The Great Grape Debate

Is there such a thing as an unhealthy fruit? Many natural health bloggers say yes, pointing to grapefruit and oranges as prime examples. But from my standpoint, no fruit has gotten more of a bum wrap than grapes.

I don’t know a person alive who doesn’t love grapes. They’re sweet, convenient and make great complements to cereals, salads and yogurts. They’re so good, in fact, that they’re often viewed as a guilty pleasure, on par with those tasty yet nutrition-less Hershey’s Kisses or any other decadent chocolate treat.

But to play devil’s advocate for a moment, perhaps these gripes about grapes have some legitimacy. After all, just three-fourths of a cup of grapes has 20 grams of sugar, a rather high amount compared to the 11 grams of sugar in a cup of blueberries, the 22 grams in half a cantaloupe or the smidgen found in a cup of raspberries (just two grams!).

So, from a sugar standpoint, I suppose there is some validity to their criticism. But there’s an aspect to sugar that these criticisms aren’t taking into account: sugar is not the same thing in all circumsances. One kind of sugar is entirely natural (fructose), while another is entirely refined (sucrose). Thus, they are absorbed and digested by the body differently; sucrose burns quicker and is converted to fat quicker, while fructose burns more efficiently and is used as a better source for energy. This is why fruits score low on the glycemic index score card (which is a good thing).

Beyond the sugar aspect – a flimsy, weak-kneed criticism, if you ask me – there’s really not much to gripe about. Grapes are low in calories (just 90 for 3/4ths of a cup), protect against heart disease, are chock-full of polyphenols (find out more about polyphenols in my article “Juice and Alzheimer’s”), and are one of the world’s best sources for manganese – an important mineral for anyone who wants healthy skin and bone development.

But the benefits go far beyond that (I didn’t even mention all the reported health benefits of red wine, which of course is made from fermented grape juice). According to the journal Agricultural Research, eating grapes diminishes the symptoms of type I diabetes. Researchers discovered this in lab tests with rats after adding grape powder to one of the group’s diets. They found that the progression of conditions associated with type I diabetes were slowed in the grape powder group. What’s more, the group that ate the grape powder lived longer than the control group!

Unlike type II diabetes, where the body either doesn’t produce enough insulin or the body’s cells don’t recognize insulin’s utility (i.e. to convert sugar into energy), insulin isn’t produced at all in type I diabetes. And while type II diabetes is far more common than type I overall, type I is far more common among youth than type II is. Based on figures from 2002-2003, the CDC estimates that the rate of type I diabetes is 19 cases in every 100,000 youth, compared to five cases in every 100,000 youth for type II diabetes. In short, type I diabetes remains a health issue worthy of natural alternative treatments.

Now, it goes without saying (but I’ll say it anyway) that eating pounds of grapes will not diminish the symptoms of type I diabetes. Eating pounds of anything won’t do much of anything other than, well, adding on pounds of flesh. But if there was any question about whether or not grapes are good for you, let those questions be put to rest. Let the dust settle. Let the debate end – grapes are good for you…despite what you may hear or read from the grousing grape gripers.