Pears are one of the juiciest and sweetest of fruits. Their creamy white flesh with the soft grainy texture once gave them the title “fruits of the gods”. Although we usually identify the pear as a red or green tapered colored fruit, some Asian varieties can be yellow and shaped more like an apple. Whatever their size and color, pears can provide some wonderful health benefits.
Fiber and Heart Health
All pears are an awesome source of fiber, and even by fruit standards their fiber content is high. Several studies have shown that eating a high fiber diet can help to keep your heart healthy. How so? By helping to lower cholesterol levels. Researcher have found that when people are given a high fiber diet, it actually lowers their overall cholesterol levels. Fiber provides this benefit by speeding up transit time. This gives less time for cholesterol that makes it to the bowels to be absorbed into the blood stream, therefore lowering cholesterol levels.
Anti Cancer Benefits of Pears
Reducing the risk of certain cancers is also another health benefit of eating fiber rich fruits like pears. Research shows that those who eat a high fiber diet are considerably less likely to develop colon cancer than those who eat low fiber diets. Fiber binds with toxic carcinogenic chemicals in the colon so they can be eliminated out of the body. Such chemicals can cause inflammation and damage of colon wall cells that can lead to colon cancer.
Another study that examined the diets of over 50,000 post-menopausal women for 8 years found that those who ate the most fiber were 34% less likely to develop breast cancer than those who ate the least amount of fiber. Why this would be so, is still yet to be determined.
Of all the pears, Asian pear health benefits may be the best when it comes to fiber. They contain more fiber than any other variety of pear.
Pears are also a great source of copper – another nutrient that helps protect us from colon cancer. Copper is needed to create specific enzymes in the body that act as antioxidants that can neutralize free radicals (unstable and harmful oxygen molecules) that are generated inside fecal matter. No wonder a diet low in copper is more associated with colon cancer.