Any fruit that has a starring role in the dessert department deserves a special spot on the fruit walk of fame. After all, you don't see too many cantaloupes, grapes, or watermelons sitting on top of your favorite desserts, do you?
With their dainty look, sweet taste, and mild tartness, raspberries do much more than accessorize your dessert. They are full of so many essential vitamins, nutrients, and health benefits that it's a shame they aren't in season year round. Thank goodness for freezers! Oh, and did you know that they have some serious weight loss benefits too?
Nutritional Benefits
Snacking on raspberries can be completely guilt-free. With just 64 calories per cup, it's hard not to enjoy what you're eating. But that's not all; those tiny raspberries also pack a great nutritional punch:
- 54% Daily Value of Vitamin C
- 41% Daily Value of Manganese
- 32% Daily Value of of Fiber
- 12% Daily Value of Vitamin K
Vitamin C
There's a reason Vitamin C is considered an essential vitamin. Its benefits almost seem endless. Vitamin C has been credited with being able to:
- Boost your immune system
- Help heal skin
- Work as a natural anti-depressant and stress reliever
- Lower blood pressure and cholesterol
It also works great as a preventative means for many medical ailments including heart disease, osteoporosis, macular degeneration, asthma, cancer, arthritis and gout (apparently that’s still a thing).
Manganese
Maybe you've never heard of manganese. Don't worry, you're not alone. It's a trace mineral that is found mainly in your bones, liver, kidneys, and pancreas. It's responsible for helping with the formation of bones, connective tissues, blood-clotting factors, and sex hormones. It plays an important role in fat and carbohydrate metabolism and blood sugar regulation, both of which work in your favor for weight loss.
Fiber
Hopefully you're aware of the fact that fiber helps you feel full and keeps you regular, but it also has a few other great benefits you should be aware of:
- Heart health
- Cancer prevention
- Lowers cholesterol
- Prevents gallstones and kidney stones
- Healthy skin
- Stroke prevention
- Weight management
Fiber is definitely one of the nutrients you want to make sure to get your fill of every single day.
Vitamin K
Vitamin K is every 5-year-old's best friend. With all the cuts and scrapes they get, sometimes they need more than just a band-aid to help the bleeding stop. If they have sufficient levels of Vitamin K in their bodies, things are looking good. That's because Vitamin K plays a serious role in helping your blood clot, which is great for five year olds and anyone else who occasionally needs a band-aid. Vitamin K also helps with bone metabolism and the regulation of calcium levels.
Weight Loss Benefits from Raspberries
Here's where things get a little technical. Raspberries contain something called raspberry ketone. Ketone is responsible for giving raspberries their great smell, but it also plays a role in weight loss. That's why raspberry ketone is being scientifically replicated and marketed as a weight loss supplement. Dr. Oz even calls it a "miracle fat-burner in a bottle."
On top of that, there's the low calorie/high fiber combination in raspberries that works as a great weight loss mix. The fiber in raspberries will help you feel full, and the lower calories mean that you don't have to work as long to burn them off.
Raspberry Recipes
Now that you know all about the health benefits of raspberries, it's time to start thinking about how to add them to the foods you already love. You know they make a great dessert even better. But if you want to get technical, eating desserts, even if they have raspberries in or on them, might not be the best for your weight loss goals.
Instead try incorporating raspberries into every meal you eat.
Breakfast: Banana Raspberry Smoothie with an added scoop of vanilla exante meal replacement shake to help keep you feeling full.
Lunch: Raspberry Avocoado Mango Salad and an exante BOOST to help block your hunger.
Dinner: Chicken with Raspberry BBQ Sauce with exante BOOST for your drink to give you the pick-me-up you need to finish the day strong.
Raspberry Review
The tiny but mighty raspberry is a low-calorie fruit that packs a big nutritional punch. It has natural weight loss benefits and makes good desserts even better. Seems like there really isn't a downside when it comes to adding more raspberries to your smoothies and the rest of your diet.
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