Nutritional and Health Benefits of Apricots

The Health Benefits of Apricots: Nutritional Facts

Apricots are colourful and flavorful, with high nutritional values. They are small in size, but they are very helpful internally as well as externally; they improve your gut health and also promote skin health. These round yellow-orange fruits are rich in minerals and vitamins. Their flavours range from sweet to sweet-tart; apricots may look like small peaches but also share the taste of purple plums. Apricots have velvety skin with a soft fuzz, and they are soft and juicy when fully ripe. Apricots are known as stone fruits and are also called Armenian plums. However, they are flavorful and extremely nutritional and aid amazing health benefits.

Some of the health and nutritional benefits include:
  
Nutritional benefits of apricot.

Apricots are also known as super food as they are highly nutrient, high in fiber, low in calories and filled with amazing minerals and vitamins. Important nutrients in apricot acts as antioxidants, which helps in protecting your cells from damage.
A fresh apricot contains many minerals and vitamins, including:

• Vitamin A.
• Vitamin E.
• Vitamin C.
• Beta-carotene. 
• Potassium.
• Lutein. 
• Copper.
• Zinc.
• Iron.
• Zeaxanthin.
• Magnesium.
• Manganese. 

Apricots are great source of flavonoids and are amazing antioxidants, which helps in fighting against inflammatory illnesses and inflammation, along with that it also reduce the risk of diabetes, obesity and heart disease. As it is a small fruit, it’s nutrient values may seems minimal, but eating more than one can help. It is a super food when it comes to fiber as it is rich in fiber.

Health benefits of apricots.

Apricots offer many health benefits as they are highly rich in vitamin and minerals, they offer amazing nutrient values. However, flavonoids is important to strength and protect your blood vessels while it reduces the signs of inflammation. Whereas, potassium on the other hand is an important mineral for our muscle function and nerve and also helps our body to move nutrient around the body, An it also support healthy heart and blood pressure.

Some of the health benefits of apricots include:

May promote eye health and vision.

Apricot is rich in multiple compounds that are important for eye health, such as vitamins A and E, as well as beta-carotene. Vitamin E is a fat-soluble antioxidant. It protects your eyes from free radicals by entering directly into your eyes after consumption, as it is known that Vitamin E supports the overall health of your eye. Vitamin A plays an essential role in preventing night blindness, a kind of disorder that can be caused by a lack of light pigments in your eyes. However, the yellow colour of apricot comes from beta-carotene, which serves as an antecedent to vitamin A.

May boost healthy skin.

Apricots are a great source of vitamins C and A, which help protect skin cells from free radical damage; they are also known for their skin-boosting properties. The vitamins present in apricots also help protect your skin from UV(Ultraviolet) radiation and help reduce signs of early wrinkles. Meanwhile, vitamin C also helps increase the amount of collagen in your skin and helps with younger-looking skin. Even apricots have a high water content, which is also an amazing way to keep your skin hydrated. Beta-carotene is one of the antioxidants that helps in protecting your skin from UV damage and sunburn.

 
Promotes better digestion

Apricot offers an amazing amount of dietary fibre to help your gut health. In apricots, the total fibre content is divided half-half, as half of the fibre is soluble and the other half of the fibre is insoluble. However, apricots are helpful for constipation, as soluble fibre softens the stool and helps with the digestive tract; on the other hand, insoluble fibre adds bulk to the stool, which makes it move and prevents constipation. It is also good for healthy gut bacteria levels, as a healthy gut also reduces the risk of obesity. Apricot is also good for your cholesterol level and maintaining healthy blood sugar.

Other health benefits of apricot.

Adding apricots to your diet is beneficial as it provides amazing nutrient and health benefits that support you with a healthy gut, better skin and increased vision; even with all these benefits, we can give apricots extra credit for adding more health benefits to your body, it helps:

• Keeping your body hydrated as apricot is about 86% water
• May help in preventing your body from liver damage.
  Potassium is present in apricots and helps lower blood pressure. 
• It helps in restoring fluids and electrolytes after a heavy workout as it contains potassium and water.

 
How can you add apricot to your diet?

Apricots can be consumed in many different ways, as they are versatile in nature, and we can experiment with them in the kitchen. If you feel you are eating apricots, then do not worry about it as they are small in size; but if you have diabetes, make sure to add protein like nuts to blend the sugar contained in the apricot, as protein will help in preventing a spike in blood sugar. Whereas other fruits are a healthy source of carbs, consuming too much of anything can be unhealthy for you. 

If you are planning to eat dried apricots, which are also high in fibre and also add other nutrients to it, but before consuming it, check for the sugar content of dried apricot. Always pay attention to the number of servings. 

There are some options for how you can add apricots to your diet:

• You can eat fresh apricots that are properly ripe. 
• You can refrigerate fresh apricots, as they have a tendency to increase their shelf life. 
• Try to cut and freeze the apricots before they go bad. 
• Making jam, oatmeal bar or scones from fresh apricots can be an option. 
• Using dried apricots as yoghurt topping can be an option, too. 

If you eat fresh or dried apricots, both are healthy for your body. But before that, you should know that eating apricots in a moderate amount is important, especially for people who have diabetes, as they need to add lean protein like nuts with apricots to balance their blood sugar levels.

Conclusion:

Apricots are very delicious and nutrient packed fruit, as it have fiber, vitamins and antioxidants that are essential for the human body. Apricot have many health benefits like it promotes healthy gut, skin and improve eye sight. You can add fresh or dried apricots into your meals, as yogurt topping, jam or salads. While consuming apricots or any other fruit you should look as the number of servings as eating too much can be unhealthy.