As the 2020 California table grape season kicks off, the Fresno-based California Table Grape Commission has compiled a health info sheet that touts the health benefits of California table grapes.
The info sheet combines results of research on the benefits grapes provide to brain, heart and colon health with data from two professors at Tufts Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy in Boston. It shows how healthful diets that include grapes can help strengthen the immune system and perhaps help lessen the effects of illnesses such as COVID-19, according to a news release.
The commission also shares information from two recent magazine articles that detail several ways grape consumption can positively impact health.
A Good Housekeeping magazine article titled “10 Health Benefits of Grapes That’ll Make You Want to Eat the Whole Bunch” tells how grapes help regulate blood pressure, lower the risk of diabetes and can help with weight loss or management, the release said.
An article in Men’s Health titled “Feast Upon the 100 Best Foods for Men” points out the antioxidant power of grapes to help fight disease.
Government officials, registered dietitians and members of the medical community have stressed the importance of supporting immune function through a healthy diet during the COVID-19 pandemic, the release pointed out.
Eating more fruits and vegetables daily can help improve immune function and prevent heart disease and diabetes, the release said. A CNN op-ed piece titled “How Your Diet Can Help Flatten the Curve” by Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist and dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science & Policy at Tufts University; Dan Glickman, former U.S. secretary of agriculture; and Simin Nikbin Meydani, nutrition science professor at Tufts University, provides important facts on how a healthy diet contributes to improved overall health, the release said.
Highlights include:
- Higher intakes of specific nutrients appear to boost the immune system, while low intakes lead to less effective immune responses and higher susceptibility to infection;
- Beyond the measures taken to fight the virus in the short term, long-term impacts must be reduced. Preventing and lessening the severity of existing cardiovascular disease and diabetes should be a key tactic; and
- A recent multi-investigator study estimated that about 45% of all cardiovascular disease and diabetes deaths are directly attributable to poor diet, and another study estimated that poor diet kills about 530,000 Americans annually — an average of nearly 1,500 deaths every day Studies have found that grapes are heart healthy and linked to benefits in multiple areas of health, including support for immune function, the release said.
The commission’s health info sheet is available at grapesfromcalifornia.com.
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