GRAPES - Numbers 12:23

GRAPES – Numbers 12:23

Grapes were the first things Noah planted after the flood. Grapes were eaten fresh, dried and eaten as raisins just as we do today and pressed into cakes. But most of the crop of the vineyards was made into juice, wine and vinegar.

One reason this delicious fruit was so important in the diet thousands of years ago was because of its high content of boron, a mineral that we now know helps ward off osteoporosis.

Boron is now sold as a dietary supplement in health food stores, but the people of the Bible had to get theirs from natural sources.

Aside from preventing osteoporosis, grapes offer many healthy benefits.

A cup of raw grapes contain only 58 calories, 0.3 grams of fat; zero cholesterol and vitamins A, B and C. Grapes also contain important minerals such as boron, calcium, potassium and zinc.

They also fight tooth decay, stop viruses in their tracks and are rich in other ingredients that many researchers believe can head off cancer. That’s because grapes are packed with things called polyphenols and tannins, both of which appear promising as antiviral and antitumor agents.

Recently, a team of Canadian scientist reported that grapes destroyed disease-causing viruses in test tubes. To test that potential, they examined grapes, grape juice, raisins and red, rose and white wines. They added certain viruses to a grape extract made from pulp and skins; other viruses to the grape juice and raisin mixture; and a third set of viruses to the wines.

All three substances seemed to effectively fight the viruses, but they were especially potent against the viruses that cause polio and herpes simplex.

 The reason is because grapes contain tannin, a virus fighter that is absorbed directly into the intestinal tract where it does the most good.

The grape tannins can survive digestion and quickly circulate through the blood, perhaps attacking deadly viruses. Grape juice also kills bacteria and dramatically restricts tooth decay.

Grapes also have extraordinarily high levels of something called caffeic acid, which has been shown to be a strong anti-cancer substance.

 And raisins, which are dried grapes, were definitely associated with the reduced rate of cancer deaths among one group of American senior citizens.

In biblical days, grapes provided all of these health benefits.

People didn’t know what the grapes did – they just knew that they were equally delicious eaten raw right off the vines, dried as raisins, boiled down into a sweet grape honey or fermented into wine.