Many types of fruit with high juice content can be juiced, such as apples, oranges, cranberries, and pineapple.
Pineapples are a sweet tropical fruit people enjoy on their own, in recipes, and juiced.
Pineapple juice might not be as popular as orange juice or apple juice, but it boasts several impressive health benefits that make it a healthy option.
Is pineapple juice good for your body?
Pineapple juice contains vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that are good for your body. Pineapple juice also contains natural sugar because it’s made from fruit, which is why portion sizes of juice are important.
Drinking small amounts of fruit juice, like pineapple juice, can provide beneficial nutrients to your diet. How can pineapple juice benefit your health? It turns out there are several ways.
6 benefits of pineapple juice
1) Might help fight inflammation
Pineapples and pineapple juice contain bromelain, a type of enzyme. Enzymes are proteins that aid in critical chemical reactions in your body.
Bromelain might help fight inflammation, a key driver behind many of today’s most common chronic diseases. Inflammation also occurs in injuries to aid healing, so not all inflammation is necessarily bad. It becomes problematic when it’s chronic (long-term).
Bromelain has been used to help treat inflammation in post-surgical patients. Bromelain’s anti-inflammatory properties might also benefit conditions like arthritis, tendonitis, and sinusitis (inflammation of the sinuses).
According to animal studies, applying bromelain might assist in the process of debridement, which is when dead tissue is removed to aid in healing.
2) Rich in vitamin C
One cup of pineapple juice provides around 80% of the daily value for vitamin C. Vitamin C acts as an antioxidant, helping to reduce inflammation and protect your body’s cells from damage.
Vitamin C has many beneficial uses. According to a small study, vitamin C supplementation helped improve blood sugar and cholesterol among participants with type 2 diabetes (1).
Vitamin C aids in all stages of wound healing (2). Vitamin C helps your body make collagen, a protein that makes up your connective tissue. Collagen is also found in your bones, and taking vitamin C can help speed up healing after a bone fracture (3).
Vitamin C can also help reduce the severity of allergic reactions and can help strengthen your immune system (4). If your immune system is strong, you’ll be better able to fight off infections that cause illness.
3) Source of manganese
One serving of pineapple juice provides more than 100% of your daily requirement for manganese (5). Manganese is a trace mineral that helps aid in metabolism (using energy and nutrients from food and drinks), blood sugar metabolism, formation of sex hormones, the formation of connective tissue, and many other processes.
According to an animal study, manganese helped boost insulin secretion in mice prone to diet-induced diabetes who were fed a high-fat diet (6). Increasing insulin secretion can help lower high blood sugar levels.
4) Aids in healthy digestion
Bromelain is an enzyme that helps digest proteins. Without enough enzymes to help you break down food, you might experience signs of malabsorption, such as fatty stools and weight loss. These symptoms can occur if you have pancreatic insufficiency since your pancreas secretes digestive enzymes.
Bromelain is a popular addition to over-the-counter digestive aids for this reason. Taking digestive enzymes can help promote healthy digestion in people without severe malabsorption problems.
Pineapple juice might also be a good choice if you suffer from irritable bowel syndrome because it is lower in fructose than some other fruit juices. Fructose can be difficult to digest if you have IBS, and pineapple juice is lower in fructose than apple juice, pear juice, and cherry juice.
5) Protects against certain bacteria
In animal studies, bromelain in pineapple helps protect against the effects of certain bacteria such as E. coli. Bromelain combined with antibiotics has proven to be more effective than antibiotics alone, according to some studies (7).
In addition, bromelain can increase the availability of antibiotics, potentially making them more effective at treating infections.
6) Anticancer benefits
Thanks to their anti-inflammatory properties and antioxidant content, pineapples and pineapple juice contain compounds that can help fight against cancer.
According to studies, the bromelain in pineapple might also be a promising candidate for future anticancer treatments and strategies (7). This is partly because bromelain downregulates certain components that accelerate cancer tumor growth and helps activate your immune system to fight the cancerous cells.
Pineapple juice recipe
You can buy 100% pineapple juice at the grocery store, as well as juice blends containing pineapple.
If you’d like to make your own pineapple juice, here is a recipe you can use with or without a juicer. A juicer is the easiest way, but you can squeeze the juice out of blended pineapple if using a blender.
Ingredients:
- One large pineapple – choose a pineapple that smells slightly sweet at the base, is heavy for its size, and gives a little when pressed.
Steps:
- Slice off the top and bottom of the pineapple. With the pineapple standing upright, cut off the peel with a long, sharp knife, using a smaller knife to go back and remove smaller pieces of peel.
- Chop the pineapple into small enough pieces to fit into your juicer or blender. You can juice the core, but it might be difficult to blend, so you might need to remove it.
Using a Juicer
- Feed the chopped pineapple through your juicer. You should get around three cups of juice.
Without a Juicer
- Add the pineapple chunks to a high-speed blender jar and blend them into a puree. You can add some liquid (water or coconut water) if you need to add moisture to the puree.
- Strain the mixture through a nut milk bag or fine mesh sieve to remove the juice.
To give it a unique flavor, you can add other ingredients to homemade pineapple juice, like lemon juice, ginger, cinnamon, or coconut water.
What happens if I drink pineapple juice every day?
It’s safe for most people to drink a moderate amount of pineapple juice every day. You should be cautious about how much pineapple juice you drink if you have blood sugar problems like diabetes since fruit juices are high in sugar.
Fruit juice is high in calories (unless you choose diet juice drinks which often have artificial sweeteners and are diluted with water), so you should be mindful of how much you drink if you’re trying to lose weight or otherwise monitor your caloric intake.
We’ll cover more on what happens if you drink large amounts of pineapple juice every day later in this article.
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How much pineapple juice should you drink daily?
Most people shouldn’t consume fruit juice in large amounts, even those without diabetes. This is because it’s high in sugar and low in fiber, so it won’t help make you feel satiated and will provide more sugar into your diet.
There isn’t a set limit on how much pineapple juice you should drink daily. In general, you might consider keeping your juice intake to eight ounces per day or less.
What happens if you drink a lot of pineapple juice?
Drinking large amounts of pineapple juice can result in several side effects, such as:
High blood sugar
Even though 100% pineapple juice contains natural sugar, it’s still a high-sugar drink. One cup of pineapple juice contains around 30 grams of sugar, which is higher than orange juice.
Drinking large amounts of pineapple juice can cause your blood sugar levels to rise if you have diabetes and can worsen insulin resistance if you’re at risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Stomach problems
Pineapple juice is rich in vitamin C. Consuming too much vitamin C can cause side effects like nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and stomach pain.
Heartburn
Pineapple juice is acidic, which might aggravate heartburn (gastroesophageal reflux disease). If you have worsening reflux when drinking pineapple juice, you may need to cut back or switch to a less acidic juice.
Weight gain
One cup of 100% pineapple juice provides around 130 calories. Pineapple juice isn’t a source of fiber or protein, so it’s quickly digested and won’t make you feel very full.
Drinking caloric drinks like fruit juice can inhibit weight loss or can cause weight gain if you don’t also increase your physical activity.
Conclusion
Many of pineapple juice’s potential health benefits are due to its vitamin C and bromelain content. Some of the potential benefits of pineapple juice include anti-inflammatory properties, fighting bacteria, protecting against cancer, and promoting healthy digestion.
Pineapple juice is high in sugar and calories compared to non-sugary drinks and should be limited in portion size to avoid potential side effects like stomach upset, heartburn, and high blood sugar.
Drinking pineapple juice in moderation (less than eight ounces per day, in general) is a way to introduce beneficial vitamins and minerals into your diet and reap the potential health benefits it provides.
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