Contents:
- Medical Video: Guava Fruit and Guava Leaves Health Benefits
- 1. Helps maintain your heart health
- 2. Helps prevent you from cancer
- 3. Helps improve your immune system
- 4. Helps reduce blood sugar levels
- 5. Helps facilitate digestion
- 6. Improve the health of your skin
Medical Video: Guava Fruit and Guava Leaves Health Benefits
Of course you already know the guava fruit. Yes, usually you will bring guava fruit or guava juice when you visit your colleague or brother who is sick with dengue fever. Many people believe that guava can speed up the healing of dengue fever. However, actually the benefits of guava are not just that, there are still many other benefits.
The benefits that can be given by guava certainly exist because of the content of various vitamins and minerals in guava. Guava contains vitamin C, vitamin A, vitamin K, lycopene, folic acid, iron, fiber, and much more. The following are some of the benefits of guava:
1. Helps maintain your heart health
Eating lots of guava can help you improve your heart health. Experts believe that the high content of antioxidants and vitamins in guava can help protect the heart from damage caused by free radicals. Yes, indeed antioxidants function to fight free radicals in the body and guava contains a lot of antioxidants.
In addition to antioxidants, guava also contains potassium and fiber which are also beneficial for improving heart health. Potassium is needed by cells and body fluids to control blood pressure. Meanwhile, fiber can bind cholesterol which can endanger heart health.
Some studies also show a relationship between consumption of guava with a decrease in blood pressure, a decrease in bad cholesterol levels, and an increase in good cholesterol levels. One such study was published in the 1993 Journal of Human Hypertension. The study involved two groups that consumed guava and those that did not. The result is that the group consuming guava every day showed a decrease in systolic and diastolic blood pressure, a decrease in total serum cholesterol and triglycerides, and an increase in good cholesterol.
READ ALSO: 4 Mandatory Foods to Control Cholesterol in Blood
2. Helps prevent you from cancer
Guava contains high levels of lycopene which has antioxidant properties, so it can provide anticancer effects. High antioxidant content can prevent cell damage caused by free radicals, which is one of the causes of cancer.
Several studies have also linked this. Research published by the Journal of Medicinal Food in 2012 shows that guava leaf extract can prevent the growth of cancer cells and can also be used for cancer treatment.
3. Helps improve your immune system
Guava is one of the fruits with a high content of vitamin C, even the vitamin C content in guava beats the content in oranges. Vitamin C is related to improving your immune system. Low vitamin C content in the body can make a person more at risk for infection and disease.
4. Helps reduce blood sugar levels
Good news for those of you who have diabetes or have high blood sugar levels, it turns out guava can help you control blood sugar levels. A study shows that drinking guava leaf tea after meals can help lower blood sugar levels for 2 hours. Other studies involving people with type 2 diabetes mellitus also showed that drinking guava leaf tea after meals can reduce blood sugar levels by more than 10%.
READ ALSO: Importance of Carbohydrates and Fiber for Handling Hypertension
5. Helps facilitate digestion
Apart from high antioxidant and vitamin C content, guava also contains fiber. This fiber content makes guava help to facilitate your digestion. One guava fruit can contain 12% of your recommended fiber intake per day. So, consuming guava can help prevent constipation, reduce the duration of diarrhea, and maintain your intestinal health.
6. Improve the health of your skin
Guava contains vitamin A and flavonoids, such as beta-carotene, lycopene, lutein, and cryptosanthine. All of these ingredients provide antioxidant properties in guava, so it can improve the health of your skin. Antioxidants can protect skin cells from damage, can also slow down the aging process and prevent wrinkles.
A study also proves that guava leaf extract can help treat acne. The antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory properties of guava leaf extract may kill the bacteria that cause acne on the skin.
In addition, the content of vitamin C in guava can also accelerate wound healing because vitamin C can help collagen production. Vitamin K contained in guava can also accelerate wound healing or skin discoloration due to irritation. Vitamin K can accelerate the blood clotting process that takes place while healing wounds.
Guava also contains water which keeps the skin moist and well hydrated. In one guava fruit water is 81%. So, it is not only believed to cure or prevent a disease, but guava can also improve the health of your skin.
READ ALSO: Protect Your Skin from Radiation from the Sun in This Way
