The Ananas comosus fruit or pineapple, as we know it, is an incredible tropical fruit with a myriad of advantages to our overall well-being. This popular delicious fruit is rich in vital nutrients, minerals, and compounds essential with dealing with disease, swelling, and boosting immunity.
Aside from being tasty, their correlation to a variety of fitness benefits is immersive such as increased recovery, digestion, and much more.
Here are some of the 14 healthful benefits of pineapples that you shouldn’t ignore.
1. Strengthens Bone Integrity
Deficiencies of vital minerals such as magnesium and manganese, lead to dire conditions such as osteoporosis. Fortunately, pineapples are rich in vitamins and minerals like vitamin C, magnesium, potassium, manganese, and enzymes. Magnesium and manganese directly affect the quality of your bones and help prevent osteoporosis.
Sipping a glass of natural juice a day is a terrific idea with numerous advantages. It’s healthy refreshment and a tasty drink as well.
So, to enhance the structural integrity and health of your bones and cartilage, get adequate manganese into your body. Women in their menopause can experience a healthier spine by merely adjusting their diet.
2. Helps in Weight Loss
Burning fat and shredding a few kilos can be a hassle. Its juice can directly affect your size and waistline. It contains low calories, tons of water, and no unhealthy fats. It’s a fantastic source for vitamin C and weight loss.
A study carried out on subjects found that individuals experiencing a deficiency of vitamin C tend to burn 25% fewer calories during strength training.
Therefore, vitamin C is healthy for you, and it may also help you lose fat quicker. Instead of drinking water to stay fit, try incorporating some delicious juice into your regime.
3. Detoxifies the Mind and Body
These tropical fruits contain enzymes such as bromelain, a proteolytic enzyme, and antioxidants. The fruit is an excellent detoxing agent and stabilizes our pH level by effectively neutralizing strong acids in our body, including the brain.
They also contain vitamin B, which aids in the stimulation of a productive brain. A slice also reduces stress and tension, which helps stabilize and calm our minds. Further, it can assist in better decision making.
4. Improves Our Vision
Regular fruit slices and juice can mitigate the chances of developing macular degeneration and eye problems. It’s rich in vitamin C and antioxidants, which enhance our optimal nerves and ocular lenses while preventing the cloudiness of the pupils and vision impairment.
Sipping some fresh juice is an excellent recommendation for fighting off the cell and visual damage in the elderly. The nutrients Vitamin A, manganese, bromelain, and beta carotene promote better vision, as well as our overall health.
5. Lowers Blood Pressure
Lack of potassium in the body can cause hypertension. This wondrous tropical fruit helps reduce your overall blood pressure. Mainly, they contain adequate potassium levels, which help retain the amount of water in your body and balance pressure.
Roughly one cup of natural juice contains 195mg of potassium. This means regular consumption can reduce the common symptoms of low blood pressure and hypertension.
6. Strengthens Teeth and Gums
Want to enhance your smile and brighten the shine of your teeth? While a frequent trip to the dentist can get that fixed for you, sipping some fresh juice is a cost-effective natural solution.
These tropical fruits are rich in vitamin C, which helps prevent plaque build-up inside your gums and teeth.
Plaque is responsible for bad breath, tooth decay, and destruction of the gums. Astringents found in the fruit help strengthen loose teeth, receding gums and tissue. More so, the bromelain present polishes your teeth and removes stains.
7. Improves Your Digestion
Accompany your meals with a slice or blend to aid in digestion. This fruit contains healthy fibers, enzymes, and minerals such as vitamin C, K, and bromelain, which help break down complex proteins in the body.
This results in a boost in metabolism and excretion. More so, research shows pineapples have a profound effect in treating conditions, such as E.coli in patients with infections. Frequent consumption can reduce inflammation in your gut and prevent constipation, diarrhea, and a bloated stomach.
8. Helps Reduce the Risk of Cancer
Chronic inflammations and stress can progressively increase the chances of cancer. However, unique compounds found in this fruit can reduce the risk of cancer.
Bromelain, an enzyme found in the fruit, can suppress the growth of cancer cells. Studies showed that bromelain directly links to the repression of the growth of breast cancer cells.
These compounds decrease the inflammation and oxidative stress in our bodies. Also, it stimulates the defensive structure of white blood cells, causing them to suppress carcinogenic cells. If left unchecked, these cells can cause cancer.
Women and men alike are susceptible to breast and throat cancer. You can check the common ways to prevent breast cancer.
9. Good for the Heart
The flow of blood within our body is essential to the regular function of our organs. However, the coagulation of the blood can pose to be a critical hazard to our health.
Pineapples help alleviate the tension in our blood vessels and prevent blood clots. Potassium, manganese, and bromelain ensure proper blood flow and circulation, which in turn promotes cardiovascular well-being.
More so, the essential copper minerals within the fruit aid in the formation of red blood cells. An increase in RBC (Red blood cells) boosts your oxidation levels while expelling carbon dioxide from our bloodstream. It can also prevent strokes, chronic heart illnesses, and heart attacks.
If you spot any of these symptoms, promptly take action.
10. Eases Symptoms of Arthritis
Arthritis is a medical condition that causes severe inflammation to tissues and joints, which can cause stiffness and discomfort in fingers, back, hips, elbows, feet, and knees. Astonishingly more than 54 million Americans suffer from osteoarthritis alone.
While medications ware commonly used to treat this condition, foods rich in anti-inflammatory properties can also relieve symptoms of arthritis. Pineapples can effectively emulate the potent properties of diclofenac, conventional medicine to treat osteoarthritis, for short term relief.
Aside from that, the fruit contains bromelain, a natural enzyme that reduces inflammation. Consuming a slice or sipping some juice can help reduce discomfort and pain associated with arthritis, especially in seniors.
11. Promotes Healthy Skin
They say, ‘beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder.’ To enrich your skin complexion and glow, consider grabbing a slice every once in a while.
These fruits are rich in minerals such as vitamin C, manganese, and water. These are the essential components required for the production of collagen in the skin, preventing lumps, acne, wrinkles, and sagging skin. It also improves joint health in jaws and muscles.
More so, the nutritious water within helps hydrate the skin releasing an effective glow up. During humid conditions, rich antioxidants within the juice function as a sun-guard to prevent UV damage of your skin cells.
12. Treats Symptoms of Ulcerative Colitis
These fruits possess unique properties which can decrease inflammation. The Bromelain enzyme contained in the fruit and juice invokes the release of cytokines by signaling these peptides (proteins) to remediate swellings within your colon and intestine.
This, in turn, eases the pain within persons suffering from inflammatory bowel disease such as ulcerative colitis (affects the inner regions of your large intestine). Sipping some juice can directly get to these hard to reach places and reduce ulcers within your digestive tract.
13. Helps Cure A Fever
Consuming rich sources of vitamin C is recommended to keep illnesses and conditions at bay. Pineapples are examples of fruits rich in nutrients and vitamins.
The acidic nature and enzymes present in the juice can soothe an ailing sore throat and eradicate bacteria within the esophagus. Fighting the bacteria can help lower fever, in some cases. Therefore, some natural juices, like pineapple juice, can serve as an effective remedy for fever and flu.
14. Reduced Menstrual Cramps
Most tropical fruits contain natural bromelain enzymes, which can decrease dysmenorrhea/menstrual cramps. The protein eases the pain triggered by uterine contractions (PGE2).
It enhances PGE1 levels responsible for relaxing the muscles within the uterus, which is why bromelain pills and medication is often used to alleviate the pain of menstrual cramps.
Therefore, drinking some fresh juice has the same effect. It’s a cheaper, natural, tastier way of relieving cramps.
Final Thoughts on Including Pineapple in Your Diet
Incorporating pineapples into your diet can provide significant advantages to your health and lifestyle while packing rich nutrients, reduced calories, and antioxidants. The good thing about these fruits is that they are versatile.
You can consume them in a variety of ways, such as dicing into cubes, frying, blending to juice, or mixing in rice and deserts while still getting the nutrients you need. Remember, as you adjust this tropical fruit into your diet, exercise to experience immersive health benefits fully.