Surprising Reasons to Eat More Prunes (2024)

One 2021 study in the Journal of Medicinal Food, for one, found that postmenopausal women who ate 50 to 100 grams of prunes a day — that’s about five to 12 individual prunes — lowered heart disease risk factors like cholesterol, oxidative stress, and inflammation. Oxidative stress occurs when the body has too many free radicals (unstable molecules that damage cells) and not enough antioxidants to fight them, contributing to disease.

Earlier work has shown that eating a few prunes and drinking prune juice is associated with a significant reduction in blood pressure as well as both total cholesterol and LDL (“bad”) cholesterol.

3.May give the brain a boost

Good news: If you’re eating for your heart, you’re also eating for your brain. “Good circulation to the heart means good circulation to the brain, which can decrease the risk of brain degeneration,” which in turn can protect against Alzheimer’s disease, Ball says.

Similarly, if you’re eating for your gut (as many prune consumers do), you’re also roundabout eating for your brain. That’s in part due to the gut-brain connection, or the concept that your digestive system and brain are in constant communication, affecting everything from your mood and behavior to your pain sensitivity and immune system function.

“When your immune function is humming right along, then your brain is probably going to work a little better, too, and is going to be more healthy,” Ball says.

While more research is needed, one scientific article details how polyphenol-rich foods like prunes tend to metabolize through particular pathways related to the large intestine, which is linked to brain health.

Those processes play key roles in neurons’ ability to weather stress, meaning polyphenols could be powerful tools against the progression of neurodegenerative diseases, the study authors say.

4.Could help with weight management

While prunes are sweet, they don’t seem to cause weight gain and blood sugar problems in the same way sugar does. That’s in part because the sweetness comes from sorbitol, a complex carbohydrate that’s metabolized slowly.

In a 2024 study, De Souza, Rogers and colleagues found that postmenopausal women who ate five to 12 prunes daily for a year didn’t experience any negative metabolic effects, like increased waistcircumference, compared to nonprune eaters. “That’s good news for people who might be at risk for diabetes,” Rogers says.

Other research has shown that prunes can be a healthy dessert substitute, even if they’re no less calorie-dense. For instance, one report found that, compared to jelly bean eaters, people who ate prunes ate fewer calories at later meals, and they reported decreased hunger and increased feelings of fullness.

Potential negative effects of prunes

Like any one food, prunes are not a silver bullet. And, it’s important to recognize most studies investigating their benefits are funded by the California Prune Board and require people to eat at least five prunes every single day.

“That’s always what gets lost in these studies: These foods help only if you eat them pretty much daily,” says Tamara Duker Freuman, a registered dietitian who works in a New York City gastroenterology practice. “If you eat a couple of prunes once a week, you’re probably not doing anything for your bones.”

That said, Duker Freuman, author of The Bloated Belly Whisperer, often recommends clients, particularly those with constipation, experiment with prunes or prune juice in their diets. She personally uses them culinarily, like in a recent chicken marbella dish.

One word of caution: If you’re prone to diarrhea, you may want to avoid prunes or at least introduce them slowly. Ball recommends dicing them up and adding them to yogurt, which might help counteract their laxative effect. And, just start with one a day to see how they affect you.

If you “miss the boat” on making prunes a kitchen staple, “you can pick them up any time.”