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Better Heart and Bones with This Sweet Snack
This Week's Tips
Looking to satisfy your candy cravings with something tasty and good for you?
Try a handful of nature's guilt-free treats: dried plums. Research shows that they promote both heart and bone health.
Buff Bones
A laboratory study of the polyphenols in prunes showed that they boosted bone formation, density, and strength. How? By affecting the way certain bone-regulating gene cells are expressed. Take this quick and free online bone assessment to see if your bones are at risk.
A Plum Choice for Your Heart
Results from animal studies suggest that dried plums can help keep arteries clear. Researchers suspect that prune flavonoids help reduce the inflammation that plays a big role in artery disease. Find out about a vitamin that can help soothe atherosclerosis-inducing irritation.
Big Benefits, Little Package
If that isn't enough motivation to pick up a pack of prunes, consider this: Just 10 prunes delivers 20 percent of your daily potassium and copper requirements, 14 percent of your iron requirements, and 10 percent of your manganese and zinc requirements. Prunes also provide a whopping dose of the essential vitamins A, C, E, and B-complex, including folate. And we all know that prunes are a super source of fiber. Watch this how-to video for tips on bulking up your fiber intake.
Recipe Corner
Grab prunes while they're in season, and preserve them with this delicious recipe from the RealAge Recipe Box: Drunken Prunes.
RealAge Benefit:
Getting the right amount of antioxidants through diet or supplements can make your RealAge 6 years younger.
Dried plums (prunes) reduce atherosclerosis lesion area in apolipoprotein E-deficient mice. Gallaher, C. M., Gallaher, D. D., British Journal of Nutrition 2009 Jan;101(2):233-239.
Dried plum polyphenols attenuate the detrimental effects of TNF-alpha on osteoblast function coincident with up-regulation of Runx2, Osterix and IGF-I. Bu, S. Y. et al., Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry 2009 Jan;20(1):35-44.
Chemical composition and potential health effects of prunes: a functional food? Stacewicz-Sapuntzakis, M. et al., Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition 2001 May;41(4):251-286.
