Do you eat pineapples regularly?
If you only whip out the fruit during barbecues and cocktail hour, you’re missing out on a lot.
Not only are pineapples absolutely delicious, they’re also great for your skin, bones, and digestive tract. And that’s not all!
Here are 16 reasons to put eat pineapples more often.
1. It’s Rich in Nutrients
This tropical fruit is packed with vitamin C, thiamin, vitamin b6, folate, manganese, and copper. Not convinced that you should eat more? Well, pineapple is also packed with niacin, pantothenic acid, magnesium, potassium, and countless other vitamins and minerals (1).
2. It Keeps Your Bones Strong
Just one cup of pineapple contains 76% of your daily value of manganese. Combined with zinc, calcium, and copper, manganese prevents bone loss caused by osteoporosis (2).
3. It Helps You Digest
Eating a few slices of pineapple for dessert can help your digest a meat-heavy meal since bromelain help break down proteins (3). It also fights inflammation in the pancreas to assist with sugar metabolism and reverse diabetes (4).
4. It Improves Your Smile
Your dentist probably never you this, but vitamin C is essential for your gums. Vitamin C deficiency is known to cause gum inflammation, bleeding gums, capillary fragility, and eventually, tooth loss (5). Eating more pineapple will strengthen your gums and keep gingivitis, periodontal disease, and other gum conditions at bay (6)!
5. It Soothes Sore Joints
Pineapple is so good for your joints that the Arthritis foundation recommends its use to manage joint pain and mobility loss. The fruit works just as well as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (like ibuprofen) in treating rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and osteoarthritis (7).
6. It Regulates Blood Pressure
Pineapple contains potassium citrate, which has the ability to control blood pressure by counteracting the debilitating effects of excessive sodium consumption (8).
7. It Prevents Cancer
Pineapple stem, which can be steeped into a tea, prevents cancer cell proliferation and even induce apoptosis. It’s suggested its active compound, bromelain, can be used as a chemopreventive agent against the notoriously aggressive colon cancer (9).
The fruit can also act against prostate cancer and researchers believe it may have even more therapeutic uses (10).