Fruits are a vitamin storehouse. Superfruits? They are much more than that. A gift from mother nature. Here are 10 such superfruits to jazz up your diet.

Fruits are widely known for their vitamin storehouse. Need Vitamin C? Have some oranges or grapes. It’s a household practice to teach kids the importance of having fruits mainly because of its nutritional value in terms of supplying quality vitamins to the body.

But,

That’s not the only reason fruits are sometimes referred to as nature’s gift to us for a healthy life.

Fruits are much more than a vitamin bomb. They have numerous compounds in them which mingle with your body in various ways to either make or break it.

You might be wondering:

“Are you talking about some exotic fruits or are you nuts?”

Well, neither of them. Some of the most common fruits have some of the most extraordinary benefits (yes, I’m serious).

With that said, here are 10 fruits which are heroes in their own sense and will take your overall health levels through the roof:

1. Grape

Apart from being rich in Vitamin C and Vitamin B6, grapes have anti-inflammatory properties too.

What’s more:

Grapes might be the new hero when it comes to promoting eye health. Move over, carrots.

A Grape-enriched diet has shown to increase the performance of the eyes and also a thicker retina, according to this study.

Consuming grapes on a regular basis can also help you prevent various eye disorders such as the ocular inflammatory disease.

Furthermore, this study shows that grapes can reduce acute inflammation in your eyes by about 95%. That’s like healing it completely (🙀).

That’s not all:

Grapes have a compound called resveratrol. Resveratrol acts as an antioxidant. Regular consumption of grapes improves your heart function, makes it strong and boosts up your endurance.

Even people who have coronary artery disease seem to benefit from having grapes regularly for a long time mainly because of resveratrol in them.

In fact, resveratrol is so popular these days that companies have started making supplements containing this compound (you know the fitness industry).

You don’t need to have supplements though. A healthy dose of grapes should be good enough to reap the benefits.

Adding grapes to your diet

• Carry them with you and have them raw as a quick snack.
• Slice them and top some on your salad.
• Juice them up and have a refreshing drink.
• Treat yourself to some lovely grape recipes.

2. Avocado

If you are looking for something rich in Vitamin K and Vitamin B6, avocados are a great choice.

Avocados are very rich in potassium as well (richer than bananas and Bill Gates). A regularly sized avocado will serve you with approximately 975 mg of potassium.

That’s 20% of the recommended daily intake value.

Being high in potassium, avocados will help you keep your blood pressure levels to a check and minimize any risk of having a stroke. In fact, a higher intake of potassium is linked to a 24% lower risk of stroke.

According to a study, adding avocados to your meaty meal such as a hamburger will prevent your blood pressure from shooting for the stars. This is mainly because it prevents constriction of your blood vessels, thus, maintaining a healthy blood pressure level

Feeling your blood pressure’s been soaring lately?

Bring that bird (🦅) down with some fresh avocados.

Eating avocados can also be beneficial for your eye health. This is mainly due to a carotenoid called lutein which protects the eye from the damaging blue light.

It doesn’t end here:

Eating avocados will lower your chances of having a prostate or a breast cancer, mainly due to the various carotenoids present in the fruit.

Adding avocados to your diet

• Add some to your salads or a regular meal.
• Scoop out a portion and enjoy. Take a cue from this video.
• Try out these easy and healthy recipes.

3. Apple

What is rich in fiber, Vitamin A, and Vitamin C while at the same time not expensive af?

Apple. The fruit, obviously.

Need some help in protecting yourself from type 2 diabetes?

Turns out eating an apple a day cuts down your risk of having type 2 diabetes by 28% compared to omitting apples from your diet. This is beneficial when you are having it as a whole rather than juicing it.

Some studies suggest that eating apples might help you lower your risk of having asthma. Although there are no strong pieces of evidence to this claim, eating apples regularly might help.

It’s not over yet:

Apples have pectin. Pectin is a substance which acts as a prebiotic to feed the good bacteria in your gut and keep you healthy.

Apart from the numerous benefits of keeping your gut healthy, the prebiotic property of apples makes it a good candidate for protecting your heart health as well.

An apple a day does keep the doctor away.

Adding apples to your diet

• Carry one with you to work and have it as a snack.
• Be sure to have it with the skin on it. The skin has a lot of beneficial fiber.
• Cut some apples, throw in some other fruits and make a fruit salad.
• Get inspired from these sweet recipes.

4. Orange

Vitamin C in oranges is a no-brainer. It’s a very common practice to eat citrus fruits like oranges or have some juice made from them to increase your Vitamin C intake.

What is less known is the fact that citrus fruits such as oranges can alleviate the formation of troublesome kidney stones.

How?

You have a higher risk of forming kidney stones if your urine has low citrate concentration. This is because urinary citrate helps in clearing crystals by binding with calcium to form a complex of their own. 

As a result, there are no free calcium crystals to agglomerate and form stones.

You might be thinking:

“How does orange fit in here?”

The deal is, having oranges on a regular basis will keep your urinary citrate levels high. A high citrate level will, in turn, prevent stone formation in your kidney and flush out the bad stuff down the drain (👍🏻).

Flavonoids present in oranges, particularly Quercetin, might be helpful in keeping neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases at bay.

It is believed that this sort of behaviour is possible due to the anti-inflammatory attitude of the flavonoids present in oranges.

What’s more:

Some studies even indicate that adding oranges to the diet might improve brain function in older adults.

Resist the temptation of having an orange flavoured soda (🍹) and have some real oranges.

Adding oranges to your diet

• Add some oranges to your breakfast or lunch.
• Make sure you eat them as a whole. The fiber content will counter the chance of an insulin spike by all those fructose in the fruit.
• Juice while easy to ingest and tasty too, is not as healthy as the whole food.
• If you get bored, here are some cool recipes.

5. Berry

Another fruit high in Vitamin C is berries. Not only that, berries provide a healthy dose of much-needed fiber as well.

What’s more interesting:

Berries contain a substance called anthocyanin. Not only do they give the berries their colour, but are also responsible for reducing inflammation in the body. [24]

Inflammation being a major factor in diseases like Alzheimer’s or type 2 diabetes, adding berries to your diet will shield you from these nasty intruders.

Not only that:

Anthocyanins in the berries are known to stop the growth of cancer cells in your body. This study shows that consuming berries can help you cut down your risk of having lung cancer by about 54%.

That’s a pretty healthy percentage.

Your body’s immune system has an army called natural killer cells. These cells detect any abnormal cell growth and viral infections.

Consuming berries on a regular basis for about a month will add some new recruits to the army. In short, berries increase your natural killer cell count, making you more immune to various diseases and tumors.

That’s not all:

According to some studies, berries can help you look young by preventing your skin from wrinkling (finally, the secret to youth).

Wrinkling is mainly due to collagen damage that happens when your skin is exposed to the harmful UV-B rays from the sun.

Ellagic acid, present in berries, protects your skin by minimizing collagen damage. [27]

Ditch those aging creams and have some berries.

Adding berries to your diet

• Berries are super-portable like grapes. A lovely choice for your snack time.
• Add some fresh blueberries or raspberries to a cup of plain Greek yogurt to jazz it up.
• Make that oatmeal interesting by adding some fresh or dried berries.
• Delight your taste buds with these wonderful recipes.

6. Pineapple

Stock up your magnesium reserves with some fresh pineapples. Did I mention? Vitamin C comes as an added advantage.

However, that’s not the best part.

One of the best reasons to add pineapple to your diet is because of its protein digestion abilities.

Proteins are hard to digest. Your body has to go through strenuous work to break down those little bastards.

Thankfully, pineapple has an enzyme called bromelain. Bromelain helps your body digest proteins pretty efficiently and fairly easy.

This helps especially when you are on a high protein diet. No more constipation or that bloated feeling (phew!).

Surprisingly, kiwi also has an enzyme called actinidin which acts similar to bromelain and aids your digestion, especially proteins.

What’s more:

Bromelain present in pineapples also helps in breaking down blood clots and prevent them from getting worse.

Watch out Wolverine, you have competition (😉).

But, that’s not all:

Consuming pineapples can help you ward off cancer mainly due to its superstar component – bromelain.

Like we needed another reason to add pineapple to our diet.

Adding pineapples to your diet

• The best way is to cut them up and eat them whole.
• Grill them up and enjoy.
• Add some to your salads or meals, and make it interesting.
• Be creative with some of these cool recipes.

7. Watermelon

Apart from being rich in Vitamin A and Vitamin C, watermelons have an extra edge.

They are mostly water – 92% approximately. If there’s something called holy water, watermelon is that thing.

Watermelons are a very good source of a biological compound called Cucurbitacin E. This compound has shown to possess anti-tumorigenic properties.

Meaning, having watermelons can help you lower the risk of developing a tumor and having some sort of cancer.

Not only that:

Another nifty component present in watermelons is lycopene. Lycopene helps reduce lipid peroxidation (a reaction which causes damage to the cell membranes).

Apart from saving your cell membranes, by reducing lipid peroxidation, lycopene also brings down the concentration of your cholesterol in the blood.

Here’s another one:

Studies have shown that high intake of lycopene-rich watermelons helps you prevent a heart attack by clearing off blockages in your artery.

Looks like watermelons are in love with your heart.

Adding watermelons to your diet

• They are delicious and refreshing. Slice some up and enjoy.
• Add some to your fruit salad.
• Pickle them into a tangy snack.
• Check out these brilliant recipes and never run out of ways to enjoy watermelons.

8. Mango

Often known as the “king of fruits”, mangoes are literally vitamin bombs. A whole mango will stock you up with 203% of your daily Vitamin C requirement.

Don’t forget Vitamin A. Mangoes are a very rich source of Vitamin A, as well. You can satisfy your day’s Vitamin A requirements with a single mango.

What’s interesting:

It’s a way lot tastier than those vitamin supplements.

That’s all?

Nopes. Mangoes aren’t just vitamin bombs. They are much more than that.

According to a study by Oklahoma State University, regular consumption of as little as 10 g of freeze-dried mangoes can help you tame your blood glucose levels in the long run.

This is helpful because irregular blood glucose levels are strongly related to obesity and diabetes. Therefore, you can keep that in check by having some delicious mangoes.

A word of caution:

Don’t gulp in too much of mangoes in the hopes of getting slim as it might backfire on your plan due to its sugar content (control your cravings).

It continues:

Mangoes are rich in magnesium as well. Magnesium has been linked to reducing high blood pressure.

This is mainly because magnesium dilates your blood vessels which in turn decreases your blood pressure.

Not only that, proper levels of magnesium in your body will help you counter a cardiovascular disease.

Sweet and sexy (😎).

Adding mangoes to your diet

• The best way to have mangoes is to cut them up and enjoy them ripe.
• You can top your dessert with some mango cubes to give it an extra and healthy touch.
• If you are looking for more ways, consider these tasty recipes.

9. Pomegranate

If you think apple was the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden, then you might want to relook into that.

Turns out that pomegranate, apart from being rich in Vitamin C & Vitamin K, has the ability to lower your chances of having an erectile dysfunction.

In a study conducted among 53 men having mild to moderate erectile dysfunction, drinking pomegranate juice regularly showed improvements.

This is mainly due to the fact that pomegranate has ample amounts of dietary nitrates which tend to improve blood flow in the body by increasing the diameter of your blood vessels.

You might have seen most pre-workout supplements contain some form of nitrate. Now you know why.

An increased blood flow is not only helpful during the night, but can also assist you in getting a better and longer workout (🤾🏻‍♂️).

Can it get any better?

Yes, it does:

It may be helpful to boost up your memory as well.

In a study of 28 middle-aged and old individuals who drank about 237 ml (8 oz) of pomegranate juice for a period of 4 weeks, performed better in both verbal and visual memory tasks.

Adding pomegranates to your diet

• Like most fruits, you can eat them as it is.
• If you would prefer, you can juice this one and have a refreshing drink.
• You can also sprinkle some pomegranate seeds on your favourite breakfast or salad.
• If you need more inspiration, here are some nifty recipes to help you out.

10. Cherry

Cherries are rich in potassium and Vitamin C. However, that doesn’t make them a superfruit. The bar is higher than that.

Cherries pass the bar mainly due to their sleep improvement properties.

Turns out that cherries are very rich in melatonin – the sleep hormone. [42][43] As a result of that, adding cherries to your diet can help you improve your total sleep duration and overall sleep quality.

Want to sleep like a baby (👶🏻)?

Drink some cherry juice.

Furthermore, in a study on 20 individuals who drank tart cherry juice for a week showed better sleep quality and duration. 

However, cherry juice seems to have no effect on our body’s natural sleep cycle. You won’t be falling asleep after having a glass of cherry juice (well, you can’t have everything).

It can only improve your overall sleep quality and make you wake up much more refreshed.

Adding cherries to your diet

• Enjoy them as a whole after removing the pit from them. Here are some easy ways to remove the pit without a pitter.
• Add some to your salads.
• Top cherries some on your yogurt or dessert.
• To spice things up, here’s a grand list of some delicious recipes.

Juice or whole?

While juicing fruits is pretty convenient and easy to gulp down, it’s not a very healthy choice.

Why?

This is mainly because juicing fruits destroys most of the fiber content in them.

Therefore, having a fruit juice instead of the whole fruit will increase your chances of having an insulin spike because of all those simple sugars in them and no fiber to counter that.

Most fruits have a lot of dietary fiber in them. Take advantage of that by eating them and not juicing them.

What to do now?

Now that you have got a handy list of superfruits that you can add to your diet, it’s time that you have a plan.

• You can buy these fruits in moderate quantities, let’s say for a week.
• Keep them refrigerated.
• You don’t need to have all of them every single day.
• Rotate fruits from this list to have variety every day.
• Be creative with your fruits salads by rotating the fruits you put into it.
• Carry portable fruits like grapes, cherries, berries, etc. with you to work and have some as a snack from time to time.
• Make it a habit to have ample amounts of fruits every day.

It’s time to get healthy af. Superfruits to your rescue.

Share this article to make your friends healthy af too.

One last thing, which one’s your favourite fruit?