The Fruit Linked To Better Heart Health, Lower Diabetes Risk, And Great Poops
It’s officially plum season in the UK. And if you didn’t already know, the common fruits are pretty great for us – they’ve been associated withslower brain ageing, better bone health, and even a reduced risk. . .
It’s officially plum season in the UK. And if you didn’t already know, the common fruits are pretty great for us – they’ve been associated withslower brain ageing, better bone health, and even a reduced risk of some cancers. As it happens, pears are about to reach their prime too. Some research suggests those are also beneficial for everything from the heart to the gut. Here’s what the research says. What are the health benefits of pears?1) They could help you poopAround one in seven adults in the UKhas constipation at any given time. Luckily, pears could help: they’rehigh in fructose and sorbitol, which can act as a mild laxative. Pears also contain adecent amount of fibre, especially when eaten with their skins – justone offersaround a fifth of the recommended 30g a day. This bulks out stool andcan benefit our gut health. 2) They may be good for your heartA smallstudy involving 40participants found that eating two pears a day for 12 weeks appeared to lower heart disease risk factors, like high blood pressure, among those with metabolic syndrome. We already know thatfibre is good for our heart health, but pears also contain theantioxidant quercetin, linked tolower rates ofcardiovascular disease. 3) They might help to lower your risk of type 2 diabetesOne study foundthat for every serving of pear a person consumes a week, their risk of type 2 diabetes dropped by 3%. Researchers thinkthis might be because they contain anthocyanins, which may lead to lower diabetes risk. 4) They could decrease inflammationThough a certain degree of inflammation can be normal and even healthy, uncontrolled inflammation –sometimes called “inflammaging”– can damage our cells and speed up the ageing process. Pearscontainpowerful antioxidants called flavonoids, which some researchsuggestscould have an anti-inflammatory effect on the body. 5) They might have anticancer propertiesPears contain compounds like anthocyanins andcinnamic acid. Anthocyaninshave been shownto have anticancer effects on both tumours and lab tissues, and cinnamic acid has been shown toreverse some cancerous growth. However, the way those compounds are used in a lab does not always translate to how they’re actually processed in the body, and we don’t have any specific studies looking at pears and cancer risk.