People have been using grapes for centuries because they are easy to grow and are an important component in winemaking. Besides making wine, grapes are used in cocktails, mocktails, desserts, salads, and making raisins. For these reasons, grapes are known as the queen of fruits.
Grapes are categorised as berries and are available in various types and colour shades. While the majority of grapes produced globally are used in the winemaking industry, the remaining percentage is used to make juices or dried fruits.
One of the popular grape juice in Malaysia is Welch’s, made from the best concord grapes. Like other grape products, Welch’s Concord grape juice has numerous health benefits.
Continue reading for in-depth insight into the health benefits of grape juice and particularly Welch’s Concord grape juice.
Health Benefits of Grape Juice
Grapes and grapevines have been in use for decades due to their medicinal value. For instance, Egyptians added grapes when making medicine or ointments used to treat eye and skin conditions. Their juice was used to control constipation, nausea, or diseases such as liver disease, smallpox, cholera, and cancer.
Improved technology has improved the process of making juice from different grapes and revealed the therapeutic benefits of consuming grape juice. 100% grape drinks have plenty of vitamin C, Potassium, Phosphorus, Magnesium, and Calcium. They also don’t have added sugars.
The following are 10 health benefits of grape juice.
1. Slows Down Memory Loss
Grapes have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties, which help to influence neuronal signalling. Thus consuming juice made from dark red and purple grapes may help to lower the risk of dementia because resveratrol serves as a brain tonic, thus boosting mood, learning, and spatial memory.
2. Controls Diabetes and Blood Glucose
Oxidative stress is the primary cause of diabetes mellitus but consuming grape juice reduces insulin resistance. This is because grapes have potent antioxidants like anthocyanins, flavonols, resveratrol, and phenolic acids that reduce insulin resistance.
3. Keeps Your Heart Healthy
Grapes are loaded with antioxidants such as resveratrol, procyanidins, quercetin, saponins, and tannins which protect your heart. You can find these phytochemicals in both grapes and their juice.
Concord grape juice is helpful when controlling your blood pressure, particularly when you have hypertension.
4. Lowers Blood Pressure
Grape juice has potassium that can help the body to remove excess sodium. It can also relax your blood vessels, thus lowering blood pressure. This property is higher in Concord grapes that make Welch’s grape juice.
5. Anticancer Properties
Regular intake of purple grape juice may help prevent DNA damage that can lead to cancer because its phytochemicals boost the plasma antioxidant capacity in the immune system cells.
6. Promote Digestion and Gut Health
Grapes have polyphenols, and although they have limited absorption, they help keep your guts free from oxidative stress, pathogens, and inflammation. Thus drinking grape juice will drastically change your gut microbial environment and promote its barrier integrity due to the increased growth of beneficial intestinal bacteria that improve digestion and assimilation.
7. Burns Fat
Taking wine and red grape juice helps the body to burn fat, while flour made from white grape seeds effectively manages metabolic diseases and obesity.
Muscadine grapes have ellagic acid that slows down the development of existing fat cells or the growth of new ones.
8. Protects Your Skin
Cranberries, grape juice, red wine, and peanuts have resveratrol which has antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects.
It contains decent amounts of hydrolyzed collagen that enhances skin health.
9. Prevent UTIs in Women
Cranberry and other purple grape juice may help to fight bacteria that cause UTIs. Proanthocyanidin in these grapes is similar to those in cranberries that block bacterial adhesion, contributing to UTIs.
Thus the compound prevents the UTI-causing bacteria E. coli from adhering to the walls of a woman’s bladder which causes burning sensations, smelly reddish-coloured urine, and itchiness.
10. Weight-Loss Friendly
Grape juice can help you lose weight because it has natural sugars instead of refined sugar or artificial sweeteners found in most carbonated drinks like soda. Thus taking grape juice helps you to kick out the soda habit.
However, you need to take it in portion size because it’s easy to overindulge in this high-calorie drink. A half-cup is actually enough for the day.
Why Welch’s Grape Juice is Healthier
Concord grapes are dark purple in colour and rich in antioxidants that protect your skin, thus keeping you youthful. They also prevent the heart and brain from inflammation. Actually, its skin is packed with several health-supporting nutrients.
Thus, Welch’s concord grape juice is healthier than those made from other berries for the following reasons.
Immunity Boosters
Concord grapes help to boost natural killer cells that equip your immune system to fight off foreign invaders and diseases. The increased production of these cells is due to concord grapes higher levels of vitamin C and oxidants. The immunity boost will keep you healthy during the cold season.
Improves Cognitive Function
Consuming 100% Concord grape juice will help to improve your attentiveness, reaction time, and mood levels, especially when your lifestyle is stressful or busy.
Further, these grapes increase blood in your brain’s memory part which declines as you age.
Lowers the Risk of Blood Pressure
This particular type of grapes contains a higher level of flavonoids. Resveratrol helps reduce blood pressure because it enhances blood fluidity, and relaxes the walls of arteries, thus decreasing pressure and increasing blood circulation.
They are Anti-Inflammatory
The grapes have various polyphenols, which reduce the body’s inflammatory response. Concord grapes’ antioxidant ability gets rid of free radicals from your body, thus keeping you younger.
This reason makes Welch juice which contains 100% concord grapes and no added sugar the best grape juice in Malaysia. You can take this healthy drink during breakfast, snack, and dinner or at any time during the day. However, do not overtake because of its high calories.
Takeaway
Different grapes are grown around the world and are used to make juice. Concord grapes are popular for making juice in Malaysia because of their numerous health benefits.
Thus the next time you visit your local grocery store, pick a bunch of Concord grapes and use them to make juice or other meals. Consuming grape juice will keep weight, heart, gut, and blood circulation under control.