When you are trying to lose weight, you need to reduce your daily calories by 500 to lose 1 lb. a week. To make this goal easier, it helps to have snacks that keep you full without adding an abundance of fat and calories to your diet. Grapes are one such food, and aside from helping you toward your diet goals, grapes provide a significant amount of nutrition to your body.
Fat and Calories
Grapes are made of almost 80 percent water. Because of this, grapes fill you up and keep you satisfied. They are also low in calories and have no fat, so you can eat an abundance of them without gaining weight. One cup of Catawba or Concord varieties only has about 60 calories. For a diet, choose fresh grapes over dried ones in the form of raisins. The water is taken out of raisins, so if you eat the same amount you will take in many more calories. A 1-cup serving has 464 calories.
Fiber
Grapes can further help with weight loss by adding fiber to your diet. A 1.5 cup serving of red or green grapes has 1 g of fiber. Fiber helps keep you full longer so you won't eat as much between meals. It also slows your digestion of food to help your body go longer between meals. Water helps fiber move through your system so the combination of water and fiber in grapes makes them ideal. Keep the skin on your grapes to keep the fiber.
Nutrition
Grapes provide an abundance of nutrition to your body to help all of your body functions work properly during your weight-loss experience. Both red and green grapes contain high levels of antioxidants. Red grapes have an antioxidant capacity of 2,016, and green grapes have one of 1,789. This includes the antioxidants lutein, beta-carotene, resveratrol and flavonoids, which are found in the seeds, skin and flesh. These antioxidants fight free radicals, which might cause cancer and other diseases. Grapes are also healthy for your heart through functions like reducing your blood pressure and inflammation, as well as preventing blood clots.
Meal and Snack Ideas
Eat grapes as snacks to keep you full between meals, or add them to recipes for added fiber and fullness. Add whole grapes to lettuce salads, fruit salads and stir fries. Puree grapes to make grape pie or add nutrition to your yogurt. Freeze whole grapes for a healthy summer treat.
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