Last Updated on 17 June 2024
Grape is a typical summer fruit rich in healthy properties. But what a type of fruit is better? Seeded or seedless?
There is a lot of confusion about this topic, but, today, we have finally obtained the definitive answer: seeded grapes are better than seedless ones. In most of the cases, seeded grapes can also save our life. Why? Read this post to discover it.
Seeded Grapes Protect Us from the Most Harmful Diseases of Our Era
International clinical trials, published on the National Library of Medicine, have recently confirmed that seeded grapes are healthier than the modern seedless varieties. The beneficial properties are contained just in the seeds of this fruit.
These studies revealed that seeded grapes are very rich in polyphenols and flavonoids. These molecules have biochemical activity on cell oxidation. The latter, is, in turn, a dangerous process that may cause DNA damage and, hence, cancer.
Further clinical trials conducted in several countries around the world showed very astonishing results: the seeds of grape counteract not only cell oxidation, but also inflammation. The two processes are the main causes of the most painful modern diseases, such as tumors, heart diseases, diabetes, gastrointestinal disorders, and neurodegenerative illnesses such as Alzheimer’s.
These discoveries mean, in short, that seeded grapes counteract many chronical, modern diseases that are mercilessly plaguing our modern world.
The news about the benefits of seeded grapes went around the world and even the trustworthy CNR (the Italian National Council of Researches) published a study where the seeds of grape have been used as a pilot treatment for chemo resistant cancer.
The study, conducted by CNR and ENEA in collaboration with the University of Naples, showed that the seeded grape extract, combined with chemo, reduced inflammation and blocked the cancer cells resistant to the classic chemotherapy.
The discoveries are nothing short of encouraging all over the world. But, why, then, grocery stores and grape markets are literally overrun with seedless varieties? And, furthermore, why seedless grapes are so dangerous? Go to the following paragraphs to know the truth.
Seedless Grape Needs Chemical Hormones to Grow
Before discussing this feature, let’s clear the field from a very common misunderstanding. Seedless grapes are not genetically modified by humas, but by nature. These grape varieties, in fact, have had a natural genetical mutation that caused them to grow without seeds.
Or, rather, they have seeds, but these ones don’t develop and remain with no coat and very small, nearly invisible.
This feature makes seedless grapes need chemicals to grow. These chemicals are the so-called “plant growth regulators” or phytohormones. They are largely used in farming. For grapes, farmers use auxin, gibberellin and cytokinin. Auxin is no longer used because expensive.
Seeded grapes naturally contain the right quantities of these substances, which are, hence, unharmful.
Seedless grapes don’t contain them and farmers are forced to use the chemical version of these compounds, such as the gibberellic acid.
These chemicals are defined “plant enhancers” because they facilitate the rapid growth of the fruit. Indeed, around us, we always see big fruits that seem very delicious, but, in reality, they may be dangerous.
There aren’t recent studies about the dangers of phytohormones. The only study is Italian and dates back to 1986, where it reads: “The use of plant growth regulators must be regulated by the same caution used for other more dangerous products because other risks of damage, deriving from minimal but prolonged exposure to chemical residues, may exist. The effects can be chronic and possibly of mutagenicity and carcinogenicity”.
Seedless Grapes Are Less Healthy than Seeded Grapes
Seedless grapes are tasteful, but don’t have the healthy properties of the traditional seeded grapes. The beneficial properties of the seeds of grapes are just contained in the coat which protects them. This is the shelter of flavonoids and polyphenols, which save us from the above-mentioned modern diseases.
Many people, by now, eat only seedless grapes for the difficulty to eat seeds, but the consumption of seeded grapes is the best way to protect our health.
Seedless grapes, in fact, are produced only for a matter of marketing, namely to meet the demand of those people who don’t love to chew and swallow the seeds of grape.
The seeds of grape are instead so healthy that many producers, farmers and medical companies are even developing supplements with their extracts, such as oil and powder.
These products are not so widespread and often you can only buy them on online shops. The seeded grape oil, for instance, is rich in Vitamin E which also counteracts the symptoms of aging. It is often applied on the skin as a cream.
The powder of seeded grapes, instead, is often used as an oral supplement to prevent inflammation and cell oxidation.
Seeded Grape Can Be Organic, While Seedless Grape No
About this healthy feature of seeded grapes, I reached Salvatore Secolo (see the image), an expert Italian farmer who grows traditional seeded grapes and founded the Committee for the protection, enhancement and promotion of seeded grapes, in defense of traditions.
He said: “Seeded grapes can be grown naturally, because the plant contains the substances that grow the fruit. Hence, seeded grapes can be organic, while, due to a genetical mutation, seedless grapes can’t grow naturally and need high doses of plant regulators to produce fruits. People are free to eat the type of fruit they prefer. I wanted only to inform them that seeded grapes are absolutely better than seedless”.
Conclusion
If you are interested in protecting your health, you had better to consume seeded grapes. Seedless grapes contain fiber, sugar and water, three ingredients, which, as Salvatore Secolo explained, facilitate a high adsorption of chemicals used to grow them. Do you want to really risk to ingest them? I hope No.
For this reason, I thank Salvatore Secolo who, with his experience in farming, helped me write this article.
By the way: let me know if this information has been helpful for you. Thanks!
References and Bibliography
- Ma ZF, Zhang H. Phytochemical Constituents, Health Benefits, and Industrial Applications of Grape Seeds: A Mini-Review. Antioxidants (Basel). 2017 Sep 15;6(3):71. doi: 10.3390/antiox6030071. PMID: 28914789; PMCID: PMC5618099 – https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/28914789/
- CNR News – Semi dell’uva per il trattamento dei tumori: uno studio congiunto – October 25, 2019 – https://www.cnr.it/it/news/8997/semi-dell-uva-per-il-trattamento-dei-tumori-uno-studio-congiunto
- COOMBE, B. Increase in Fruit Set of Vitis vinifera by Treatment with Growth Retardants. Nature 205, 305–306 (1965). https://doi.org/10.1038/205305a0 – 16 January 1965
- DI SIMPLICIO, P. “Tossicità Dei Fitoregolatori.” Rivista Di Ortoflorofrutticoltura Italiana, vol. 70, no. 6, 1986, pp. 25–34. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/42877766
- Salvatore Secolo, Italian farmer and president of the Committee for the protection, enhancement and promotion of table grapes with seeds, in defense of traditions
