Lately, I’ve been quite head over heels for plums. I’ve regularly devoured, posted on social media, and experienced fruit bursting fantasies about plums.
Totally weird, but it was only a matter of time before I wrote an article about this wonderful fruit and after much research, I’ve discovered plums are epically beneficial beyond tasting wonderful.
Before we cover all the juicy details, keep in mind studies generally use prunes (dried plums) in their design, but besides minor differences, you can get the same benefits from fresh plums or plum extract as shown in many of the studies (1,2,3,9).
Nonetheless, let’s move forward with this awesome plum article!
One of the key benefits of plums is improving and protecting bone health. Plums are shown to enhance bone formation while inhibiting bone breakdown with no adverse effects (4).
Many studies have shown improved bone mineral density through testing postmenopausal women as they are at a greater risk for bone loss than most populations (5,6).
One study compared daily plum intake against daily apple intake in postmenopausal women (7). Despite both groups getting supplemented with calcium and Vitamin D, only the plum group significantly improved bone mineral density by suppressing bone breakdown.
Similar benefits are seen in healthy men as well (8).
So perhaps it’s time to change the old saying of “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” by replacing it with the underappreciated plum.
Plums are also rich in polyphenols which are healthy compounds that act as antioxidants, enhance health, and protect against pretty much all the nasty diseases that would suck to get (9,10).
In fact, the antioxidant capacity of plums are even greater than other vitamin C rich fruits (11).
Beyond that, plums also have the following benefits:
As you can see, plums are amazing at so many things. They improve tons of health markers, support muscle growth, and aid in satiety. Ultimately, they’ll make you take a hard look at your significant other and wonder why they can’t be as awesome as a plum?
Long live the plum revolution, my friends! (But seriously, if plums start getting trendy like avocados, you know who started this hype first, wink, wink.)
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