There are more than 200 varieties of raspberries, all in the genus family called Rubus. The raspberry is a red fruit that is made up of a small cluster of tiny juice filled pieces. This fruit is high in antioxidants and has multiple other health benefits as well.
Health Benefits
Raspberries are full of anti-inflammatory phytonutrients as well as antioxidants. The phytonutrients protect the human body from oxidative stress, inflammation, high blood pressure, obesity, and chronic disease.
The phytonutrient compound found in raspberries is especially helpful in preventing Crohn’s disease and inflammatory issues. Below are a few more specifics on the benefits of raspberries.
- Prevents Obesity and Diabetes: The ketones in raspberries help fight against obesity by supporting the body in properly metabolizing blood sugars and fat stores. When this process takes place, rather than additional fat being stored, the body burns it as a source of energy. As fat cells are depleted weight is lost.
- Reduces the Risk of Cancer: Anti-inflammatories and antioxidants, along with vitamin C help reduce the occurrence of some cancers. The raspberries makeup of phytonutrients may also play a huge role in providing protection to people who already have cancer. Not only do phytonutrients help prevent the formation of new cancer cells but signal the cancerous cells to destroy themselves. Research is still being conducted, but regardless raspberries can play a beneficial role in good health.
- Reduces Wrinkles: The combination of antioxidants and levels of vitamin C in raspberries can effectively help reduce wrinkles and fade age spots. While enjoying them as a food offers some benefit, when the raspberries are applied directly to the skin in a mixture of plain yogurt, it helps restore a youthful glow to the skin as well as smoothing away wrinkles.
Raspberries have also been helpful in regulating hormonal levels for lactating mothers, pregnant women, and menopausal women.
About Raspberries
The history of the raspberry is not clearly defined. The fruit grows wild in five different continents and includes an arctic species found in Alaska; another species is native to the Hawaiian Islands as well as Eastern Asia and still more in Europe and North America.
It is thought Europe was the first to grow them commercially, beginning more than 2,000 years ago and the theory of their vast presence across multiple contents is through trading during traveling expeditions, and also during prehistoric times, the hunter-gatherers would travel long distances to find food. Since the berries grew wild, most likely they were enjoyed for sustenance during these long journeys and the remnants left behind during traveling produced the raspberry vines throughout various parts of the world.
In today’s society, it ranks at the top of the list in popular berries and hundreds of thousands of raspberries are produced annually in Russia, the United States, Poland, and Chile.
