Fruit Prevents Heart Disease
According to Dr.Gabe Mirkin, "Increasing fruit intake from five to eight servings a day prevents heart attacks and prolongs life. for every additional above two per day, there is a four percent decrease in the rate of heart disesase deaths." Fruits contain substances that are found in plants that help prevent cardiovascular disease. Not eating enough fruit in general is a major risk factor for heart attacks and premature death.
Fruit Helps Your Eyes
Fruit has many benefits towards your eyes. For example, the Vitamin A in carrots help your night vision. Other fruits help to prevent two common eye diseases for those that are getting older. Those two are cataracts and mascular degeneration. Those two diseases affect millions of Americans that are over the age of 65. Cataract is the gradual clouding of the eye's lenses. While, macular degeneration is caused by continuous damage to the macula, the center of the retina. The symptoms start with a blurred spot in the center of what you see and eventually your vision shrinks completely. Free radicals from the sun, cigarette smoke, air pollution and infection cause a lot of this damage. Lutein and zeaxanthin are two pigments that are found in brightly colored fruits, including corn, squash, kiwi, and grapes. These two pigments appear to be able to narrow out the free radicals before they can harm the eye's sensitive tissues. Studies have shown that a diet that if full of brightly colored fruits have been able to reduce a person's chances of developing cataracts or macular degeneration.
Gastrointestinal Health
One of the most beneficial things about fruit is that it has indigestible fiber. As fiber goes through your system, it absorbs water almost like a sponge and then it expands. This action can calm the irritated bowel and by triggering reguar bowel movements, you can relieve and prevent constipation. The release of insoluble fiber also decreases the pressure inside the intestinal tract. This also may help prevent diverticulosis. Diverticulosis is the development of tiny, easily irritated pouches that are inside the colon. The National Cancer Institute and The United States Department of Agriculture recommend eating 5 to 9 servings of fruit a day to maintain regular intestinal health. Certain fruits are better than other. For example, jackfruits stand out in the gastrointestinal region of your system. Jackfruits are known to have helped cure ulcers and indigestion. The fiber from jackfruits offer protection to the mucus membrane of the colon by pushing away the cancer causing chemicals from the colon.
Your Brain
Studies have proven that a diet that consists of a lot of fruit, can actually help to prevent some of the symptoms of diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and other conditions that deteriorate the brain. In an article in ACS' Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, Barbara Shukitt-Hale Ph.D. and Marshall G. Miller write about how lifespans are shrinking and memory loss diseases (ex.Alzheimer's) treatment is becoming more and more expensive. In response, a study was done to prove if berries actually have an effect on a human's memory.