This delicious yellow-orange drupe is a source of happiness to its keen fans. Whether you like it as the crow flies from your hand or in a sweet dessert, this teenage-surfaced fruit definitely produces lots of benefits to the body. As full of flavor as it is, an apricot is as well supportive to boosting your youthfulness.
A younger-looking skin and well again lives of those who include a couple of this fruit in their daily diet is an apparent evidence of what it can bring. Now let us take a closer look at how this wonderful fruit can be very useful to you.
Carotenoids
The secret of apricot’s power lies in its high-level of a mighty antioxidant called carotenoids. The oxygen-free forms of carotenoids such as lycopene, alpha-carotene, and beta-carotene are the organic pigments supportive to men.
Beta-carotene is being transformed by the body to Vitamin A which is good to the eyes- it protects the eyes from sensible corrosion, lessens the risk of acquiring cataracts, and prevents the eyes from xerophthalmia - a sickness that dries the conjunctival epithelium.
Apricots also protect the heart through its famous bright red carotenoid called lycopene. Lycopene protects the heart by tumbling the blood levels of Low-Density Lipoprotein (bad cholesterol) which causes formation of plaque in the blood vessels, which in turn, headlong a number of heart illnesses. The Department of Agriculture of the United States says that Lycopene is the most powerful antioxidant among other carotenoids as this extinguishes peroxyl radicals that damage the DNA that initiates cancer. Lycopene helps in fighting breast cancer and prostate cancer.
Dried apricots are good sources of lycopene. People inclined to these diseases should include apricots in their diet.
Other properties and benefits
Soft apricots are also high in fiber. Apricots are used to thwart and allay bowel problems and can even induce diarrhea. Three apricots are enough to take upshot. This means also that it can help you slash your weight, have a normal digestion, and control high blood levels of sugar. Fiber also keeps the blood vessels from being congested.
Apricots are also high in potassium that helps in regulating the blood pressue and the narrowing of the heart.
The kernels of apricots are equally wholesome. Each kernel has several obliging properties that are proven to assuage cough and helps the gas mask system to be toned. But before eating a kernel, the tip of the seeds should be cut off as this contains high levels of laetrile that can upset the stomach.
Apricots are also rich in Vitamin C and iron.
Apricots also help the body fight Alzheimer’s ailment, memory loss, and an eye-diseases called Age-Related Macula Degeneration.
Around the World and Beyond
Apricot is a traditional Chinese medicine that helps in restoring lost body fluids (which also prevents dehydration) and in detoxifying the body. Without knowing why they did, the Chinese also ate apricots to advance their productiveness. Now we know that this fruit is profuse in minerals that boost the production of sex hormones.
In the Hunza Valley in Himalayas, people used apricots as nail food. Many centenarians live in this area.
Because of that benefit, Europeans have long thought of apricots to be aphrodisiacs. In fact, William Shakespeare depicted apricot in A Midsummer Night’s Dream as such. In The Duchess of Malfi, apricots were depicted as an inducer of childbirth
Three centuries ago, the English used apricot oil to fight tumors and ulcers.
Officials of National Aeronautics and Space Administration said that astronauts (in flight) included apricot on their menu for a number of times already. In fact, apricots have been on the menu of the Apollo 15 trip.
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