw grapes, which is an exciting option to explore and find a favorite grape variety.

5. Those who do not like grapes still get all these benefits with dried grapes commonly known as raisins with varieties just like those available in grapes.

6. A bowl of grapes and raisins daily will be sufficient with plenty of health benefits.

7. If you are a diabetic always confirm with your doctor about grape variety and fructose content which might affect your blood sugar level.

Interesting Facts about Grapes

1. Wine grapes and table grapes

The grapes which we eat aren’t meant for winemaking, the wine is made from a different variety of grapes. We eat table grapes that have a thinner coating of skin and are seedless while the grapes which are used for winemaking have pretty thick skin and multiple seeds in them.

2. A man ate 205 grapes in 3 minutes!

It is a world record, where Dinesh Shivnath from Mumbai, India holds the Guinness world record for eating most grapes in just three minutes. He had to pick each grape individually as per the rules of the guiness world record.

3. The most widely grown grape

According to Forbes, Kyoho is the most widely grown grape variety.

4. America has the best wine grapes

Many wine grapes are grown in America, like vitis vinifera, Cabernet sauvignon, chardonnay grapes and etc.

5. Grapes are 65 million years old!

Yes! You read it right, a study has shown that grapes are at least 65 million years old with rich flavors and distinct appearance.

6. There are 8000 different varieties of grapes available

Most of the varieties are found in Europe and America.

7. We have been cultivating grapes for 8000 years

It dates back to the Romans and Europeans who started cultivating grapes.

8. Around 29292 square miles are reserved for grape cultivation only

According to United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, 29292 square miles of the earth’s surface is saved for growing grapes. The major cultivators are Italy, Spain, China, and turkey.

9. One cup of grapes provides 27% of vitamin C

According to the self-nutrition data, grapes are one of the good sources of vitamin C to fulfill your daily requirements.

10. It takes too many grapes to make wine:

According to the winemaker magazine, to make 25 bottles of wine which is equivalent to 25 gallons of wine it takes 90 pounds of grapes.

Take-Home Points

• A balanced diet with grapes proven to improve health and diseased state.

• Black and green both types of grapes has a lot of benefits with slight differences in both varieties.

• If you are a diabetic always confirm with your doctor for grape variety and fructose content which might affect your blood sugar level.

• Grapes are the only natural sweet candy that anyone can enjoy without being worried about dental cavities.

• Grapes are highly potent antioxidant fruits that have really effective results with a few of the high mortality rate diseases in the world like cardiovascular diseases, brain diseases, cholesterol, and many more.

References

• https://health.clevelandclinic.org/health-benefits-of-grapes

• https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7019280/