Raspberry

Wonderfully delicious, bright red-colored raspberry is among the most popular berries grown all over the world. They are rich source of health promoting plant-derived nutrients, minerals, and vitamins that are essential for optimum health.

Botanically, the plant is a small shrub belonging to the family Rosaceae, of the genus: Rubus. It grows very well in temperate regions. The exotic berry is native to Europe but now widely cultivated in many temperate regions all over the world. Chief producers of raspberries are Poland, United States, Germany, and Chile.

When it comes to raspberries’ health benefits, the list is quite extensive. These small fruits provide a wide range of vitamins, minerals and other important nutrients in a small package. However, as with many other types of fruits, they are heavy in sugar and are not light in calories.

Raspberries are considered to be an aggregate fruit, meaning that each berry is actually a collection of many smaller individual fruits. These fruits each contain a seed and plenty of different vitamins and minerals. Raspberries are perhaps best known as a source of ellagic acid, but they also contain a host of other benefits. Here’s a brief overview of the health benefits of raspberries, and some additional nutrition information on this popular fruit.

A single serving of raspberries is approximately one cup of berries. This is equivalent to roughly 30 to 40 berries, depending upon the size of the fruit. In one cup of raspberries, you’ll find almost a full two thirds of your daily recommended intake of the crucial nutrient manganese. You’ll also find about half of the recommended dose of vitamin C. Vitamin C and manganese both are responsible for several crucial body processes, and vitamin C plays a large role in regulating and promoting healthy immune system function.

One single serving of raspberries contains about a third of your daily dose of dietary fiber. This type of substance, found commonly in fruits and vegetables, will help to keep your gastrointestinal system flowing smoothly and provides other benefits as well. On top of these major ingredients in raspberries, there are a host of other nutrients that are also present, just in smaller amounts. A cup of raspberries contains sizable portions of your daily recommended intake of vitamins B2 and B3, potassium, magnesium and copper.

Raspberries contain natural sugars that are much better for your body than artificially created and processed sugars. The reason that these sugars are better is that they are more easily broken down by the different systems in your body. In each cup of raspberries, you can expect to find about 60 calories due to sugar.

There are very few health risks associated with raspberries. They are generally quite healthy and contain no sodium or fat.

For the best way to deliver a good load of nutrients from your raspberries through the foods that you use them in, either prepare them raw, eat them alone as a snack or avoid cooking them for too long. Raspberry muffins are excellent for transmitting the flavor and benefits of raspberries, as is raspberry jam. Be careful if you do decide to eat raspberry preserves of some kind, they haven’t been loaded with artificial and processed sugars to enhance the flavor. This limits the nutrients that you get and also severely impacts the caloric intake of the food that you’re eating.