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SUPERFOOD: GRAPES CHECKS THE BOXES




Fresh grapes aren’t just a sweet snack—they’re packed with more than 1,600 naturally occurring compounds that offer profound benefits for your heart, brain, skin, gut, and even your genes. Recent research is putting grapes in the spotlight, arguing that they deserve a place among the world’s top superfoods.

A new article in the Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, written by renowned resveratrol and cancer expert Dr. John M. Pezzuto, dives into why grapes should be recognized as a true superfood. While the term “superfood” gets tossed around a lot and isn’t strictly defined, it usually refers to foods loaded with plant-based compounds linked to good health. Grapes, Dr. Pezzuto points out, are often left off these lists—despite packing a bigger punch than most people realize.

What makes grapes stand out? They’re a natural source of a vast variety of polyphenols, including things like flavonoids, anthocyanidins, catechins, phenolic acids, and the much-talked-about resveratrol. These compounds work together in the whole grape, creating effects that go far beyond what any single nutrient can do. Their impact ranges from fighting oxidative stress to influencing how your cells behave.

The science backs it up: Over sixty peer-reviewed studies have looked at how grapes affect health. The evidence is robust when it comes to the heart—grapes can help blood vessels relax, improve circulation, and help manage cholesterol. But the benefits don’t stop there. Clinical trials show that grapes support brain function (helping with cognition and healthy brain metabolism), protect skin from UV damage and DNA harm, encourage a healthy gut microbiome, and even boost eye health by increasing the eye’s protective pigments.

Perhaps most intriguing, eating grapes seems to affect gene expression in ways that promote better health—a field known as nutrigenomics. Dr. Pezzuto suggests that these genetic effects might be the real secret behind grapes’ wide-ranging benefits.

Ian LeMay, president of the California Table Grape Commission, sums it up: “Dr. Pezzuto shows that based on the science, grapes are indeed a superfood, and should be recognized as such. Luckily, whether eaten for health reasons or just because they taste great, California grapes are a win for consumers.”

So next time you reach for a snack, remember: those grapes in your fridge are doing a lot more for you than you might think.

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