Heart Health Benefits of Juicing Resveratrol
Health Benefits of Juicing
Fruits and vegetables are packed with heart healthy antioxidants, and juicing is one of the best methods for supplying ourselves with an abundance of these antioxidants. The antioxidants in a juice are readily absorbed into the blood stream and require hardly any digestion. This greatly improves the bio-availability of these antioxidants, meaning that more of them will make it to your cells to protect them.
There are several specific antioxidants that have been shown in studies to significantly reduce your risk of atherosclerosis; a condition that it is a leading factor in heart disease. Resveratrol is one such antioxidant.
Health Benefits of Juicing Resveratrol
Reveratrol is one of the more famous heart healthy antioxidants. It has been thought of for a long time to be a key ingredient in the heart health benefits of red grapes and red wine.
Until recently, research in human volunteers had not been conducted, and the heart health evidence of resveratrol had been limited to animal and test tube studies only. However, in January 2010 results were released from two different studies, delivering powerful evidence for the heart health benefits of resveratrol.
Both studies independently found that supplementation of resveratrol significantly increased flow mediated dilation (FMD) of the brachial artery – one of the main arteries that delivers blood to the heart. FMD is a measurement of how well an artery can expand to pump blood around the body, the higher the score the healthier the artery. In fact, resveratrol supplementation increased FMD up to 63% ! The benefits of an increased FMD includes lowering blood pressure in those with hypertension and a dramatic decrease in the likelihood of developing atherosclerosis.
Benefits of Grape Juice
Red grape juice is one of the best sources of resveratrol. The benefits of juicing a 5 oz glass of red grapes will supply you with about 1mg of highly bio-available resveratrol. Food sources are always more bio-available than supplements. Other sources include blueberries, bilberries and cranberries, although in lesser amounts, so the juicing benefits are a little less.
Juicing Tips for Grapes
Grapes are very easy to juice - no peeling or chopping – all they require is washing. Grape seeds are small and are no problem for juicer machines. In fact, I recommend using seeded grapes because the seeds contain anti-bacterial properties. You will also notice that homemade grape juice looks cloudy compared to most commercial grape juices. This is a good thing – the cloud means more nutrition. Commercial juices are usually filtered so they look clear, but some of the antioxidants like resveratrol are lost in the process.
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