Six superfruits grown in Poland, providing unique benefits to athletes

Polish superfruits tend to be underappreciated despite being healthier (and certainly cheaper) than other more popular superfruit types. Don’t miss out on the multiple benefits of Polish superfruits for athletes and active lifestyle enthusiasts – and make sure to include them in your diet!

Anna Urbańska

The fashion for healthy eating comes to Poland from the West, bringing along the passion for superfoods. But before you reach for the exotic goji and acai berries or carob fruit, take a look at what’s available closer to home, on our store shelves and in farmers’ markets. A number of fruit types grown in Poland are just about perfect for those who enjoy being physically active.

The healthiest types of fruit are thought to include blueberries, pomegranates, exotic acerola cherries or noni fruit, to mention but a few. On the other hand, chokeberries, blackcurrants, and gooseberries are often overlooked. Some of the most popular articles on the web are copies of lists compiled in the USA, where many of the healthiest fruits are either unknown or simply not ‘trendy’ anymore. Do you want to boost your health, provide the body with antioxidants, and replenish your vigor with the power of fruit, without straining your budget? Make a good use of Polish superfoods or, more specifically, superfruits.

Superfruits – power and energy from Polish fruit

All the so-called superfruits share essentially similar properties. They are low in calories, and rich in vitamins and minerals. However, the same can be said about most fruit and vegetables. Yet superfruits are special. Their main distinguishing feature is that they contain healthy antioxidants in really large amounts. Antioxidants are natural substances that protect body cells against oxidative stress. The group includes hundreds (or even thousands) of chemical molecules with health-promoting effects. It is antioxidants that give Polish fruit their unique healthy properties. However, each fruit type also has its distinctive characteristics, verified by scientific evidence. Based on them, they have earned their place among the top six Polish superfruits.

What is the best way to use superfruits to improve sports performance?

The advantages of native superfruits presented above are very interesting and encouraging. The question is: how can you fully exploit these advantages in practice? The advice is simple – just add superfruits to your diet in a way that suits you best.

  • You can drink natural fruit juices, which are most typically studied by scientists, or eat whole fruit. The latter option is linked to more health benefits.
  • If fast recovery is your goal (for example, you want to do more workouts in a week or prevent muscle soreness), add superfruits to your pre- and post-workout shakes. This is how you can use their antioxidant capabilities to the full.
  • At the stage of increasing training adaptations, make sure to eat superfruits with meals that are not close to the workout period. This is because fruit ‘counteracts’ inflammation in the muscles, and in some situations inflammatory response may in fact be desirable, for example if you are building muscle.
  • Make sure to eat fresh fruit in season. In other times of the year, opt for frozen fruit. It is just as healthy and nutritious as fresh produce. Frozen cherries, bilberries and strawberries are available in grocery stores all year round. You can also make your own stock of gooseberries, blackcurrants and chokeberries.
  • Add superfruits to your breakfast oatmeal to make it more flavorsome and fortify yourself for the day ahead.
  • Combine more sour fruit (cherries, chokeberries) with more sweet fruit types (apples, bananas, pears) instead of using sweetened juices and syrups made from them.
  • Many of the fruit mentioned above are also available in the form of supplements and concentrates. Before you buy them, check the ingredients list. Many supplements are definitely overpriced, if you look at the content of the active substances.
  • To fully benefit from the properties of superfruits before sports competitions, you may consider chocolate-coated fruit and dried fruit,, which additionally provide the body with carbohydrates and rev up energy levels.

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