16 Powerful Reasons Why You Should Eat More Pineapples

Do you eat pineapples regularly?

If you only whip out the fruit during barbecues and cocktail hour, you’re missing out on a lot.

Not only are pineapples absolutely delicious, they’re also great for your skin, bones, and digestive tract. And that’s not all!

Here are 16 reasons to put eat pineapples more often.

1. It’s Rich in Nutrients

This tropical fruit is packed with vitamin C, thiamin, vitamin b6, folate, manganese, and copper. Not convinced that you should eat more? Well, pineapple is also packed with niacin, pantothenic acid, magnesium, potassium, and countless other vitamins and minerals (1).

2. It Keeps Your Bones Strong

Just one cup of pineapple contains 76% of your daily value of manganese. Combined with zinc, calcium, and copper, manganese prevents bone loss caused by osteoporosis (2).

3. It Helps You Digest

Eating a few slices of pineapple for dessert can help your digest a meat-heavy meal since bromelain help break down proteins (3). It also fights inflammation in the pancreas to assist with sugar metabolism and reverse diabetes (4).

4. It Improves Your Smile

Your dentist probably never you this, but vitamin C is essential for your gums. Vitamin C deficiency is known to cause gum inflammation, bleeding gums, capillary fragility, and eventually, tooth loss (5). Eating more pineapple will strengthen your gums and keep gingivitis, periodontal disease, and other gum conditions at bay (6)!

5. It Soothes Sore Joints

Pineapple is so good for your joints that the Arthritis foundation recommends its use to manage joint pain and mobility loss. The fruit works just as well as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (like ibuprofen) in treating rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and osteoarthritis (7).

6. It Regulates Blood Pressure

Pineapple contains potassium citrate, which has the ability to control blood pressure by counteracting the debilitating effects of excessive sodium consumption (8).

7. It Prevents Cancer

Pineapple stem, which can be steeped into a tea, prevents cancer cell proliferation and even induce apoptosis. It’s suggested its active compound, bromelain, can be used as a chemopreventive agent against the notoriously aggressive colon cancer (9).
The fruit can also act against prostate cancer and researchers believe it may have even more therapeutic uses (10).

8. It Cures A Stubborn Cough

The tropical fruit’s high vitamin C content boosts immune response and soothes pain and inflammation in the throat. Fresh pineapple juice loosens up phlegm, soothes inflammation, and suppresses a cough just as well as cough medicine, plus it won’t make you drowsy (11)!

9. It Keeps Your Eyes Sharp

Pineapples contain healthy levels of vitamin A, making them a prime snack for your eyesight, skin, and mucous membranes. Combined with other nutrients found in the fruit, vitamin A can even slow the progression of macular degeneration (12).

10. It Prevent Blood Clots

Pineapple has anti-coagulant properties, which may be beneficial for people whose bodies cannot naturally dissolve the odd clot that forms in their veins (13).

11. It Supports Weight Loss

Being full of fiber, pineapple can increase satiety, slow the release of glucose in the blood, and ward off emotional eating (14). Plus, they’re sweet and satisfying!

12. It Eases An Upset Stomach

Pineapple juice is traditionally used to alleviate heartburn and cure an upset stomach. However, drinking too much may result in diarrhea and the fruit can also cause digestive distress in individuals allergic to the fruit (15).

13. It Boosts Fertility

Pineapples are rumored to improve uterine lining and reduce inflammation caused by endometriosis, which may increase your chances of conceiving naturally (16).

14. It Supports Healing And Reducing Inflammation

Regular consumption of fresh and frozen pineapple helps keep inflammation in check. It also improves healing time of injured tissue and reduces pain. Pineapple may also benefit patients suffering from inflammatory bowel disease (17).

15. It Firms Up Your Skin

Once again, pineapple’s vitamin C is at the forefront of its benefits! The vitamin is used by your body to form new skin, tendons, ligaments, and blood vessels; heal wounds; form scar tissue and repair and maintain, bones, and teeth (18). You can even combine it with honey and yogurt to apply it directly to your skin for a firming face mask.

16. It’s A Natural Meat Tenderizer

Bromelain separates amino acids to separate peptide bonds, which softens tough meats to make them easier to chew (19). Pineapple compliments many different proteins, so get a little bold in the kitchen and incorporate it into a few of your meals!

You might even want to try grow your own at home.