40 Proven Health Benefits of Papaya
Benefits of papaya for health that you need know. Moreover, the papaya contains properties beneficial for prevent and fight various diseases. Papaya, also known as papaw or pawpaw, is a delicious tropical fruit. It is believed to have originated in the tropics of America, perhaps somewhere in Southern Mexico. Due to its amazing combination of mouthwatering flavor and health benefiting nutrients, it has earned the name “fruit of angels.” Papaya is basically a spherical or pear shaped fruit, weighing about a pound. On ripening, it feels soft to thumb pressure and its skin attains an amber to orange hue. The hollow cavity in the center has a mucin which encloses numerous black seeds. The inner flesh is orange in color with yellow or pink hues and deliciously sweet, musky taste with rich flavor.
Papaya Properties: High In Fiber – Papaya is a great source of dietary fiber. This nutrient absorbs toxins in the colon that can cause cancer and eliminates them from the body through bowel movement. Due to its rich fiber content, papaya aids digestion and imparts a beautiful glow to your skin.
Vitamin A is required to maintain healthy vision while phosphorus is needed for good heart health. Rich In Antioxidants – The antioxidants present in dried papaya help to strengthen immunity and eliminate free radicals that are hazardous to your health. This fruit contains more amount of beta-carotene than in carrots.
Abundant In Bioflavonoids: Also known as vitamin P, bioflavonoids are semi-essential nutrients that work as nature’s modifiers and respond to biological changes in the body. The bioflavonoids in papaya modify the reaction of the body to viruses, carcinogens, and allergens, thereby protecting it from harmful and life-threatening diseases.
So, this was about medicinal properties of papaya fruit, now learn what are the benefits of papaya for your overall health.
Lowers cholesterol: Papayas are rich in fibre, vitamin C and antioxidants that prevent cholesterol build up in your arteries. Too much cholesterol build-up can block the arteries completely, causing a heart attack. Papaya extracts have also found to reduce lipid and triglycerides in diabetic rats. You may also want to read how to reduce cholesterol levels naturally.
Reduces Acne & Burns: The latex obtained from papayas is used to treat the areas on the skin affected by acne. The fleshy side of the papaya skin can be used as a mask to cure acne. A diet which includes papayas will help cure the condition internally, making the skin clear. Got a burn? Use papaya. When the latex from the fruit is applied on burnt area, it helps in reducing the marks caused due to the burn.
Improves Heart Health: The seeds of papayas are good for a healthy heart. Having three powerful antioxidant vitamins, namely vitamin A, C, and E, means papayas are helpful in preventing problems such as atherosclerosis and diabetic heart diseases. The presence of pro-carotenoid phytonutrients helps prevent oxidization of cholesterol in the body. When oxidation of cholesterol takes place, it sticks to the walls of the blood vessels and forms plaque that can lead to heart attacks and strokes. Vitamin E and vitamin C obtained from papayas help in preventing the cholesterol from sticking to the walls, thereby keeping your heart healthy. As a good source of fiber, papayas also help reduce the LDL cholesterol levels in the body. Include papayas in your daily diet as a mid-evening snack to keep your heart young. It also helps in treating sores, wounds, and ulcers.
Anti-inflammatory Effects: The enzymes present in papayas, especially the papain and chymopapain, reduce the inflammation in different parts of the body.
Prevent Kidney Disease: As papaya seeds are healthy for our internal organs, professors from the University of Karachi has concluded that papaya seeds and its fruit can cure kidney disease and minimize the possibility of renal failure and work effectively for kidney poisoning case. Imagine some small seeds can cure such a complex health disorder.
Cure Dengue: Dengue are one of the most unpredictable and dangerous disease that are spread in most areas in Asia. Papaya seeds and papaya leaves can help to cure dengue as it will increase the level of your blood. It is best used to be consumed when dengue fever attacks.
Rich of Nutrients: Papaya as a fruit contains whole lot of nutrients that are used by our body to regenerate healthy and young cells and it will help our body in rejuvenating. Papaya seed, especially contains almost 80% of the nutrients that our body consume. Hence, it goes without saying that consuming papaya seed is one of the best yet simple treatment that we can do to help our body stay healthy and young.
Prevents Asthma: Parents read this carefully. If you as a mother and father of your baby has asthma. You must be vigilant. Because your baby has a big possibility to has it to. In medicalnewstoday.com said that asthma is descent disease. This fact can be taken from three until five cas that happended in the world.
For parents, to make us more confident about this important information. The Centers of Disease Control di United States of America also said if one of the parents have asthma. The baby has big possibility to get te same case. There is three until six times possibility bigger than others who does not.
So, just after read this, make a routine time for your baby to consume papaya. Because papaya can prevents us from asthma. Beta carotene that contains in papaya will preventing the risk of growth the asthma.
Originating in Central America, the papaya, Carica papaya, is a large herbaceous plant resembling a tree, although it is not woody. Interestingly, some historians believe that the papaya may represent a fusion of two species of Carica that were once native to the lands of Central America and Mexico. As of now, however, the papaya fruit is predominantly cultivated in most tropical regions and not limited to just Central America and Mexico.
Generally grown from their small seeds, papayas develop very rapidly under favorable conditions, and their fruit is usually produced before the end of their first year of growth. The plants themselves do not have an extremely long lifespan, as most papaya plants live to about five years old, with some living longer than five.
Recently, however, random control trials have discovered that these main carotenoids are more bioavailable from the papaya than from either carrots or tomatoes. In fact, the bioavailability of beta-carotene from papayas is nearly three times higher than that from tomatoes or carrots. Beta-carotene is a vitamin A precursor, an extremely important vitamin necessary to the human diet.
The other carotenoids, such as lycopene, are not converted into vitamins but instead have been reported to decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease and many cancers. With that being said, it is clear that carotenoids and therefore the papayas that provide such pigments are quite beneficial for your overall health.
Neutralizes Free Radicals and Reduces Oxidative Stress: Free radicals are reactive chemical species with a single unpaired electron, making them highly unstable and dangerous to biological systems by causing oxidative stress on organisms. Luckily, the human body deals with these potential dangers through its natural endogenous, antioxidant systems.
The consumption of antioxidants and other factors provide protection against these free radicals, but if the generation of free radicals from naturally occurring cellular respiration exceeds the protective effects from antioxidants, oxidative damage can occur. Many scientists believe that this oxidative damage has a key role in general aging as well as cardiovascular disease and neurodegenerative disorders.
Fortunately, researchers have begun to discover that fermented papayas not only provide a sufficient helping of antioxidants to strengthen the body’s antioxidant defense system but may also be able to neutralize the free radicals.
The compounds in papaya essentially render those harmful chemicals useless so that they can no longer harm the body. Further studies are still planned, though, since it seems that fermented papayas need to be consumed each day to most efficiently strengthen your defense system.
Lowers the Risk of Alzheimer’s: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common neurodegenerative disease as well as the primary cause of dementia in the elderly. It has been determined that there is no single cause of Alzheimer’s, but instead the disease is initiated by a complicated array of factors.
One of these is oxidative stress, which, along with its many other effects, has been thought to cause amyloid-beta and tau-induced neurotoxicity, both of which are primary hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease.
Unfortunately, brain tissue is especially susceptible to oxidative stress, which highly validates the importance of keeping your brain healthy to reduce the risk for such neurodegenerative disease as Alzheimer’s.
In this particular disease, one of the many biomarkers that scientists use for diagnostics is called 8-OHdG. In one study, researchers measured this biomarker to be much higher in Alzheimer’s patients compared with controls.
What is interesting, however, is that when these same AD patients were supplemented with fermented papaya, the papaya extracts significantly decreased the amount of 8-OHdG over a 6-month period. The reasoning behind this treatment is that compounds in papaya can counteract the effects that free radicals and oxidative stress have on the body and, more importantly, the brain.
Reduces Cancer Risk: As mentioned previously, lycopene, like that in papayas, is a type of carotenoid, like beta-carotene; however, lycopene is not a precursor for vitamin A but instead is an intermediate in the biosynthesis of other carotenoids and has incredibly strong antioxidant properties.
What is more interesting is its amazing anticancer properties. Antioxidants protect our bodies from oxidative stress, which is an important factor in how we age. Studies are also beginning to discover that the antioxidant protection, especially from lycopene, also protects us against oxidative damage to our DNA that could activate oncogenes, or cancer-causing genes.
Dietary antioxidants from carotenoids like lycopene may be able to protect our cells from damage caused by internal or external sources, such as radiation. Once again, the main point to remember is that oxidative stress, when in combination with high levels of insulin and glucose, poses a major risk of cancer, especially for people with diabetes.
Nevertheless, researchers believe that fermented papaya preparation (FPP) can influence signaling cascades associated with uncontrolled cell growth and survival, thereby making it a possible therapeutic method for patients already undergoing cancer therapies.
Prevents Heart Disease: High-density lipoproteins (HDL) are the good kind of lipid. They are associated with a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), they stimulate glucose uptake, and oppose insulin resistance. Patients with type 2 diabetes, however, are thought to have malfunctioning HDLs, making them more prone to CVD.
In a randomized control trial of eighty obese patients, the subjects increased their fruit and vegetable intake, which resulted in carotenoid content and enhanced the cardioprotective properties of HDLs.
Since scientists have many evidence-based reviews that support the beneficial effects of carotenoids and the papaya’s extremely large supply of these carotenoids, it is clear that consuming larger amounts of papaya would effectively lower one’s risk for heart disease.
Even for people without type 2 diabetes, the ratio between low-density lipoproteins and high-density lipoproteins is a precarious balance—too little HDLs means a higher risk for CVD whether or not you have diabetes. Therefore, anyone can benefit from increased intake of not only papayas but also from many similar fruits and vegetables.
Reduces Inflammatory Markers: Both chronic and low-grade inflammations are common causes and/or triggers for many diseases, such as obesity, diabetes, insulin resistance, and other metabolic disorders. Low-grade inflammation specifically is a common characteristic of obesity. For people who suffer from obesity, scientists have found more circulating inflammatory markers in their blood compared with leaner people; following weight loss; however, those amounts of markers decrease, therefore demonstrating a positive relationship between weight and inflammatory marker amounts.
Improves Digestion: Aside from their abundance of carotenoids and antioxidants, an additional hallmark of papayas is that they contain an enzyme called papain. More specifically, papain is actually a proteolytic enzyme, which means that it aids in protein digestion, and it is normally extracted from the latex of unripe papayas. Several researchers believe that this special enzyme is responsible for the papaya’s renowned digestive properties.
Many cultures use papayas as natural remedies for abnormal digestive problems, such as constipation, heartburn, and symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome. In one double-blind, placebo-controlled study, the effects of papaya preparation Caricol® on improving digestive symptoms were observed. Researchers concluded that the papaya preparation contributes to the maintenance of the digestive tract by, most significantly, relieving constipation, bloating, and symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome.
An additional study conducted at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign suggested that papayas could actually act as a digestive aid since the papain in papayas helps to displace meat boluses and are a great source of fermentable substances beneficial to your overall health.
For Skin Care: The presence of an enzyme called ‘papain’ make it different from other foods. It has anti aging, skin repairing and wound healing properties. Papaya helps in whitening your skin. It is a good bleaching agent. As you all know its a good source of vitamin A and it works as a great antioxidant. It has anti aging properties. It prevents premature aging and reduce wrinkles.
Papaya and honey can be used as an effective mask to prevent acne. To make this first you take some papaya and cut into small pieces. Add one tablespoon of honey and half tablespoon lemon. Mix well and apply this paste on to your face. Remove after 15 minutes.This mask is very effective for acne and pimple control.
Eating papaya daily will keep you young always. You can also use a piece of papaya to rub your skin. This will help your skin glow.
Papaya For Immune Support: Our immune system is our primary wealth. If our immunity is bad we will loss everything. Papaya is great for immune support. The presence of loaded amount of vitamin A and C will aid in the proper functioning of immune system. Papaya can avoid a wide range of diseases like fever, flu, cold etc
Protects against arthritis: Arthritis can be a really debilitating disease and people who have it may find their quality of life reduced significantly. Eating papayas are good for your bones as they have anti-inflammatory properties along with Vitamin C which helps in keeping various forms of arthritis at bay. A study published in Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases showed that people who consumed foods low in Vitamin C were three times more likely to have arthritis than those who didn’t. Also read 9 ways you can fight arthritis with food.
Helps ease menstrual pain: Women who experience menstrual pain should help themselves to several servings of papaya, as an enzyme called papain helps in regulating and easing flow during menstrual periods. Here are some home remedies to relieve menstrual pain.
Prevents cancer: Papaya is a rich source of antioxidants, phytonutrients and flavonoids that prevent your cells from undergoing free radical damage. A study conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health’s Department showed the richness of beta carotene in papayas protected against prostate cancer and colon cancer growth.
For Eyes: Papaya is a good source of vitamin A which is obviously great for eyes protection. It reduces the risk of eye infections by acting as a barrier to bacteria and virus. Papaya prevents from harmful eye diseases like glaucoma, cataract etc.
For Healthy Heart: The regular intake of papaya by heart patients will ease the flow of blood to the heart and it reduces our heart from various chronic diseases. So heart patients should eat papaya at least once in a week. Also it contains high amounts of fibers which will block the absorption of cholesterol during digestion.
Good For Pregnant Women: As explained earlier, papaya is considered to be good for pregnant ladies due to its high vitamin C, vitamin E, and folate content, but only when taken in moderate quantities. It helps relieve acidity, heartburn, constipation, and several other stomach disorders and promotes the growth of the fetus.
Many women consume a tonic made of ripe papaya, milk, and honey. This mixture is a rich source of nutrients for pregnant ladies and lactating mothers.
Used For Birth Control: Papaya fruit and seeds have been used as a form of birth control since ages, especially in the Indian subcontinent and some parts of Southeast Asia. Women consume a large quantity of unripe green papaya to avoid pregnancy. It is also known to cause abortion when directly applied to the uterus.
Treats Gout: Gout is caused by the accumulation of uric acid in the blood. This excess acid forms crystals, inducing swelling, redness, and pain in the joints. Papaya is a tried and trusted remedy to treat gout. Papain is an enzyme found in papaya that is a natural anti-inflammatory agent.
Treats Piles: Hemorrhoids (also called piles) are swollen and inflamed veins that are found in and around the rectum or anus. Having papayas on a regular basis will soothe the swollen blood vessels in that area, offering relief from those painful hemorrhoids.
Activates Human Growth Hormones: Dried papaya nourishes the endocrine system and promotes the production of arginine in the body. Arginine is a type of essential amino acid that is known to activate the human growth hormones (HGH). These hormones play a key role in rebuilding bones, muscles, skin, and liver cells, and promote overall cell rejuvenation.
Treatment For Ringworm: Papaya milk contains carotene, and this compound, if consumed daily, can treat ringworm infection. Thanks to papaya milk’s anti-inflammatory properties, it eases inflammation and redness caused by the infection.
Treats Throat Disorders: When green papaya juice is mixed with honey, it can help reduce the inflammation of tonsils – a symptom of diphtheria and other problems related to the throat. It helps dissolve the membrane and prevents the spread of infection. Heals Wounds: Applying crushed papaya seeds to wounds can help in their faster healing.
Papaya seeds show significant antimicrobial activity that helps kill the bacteria in the wound and promotes faster healing. The juice you get from green papayas is a wonderful natural remedy to prevent swelling and pus formation when applied to wounds.
Treats Melasma: Papaya can help treat melasma due to its exfoliating properties. Apply ripe or unripe papaya on pigmented skin to make it smooth and supple and impart an even skin tone.
Promotes Cardiovascular Health: Papaya is one of the healthiest fruits available, and it can help keep your heart healthy. This exotic fruit is rich in vitamins A and C. They help prevent the oxidation of cholesterol, which stops it from clogging the blood vessels. This helps reduce the risk of heart attacks.
Controls Dandruff: One of the best papaya seeds benefits is that it can help reduce dandruff when used in a hair pack. One of the main causes of dandruff is a fungal infection. The antifungal properties of papaya seeds help in controlling and preventing dandruff.
High In Fiber: Papaya is a great source of dietary fiber. This nutrient absorbs toxins in the colon that can cause cancer and eliminates them from the body through bowel movement. Due to its rich fiber content, papaya aids digestion and imparts a beautiful glow to your skin.
Rich In Vitamins And Minerals: Papaya contains abundant amounts of vitamin C, a potent antioxidant. It also aids wound healing, reduces the risk of cancer due to oxidative stress, and boosts your immunity to fight common ailments such as cold and cough. This fruit is also replete with vitamin A and minerals like phosphorus, iron, potassium, copper, manganese, calcium, and magnesium. Vitamin A is required to maintain healthy vision while phosphorus is needed for good heart health.
Rich In Antioxidants: The antioxidants present in dried papaya help to strengthen immunity and eliminate free radicals that are hazardous to your health. This fruit contains more amount of beta-carotene than in carrots.
Abundant In Bioflavonoids: Also known as vitamin P, bioflavonoids are semi-essential nutrients that work as nature’s modifiers and respond to biological changes in the body. The bioflavonoids in papaya modify the reaction of the body to viruses, carcinogens, and allergens, thereby protecting it from harmful and life-threatening diseases.
Reduces Under-Eye Dark Circles: Using green papaya pulp on dark circles is a good way to get rid of them. Since it is a natural bleaching agent, green papaya helps erase skin discoloration.
Cures Eczema And Psoriasis: Our ancestors used papaya to heal scars, burns, and skin diseases. As discussed earlier, the enzyme papain in papaya exfoliates dead skin cells to cure skin impurities. When mashed and applied directly on the affected area, raw papaya can help prevent itching and redness. You can also have a glassful of papaya milk daily to prevent skin diseases like eczema and psoriasis.