FRESNO, CA - One surefire way to draw consumers to a category is by boasting its health benefits. Giving the industry more ammo to drive table grape consumption, the California Table Grape Commission (CTGC) has pointed to a recent study published in the scientific journal Antioxidants that found consuming grapes protected against ultraviolet (UV) damage to the skin.
“‘Let thy food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food’ dates back to the time of Hippocrates. Now, after 2500 years, as exemplified by this human study conducted with dietary grapes, we are still learning the reality of this statement,” said John Pezzuto, lead author of the paper and Professor and Dean at Western New England University in Springfield, Massachusetts.
According to a press release, study subjects showed increased resistance to sunburn after consuming just over two cups of grapes every day for two weeks, and subjects displaying UV resistance demonstrated unique microbiomic and metabolomic profiles suggesting a correlation between the gut and skin.
As noted by the commission, natural components known as polyphenols found in grapes are thought to be responsible for these beneficial effects.
During this investigation, researchers examined the impact of consuming whole grape powder—equivalent to 2 ¼ cups of grapes per day—for 14 days against photodamage from UV light in 29 humans. The subjects’ skin response to UV light was measured before and after consuming grapes for two weeks by determining the threshold dose of UV radiation that induced visible reddening after 24 hours.
In result, one-third of the tested subjects demonstrated UV resistance following grape consumption, as well as significant differences in the microbiome and metabolome compared with the non-responders. In addition, three of the UV-resistant subjects showed a durable response where UV protection remained after reverting back to no grape consumption for four more weeks, suggesting that a segment of the population is capable of resisting sunburn following grape consumption and that there is a correlation between the gut-skin axis and UV resistance.
These health benefits of grapes are extremely vital as over 3 million Americans are affected by skin cancer each year, with most cases associated with exposure to UV radiation from the sun.
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